A day in Savannah
For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears.
Zephaniah 3:17
We started the day with a visit to Tybee Island to see the light house. You know Mary and I had to climb all 178 steps to the top. Once we were back down and feeling kinda proud of our accomplishment, one of the guides mentioned that the original guys working the light house had to climb up at least 3 times a day, every day. I bet they had some awesome legs. On a separate note, the girl taking our picture at the top (random girl, not paid photographer) said that you are supposed to say “Bennett” to get the best smile for a picture. Has anyone ever heard of that? You know that is my maiden name, so I feel like I should have been using this little bit of info all these years.
We left Tybee Island and headed to the downtown Historic District of Savannah. We had a picnic lunch in a nice grassy area under some trees near the parking lot by the Visitors Center where the bus was parked. (Now that’s a lot of prepositions!) I didn’t get a picture of the sandwiches, but we made some delicious ham & cheese “Ham Delights” on Hawaiian buns with a yummy poppyseed-worcestershire sauce (recipe from my North Carolina friend, Cori) AND our home made pimento cheese. We also served deviled eggs, fruit cups, bags of chips, carrots & celery with Ranch dressing. It was a hit. I also learned an interesting fact. Did you know it’s possible to eat a cheeto with a fork? I saw it with my own eyes.
We hopped on the trolley and began our narrated guide around the area. We all started on the same trolley, although we knew people would end up hopping off at different spots. We had a guide named Thomas who had a really great southern accent. I was sad to leave his voice when Mary and I were the first ones off. Every time Mary has talked to her mom this week, her mom has asked if she was going to see the Juliette Low house. We didn’t even know where it was. So when the narrator announced that the next stop was the Juliette Low house, we knew this was our stop. Mary tried to facetime her mom with no luck, so I took pictures of her to send.
We walked through one of the 22 squares in Savannah where they were celebrating Wag-O-Ween with people and dogs dressed up in costumes. We saw dogs dressed as sea creatures, a hotdog, dogs in tutus, of course ghosts and witches and lots more. I only managed to get a picture of 2. But I think they were my favorite anyway.
While we waited for the next trolley a group of people on segways with funny hats came tooling by. We thought it was a parade and took some pictures, then realized that it was actually just some people on a segway tour. And judging by their faces and the face of the guide, I’m guessing the hats were his idea. Once we hopped back on the trolley, the narrator pointed out that that very park was where the famous scene of Forrest Gump on the park bench was filmed. I wish our first guide had mentioned that. We ended up hopping on and off 3 times which meant we had 3 different narrators who used the same material. We heard all 3 narrators say that when Ford Motors first moved to the area, Ford ignored all the warnings and used the Spanish Moss to stuff the seats of his cars, “resulting in the first ever automotive recall” (remember what I told you about the chiggers).
Our 2nd hop off was near the waterfront. We walked around to a few shops and then Mary and I each decided it was time for us to get a tattoo. She picked a pattern and asked the guy if he could make it about 2 inches long. He said “sure”. I asked for mine to be about 1 inch on my ankle. He said, “no problem”.
While we were waiting for everyone to hop off their final trolley we went back to the shady, grassy area and served snacks. Our southern special snack today was peanuts in coke. Only one person wanted to try it.
For dinner tonight we all went to a southern restaurant called Sweet Potato Kitchen. I had Pecan Encrusted Chicken, a sweet potato and green beans. Mary had Blackened Mahi Mahi, a sweet potato and brussel sprouts. I didn’t sit at her table so I didn’t get a picture of hers. A lot of us had Banana Pudding for dessert. So they got to taste what it was supposed to taste like.
