Savannah, GA

Atlanta has so much to offer its visitors and R.E.M. is from Athens, but we're continuing down the coast on this trip, starting with Savannah. It's a sister city to Charleston, SC and we expected them to be alike, but there's a very unique history here and it feels special somehow.

First of all, it simply looks more like a modern city


with its wide sidewalks and busy streets. And
it's a bit run-down; River Street is especially in need of some TLC; the 21 manicured, grassy squares, however, with their 200 year old trees dripping with Spanish Moss make the city seem velvety green and lush.

The biggest difference, however, is that Savannah boasts a really fun and interesting

history, full of multi-cultural arrivals, famous speeches, battles and ghosts.
More recently, it's famous for its authors, musicians and movie-making.

We walked River Street from the beginning, all the way to the Waving Girl Statue, then took an evening carriage ride through the historic district, buried under blankets. Mother Nature continues to driiiizzle, and chill us to the bone.

Our guide was a good story teller, casually mentioning the local ghost sightings without scaring the kids. For example she explained Sherman's time in Savannah like this:

"They heard he was coming to raid all of the goods from the warehouses, so the people of Savannah set fire to them -- just so he couldn't get them! Then they blamed him for the fires because if he hadn't come to town they wouldn't have burned them down. But Sherman actually never set a fire in Savannah. He stayed in town and everyone wanted him OUT. Well, the good church ladies next door to where he lived, started ringing the bells (over 100) attempting to make him go crazy. It worked, and Sherman was mad so he took the bells! Well, some of the ladies were friends with Mrs. Lincoln up North, and they sent her a letter pleading with her to get Sherman to give them their bells back. He did give them back, but he hung the bells upside down!"

Peanut just died laughing at all the cleverness...

Prior to coming here I'd read that the most important thing to do in Savannah -- and the thing most people forget to do -- is to wander. We decided to take a morning trolley and meander as best we could while shivering to death.

Created to act as a buffer for Charleston, SC from the Spanish down in St. Augustine, FL, lovely Savannah has endured a lot. Still, it remains a truly pretty, well-designed 1st city in America and we appreciated it. Voting to get off the trolley at the Forsyth Park fountain, the kids got to play chase in the grass and we got to peek into numerous hidden gardens along the street. What treasures!

We also saw the house where colonists used to come out at night just to stare into the windows -- it was the first house lit by electricity! Then the beaming cathedral kept us warm for a bit before going to have lunch at the oldest structure in Georgia: the Pirate's House. It's a Haunted House and still has visible tunnels below ground that connect it to the river. Apparently, people who passed out from too much drinking were dragged to the river to be shanghaied.

And we think the world has become more dangerous! Ha!

We were also told that South Carolina produces more peaches than Georgia; they just think theirs are sweeter. It was fun being a Georgia Peach for a day...