Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Road Trip: Savannah, GA

                   Savannah  
I don't even know where to start except by simply saying I love Savannah.  Well, that and the fact that Jon and I have been hurting this week for all the "good eating" we did in Savannah ;)  Jon had Friday off and I took a vacation day so we could get an early start on our lovely Savannah weekend.  We wanted to get there so badly that we drove straight there (plus it was only a 4.5 hr drive) but for those of you that know Jon are well aware that he cannot go 2 hours without food.  Planning ahead, I packed him some snacks but in the morning rush I put my bag in the trunk!  TROUBLE.  So I lied when I said we drove straight to Savannah, we stopped for 2 minutes to grab the snacks out of the trunk.  As you can imagine, once we got to Savannah, we were starving!  Solution?  Shane's Rib Shack.  I did not love my BBQ chicken sandwich but I did love Jon's BBQ sandwich and the sweet potato fries were phenomenal.  Also, I think it's important to remember the Brunswick stew, it was quite delightful.  Don't get me wrong, Shane's was no Brother's BBQ, but it was a nice introduction to GA BBQ.  Clearly after stuffing our faces we started regretting eating so much and so fast but oh well we enjoyed it while it lasted :) The restaurant also has a Sunday Special, "Bring in your church bulletin and get 10% off."  Ah, I love the South!
Drinks @ Vic's

me in front of a huge pumpkin!

After a quick trip to our hotel suite to check-in we quickly departed for Historic Savannah (downtown).  I immediately fell in love and decided I never wanted to leave.  Streets and streets covered in history and historic buildings, restaurants, shops, houses, and monuments were everywhere!  Not to mention, River Street overlooking the Savannah River was absolutely amazing.  One neat law in Historic Savannah is that you are allowed to walk around with an alcoholic beverage as long as it's 16 ounces or less and it's in a paper or plastic cup.  We took advantage of the beautiful afternoon and walked up and down River Street, peaking in some of the stores and checking out the local vendors.  Due to our incredibly large lunch we weren't very hungry as the evening approached so we decided to check out Vic's on the River for happy hour.  So glad we went to Vic's!  It was a beautiful restaurant and the drinks were tasty; I had a Pina Colada and Jon had a Savannah Sweet Tea.  We loved the environment and the menu looked awesome, too bad we were still BBQ-stuffed. Well, to wrap up our Friday in less words than I have been able to use thus far, we continued to walk around and get aquainted with the area and finally ate dinner at another fun restaurant overlooking the river with live music.  At Tubby's we split the calamari appetizer and the shrimp po' boy (even though I still was not hungry!).   On our walk back after dinner, we were serenaded by a couple of guys singing "End of the Road" by Boys 2 Men and that's the best way to end a night, always.
Enjoying a bev on River St.

So I will not go into great detail with the rest of the trip, as I am trying to watch the Republican Debate and finish this post before bed...  Saturday we went on the Savannah Historic Trolly Tour and learned so much about the area and all the beautiful landmarks in the historic district.  We explored all morning and worked up an appetite.  The Pirate House seemed appropriate considering it was Pirate Fest in Tybee Island that day and many of the customers dining were in fact dressed as pirates for the festival. The place contains one of the oldest buildings in the historic district, and there was plenty of pirate lore all around. Southern style buffet for Jon: fried chicken, fried fish, fried okra, green beans, AWESOME mashed potatoes (of which I stole many bites), bbq, etc.  I delighted in a superb she crab soup with a steak and cheese sandwich and cornbread/biscuits were served with honey butter and orange marmalade.  It's clearly a popular spot because there was a 20-30 minute wait at 2:00 for lunch in October!  Skipping down to that evening, we were again too full for a traditional dinner so we went to the Rooftop Bar at the Bohemian Hotel for a drink before our night time Ghost Tour of the city.  This is probably the best place to have a drink overlooking the river at night, so beautiful and classy!  Now, for our Spooky Ghost Tour.  Savannah is in the top 3 "most haunted cities in America" and with all the deaths there from Yellow Fever and the city burning down 3 times they definitely have some stories to tell.  We walked around all over (90 minute tour) in the dark listening to the ghost stories for each building, taking pictures of the "ghosts" and getting chigger bit... well I did at least.  Oh well, it was fun and we learned a lot more about the city!  Finally, we decided to grab a "light" dinner at Jazz'd Tapas, you decide how light it really was.  A baked cheese terra cotta plate included blend of several cheeses (brie, goat cheese, fontina, and an aged cranberry cheddar) melted and topped with a succulent roasted head of garlic.  Tart green apples fanned around the edge of the terra cotta bowl, and the plate was also covered with toasted slices of baguette.  We also had the crab cakes which were a wonderful taste of a Savannah favorite. Plenty of crab meat came together for these scrumptious morsels, served with a remoulade sauce. Finally we had cuban rubbed beef satays; beef strips served with an original and successful sweet jalapeno glaze over crisp plantains.  Live jazz was playing during our delicious meal; we were incredibly pleased with our experience.
  
Jon & Scarecrow @ 17hundred90 during ghost tour
Forest Gump showed up on our Trolly Tour

Jon reading the paper before the Trolly Tour
 Sunday morning rolls around... my legs are killing me, Jon is exhausted, we must be getting old!  To our defense we did walk around A LOT the past two days and stay up A LOT later than we normally do.  The day was cloudy and windy, as predicted, seemingly there was a storm a brewing.  Due to the potential rain that afternoon and tropical storm coming in on Monday we decided to check out a day early.  We weren't heartbroken because we had seen and done a lot in our time and were quite exhausted, plus it gave us an excuse to come back and go to Tybee Island next time!  After breakfast, we packed up the Mini Cooper and headed out... but we weren't quite ready to leave, not yet.  We took one last drive through the historic district and clearly ended up parking and walking some more.  Finally, we came upon 17hundred90 Restaurant & Inn, which we had visited during our ghost tour.  In the brick-lined, low-ceilinged cellar of Savannah's oldest inn, this place is the site of Savannah's most famous 18th-century suicide.  Anne Powell is said to still be in her room, RM 204, which can be rented out.  There is a life-size female mannequin dressed in the 1800s dress which is looking out the window for the entertainment of the nightly ghost tours and is quite creepy I might add.  Anyway, the cute basement restaurant won us over and despite our lack of hunger, we split an order of french toast which we did not know also came with honey butter biscuits that were impossible to resist.  After one last stroll through the historic neighborhoods, it finally started to rain at 2:30, it was time to go home.  Until next time, sweet sweet Savannah!


one of the haunted B&Bs

Jon in front of the Cotton Exchange
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
Gold-domed capitol building
 
Part of the Pirate House

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist



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