A Savannah Weekend

This past November, Ken took me to Savannah to celebrate my birthday.

I had never been to Savannah before and I fell in love with its historical buildings. It is a beautiful southern city even though the tourists are wrecking havoc on the peace and serenity that once was.

In the brief time we were there we visited many of the places made famous by the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott, just a few steps from historic Savannah.

As soon as we had checked in we, headed out to Tybee Island span>where we visited the beach on the Atlantic Ocean, and the Tybee Lighthouse. On the way back to the city, we stopped at Fort Pulaski. There they were having cannon firing demonstrations that Ken captured on film. Great explosive photos. What a beautiful place. It is hard to remember that these places played an integral role during the Civil War.

From the fort we went to Bonnaventure Cemetery, established in the mid 1700's. It was fascinating to see the old crypts and head stones.

We returned to the hotel late afternoon, cleaned up and we were off again. This time was to do a Pub Crawl.( or Pub Walk).

We had cocktails at the hotel bar to get orientation about the city from the locals.

Then we went to the Riverfront and visted Fiddler's Crab Shack, Bernie's Bar, and Kevin Barry's Irish Pub. We then went back to Bay Street above, and stopped in at Tony Roma's and Churchill's. We really enjoyed the rooftop bar at Churchills.

From there we went to dinner at Girabaldi's Italian Restaurant where we had a superb dinner and we ended the evening at Club One, home to the Lady Chablis. We had a really nice time watching the drag show. Our first. The Lady was not appearing that night but the performers were very good.

The next morning we got up and visited Monteray Square, The Mercer-Williams House, Lafayette and Chippewa Squares, The Savannah River and waterfront, The Waving Girl Statue, The Fountain at Forsythe Park, The Owen-Thomas House, The Cotton Exchange, and the Ogelthorpe statue. We loved all of the parks and squares located through out the historic district.
But the place was overrun by tourists, in trolleys, carriages and tour buses. The price for having been discovered through the popularity of the book that speaks so well of its beauty.

We were very impressed by the Ironworks in Savannah. Beautiful intricate designs for light fixtures and fences made out of wrought iron .

Before we left town we stopped for lunch at the Whistle Stop Cafe, adjacent to the Savannah's Visitor Center. This was a train car from the 50's converted into a restaurant. It was very charming and the sandwiches and fried green tomatoes were very good, but service was very, very slow. After lunch we got back on the road for the 4 hour ride home.
We loved our weekend in Savannah. We recommend everyone visit Savannah at least once in their lives to see some Southern History first hand.