Second Day in Savannah, GA

We started the day with a stroll down to the Savannah River. All those stones in the street and the walls in the background were originally used as ballast in the ships coming over to pick up cotton:

Here's Jill standing in Savannah's famous (I guess) river-front vortex where if you speak in a certain direction it sounds weird. Kind of silly, actually:

One of the many horse-drawn carriages running around town:

Jill in front of the statue of William Jasper at Madison Square. During the Revolutionary War Jasper had been successful at one battle rallying the troops by picking up the flag and rushing the Brits. But at the Battle of Savannah, he tried the same thing again and got shot down for his troubles:

One of the many beautiful 19th century mansions all over Savannah. Note the grass on the steps up to the front porch!

Lunch (just some regular sandwiches):

The Colonial Park Cemetery, established in 1750 by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), and closed about a century later:

Parts of the cemetery were vandalized by Union soldiers after Sherman's march to the sea (which ended in Savannah), so many of the tombstones knocked over and defaced were picked up and attached to a brick wall:

Grave of Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence:

Picture of Jill, just to prove we were really there:

OK, so the other big movie filmed in Savannah fairly recently was "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," which was about art collector/home restorer Jim Williams' murder trial. Of course, the movie was about much more than just that. Anyway, here's the Mercer-Williams house. (The Mercer who built the house was a Confederate general and great grandfather of songwriter Johnny Mercer--"Moon River," "Jeepers Creepers," "Fools Rush In," etc., etc.):

Here's Jill out back, waiting for our Mercer-Williams house tour to start:

Interior:

More interior shots (thanks Google Images!):

Well we couldn't leave Savannah without stopping at the famous Leopold's Ice Cream, founded in 1919. With that movie marquee it sure looks like we went back in time!

The ice cream was excellent! (I had a scoop of Jet Blueberry and a scoop of black cherry chocolate.)

And that was Savannah! The next day we flew back to beautiful smoggy Los Angeles:

Jill was very relieved when we picked up Charlie that she remembered us!

First Day in Savannah, GA

Savannah is a beautifully laid out city, with 22 squares each surrounded by homes and commercial buildings. Our hotel was on Ellis Square near the top left of the map below:

Here are 3 views looking south from our hotel balcony. The first, below, is to the left:

And here's a central shot, showing Ellis Square below us:

And then more off to the right: (We were in the Andaz Hotel. You can see the sign on the building.)



Right after checking in we asked for a lunch recommendation, and it was suggested we go to Angel's BBQ, which is off an alley near Chippewa Square:

They had some serious hot sauce action there (the "Critical Mass" sauce lived up to its name!):

Jill's BBQ sandwich, beans, and mustard cole slaw:

My fried bologna sandwich and collard greens:

Jill, looking beautiful as always:

After lunch we went around the corner to Chippewa Square, which was just beautiful. We especially liked the twisting trunk on this tree:

We learned that Chippewa Square was the location for Forrest Gump's bench scenes. There's Jill on the left standing approximately where the bench (a movie prop) was located. There have been two major movies filmed in the last 20 years or so in Savannah, and it's a big deal for the locals. More on the other movie in the next blog entry.

We continued walking around Savannah and saw many old buildings, as shown in the photos below:

Remembering the Cold War:

And another example of the ever-present southern sense of humor:

Friday Morning Bike Ride around the Resort

So here we are on a bike ride around the Palmetto Bluff resort area. Lots of new homes going up in the area:

Here's Jill explaining how much she loves the area. What's not to love?

The development has a nice two-story playhouse and zip line for the kiddies:

On the way back to our cottage:

 Back to #35!

Thursday at Parris Island and Beafort

So after the Bluffton Farmer's Market we drove over to the USMC Parris Island training center:

 It was very neat and tidy!

Then on to the pretty little town of Beaufort. They have a nice park right on the river (actually I think it's technically a "sound, although it looks like a river), with a long line of swings facing the water:

Continued...

 A view from behind, showing the river:

And another view. Jill was texting Lindsay, who got to the airport for her trip to Flagstoff about 3 hours early:

And one last shot of the Beaufort water-front:

Thursday in Bluffton

At the Bluffton farmer's market on Thursday:

We actually found this little thing behind one of the galleries we were looking at on Calhoun Street:

Obviously, we couldn't both be in the picture at the same time!

Still at the Farmer's Market:

 

 Yes, this would be the best BBQ sandwich, cole slaw, and beans we've ever had. We had to leave immediately or risk hurting ourselves with a 2nd round:

More Farmer's Market....

This was in front of the place where we got our BBQ:

Got some cookies from this lady, who had her little doggie Turk with her:

Time to leave the Farmer's Market and look at some galleries:

In case you need to find the Squat-N-Gobble. Not sure what it is, or that I want to know what it is!

The people running these galleries didn't have much to offer besides a good sense of humor:

As I said...

 So most of the galleries are really converted homes, as you can see by the display in this kitchen!

Oh, and S. Carolina is a church-going place. You can see 3 churches at one intersection here in Bluffton. What you're not seeing is the church to my right when I took this picture: