Georgia on my mind....

The trip to Savannah was everything you could ask for as well as everything you would not want to happen. I will break this blog up, as there were so many things happening in the past few days.

We boarded the bus for Savannah at 7:00 am on Wednesday. The first thing our bus driver said was..." I have never been there before"....we thought it was a joke...stay tuned.

Our first stop was at Pebble Hill plantation in Thomasville, GA http://www.pebblehill.com/ . As soon as we arrived we picked up our box lunches and ate them in the cow barn. The only thing I can say about pimento and cheese sandwiches is thank God we had Paula Dean's to look forward to!!

This is the plantation up close as well as an overall picture. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, which was a bummer but that is pretty common as supposedly the continuous flashes ruin the quality of pictures, materials, etc. It was an interesting tour but not the "Gone with the Wind" (Tarra) we were expecting.

Isn't this tree so cool!! I love ferns and would love to be able to grow fern on some of our trees!

After touring Pebble Hill we were back on the bus headed for our hotel....the driver got lost, everyone was hungry, no one wanted to use the bus bathroom. The bathroom was clean enough, just SO small I think we were all afraid we would get wedged in and would be embarrassed to have to ask for help to get out. Finally we pulled over at a Western Sizzler and by that time we were all so hungry we ate WAY too much at the buffet. It was good food though, what they call low cooking which I think means "fattening". They even had pork rinds fried in lard....I think maybe they should rename it the Heart Attack Cafe!

Back on the bus and once again the driver got lost. The hotel (which was a very nice hotel) was evident ally, difficult to get to with the traffic pattern. We could see it from the bus but went around in circles before we finally got there. We were all so tired we went right to our rooms and after a shower we were in bed hoping to rest up for the big day on Thursday.

Thursday morning after another BIG breakfast at the hotel (there was entirely too much food on this trip) we gathered in the lobby. We were all chatting when all of a sudden our friend Ruth exclaimed..."oh my God, I think that is our tour guide...or is it Ranger Rick?". We rushed out to greeted by our guide who was dressed as Juliet Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts. Since she is a big part of Savannah history www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/historylow_biography I guess it was appropriate for the outfit????? She actually turned out to be a great guide with a fantastic sense of humor! Never judge a book by the cover....

Our first stop was the Byrd Cookie factory http://www.byrdcookiecompany.com/ We took a tour with the highlight being the samples. They make two of my favorite cookies. The first being the Benny, which is made with Sesame seeds. They became very popular in the south as the Sesame seed was brought over by the slaves, one of the few things they could grab before they were shipped over. The other cookie we like is the Key Lime Coolers. I had one of each and quit, knowing we were headed for A Lady and Sons (Paula Dean's restaurant) at 2:00.

There is just SO much history in Savannah and so little time. I took so many notes and pictures but since I don't have that much time to blog I am going to pick and choose and then try to add some web sites where you can find information on subjects you are interested in. I know Emma is loving her affiliation with girl scouts so hoping she will be checking that out.

Our next stop was the dueling grounds. This is the square where people settled their quarrels. Since dueling was against the law in South Carolina, many arguments from that state were also solved here. The grounds are adjacent to a large cemetery which folklore says was so that they could throw the body of the looser over the fence.

From here we walked to the garden where the girl scouts were established. The gardens are magnificent. There are 24 squares in the original layout of the city. At present there are only 21 remaining as a couple were converted over the years to such things as parking garages. I did not realize that in the 70's a big share of the downtown area of Savannah was boarded up and disintegrating. The restoration was greatly helped by SCAD (Savannah College of art and Design) as they have purchased over 68 buildings, renovated them and are now using them as classrooms. Many of the beautiful old mansions have been purchased and renovated into the beautiful homes they once were.

For those of you who have read the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil you will recognize the Mercer-Williams home below. Built by the grandfather of Johnny Mercer, the famous songwriter and owned by Jim Williams, a preservationist and murderer. I had not read the book, but purchased it while we were shopping on River Street. What a great piece of work. If it were not a true story, one would wonder how an author could come up with a wild and crazy bunch of characters.

This is "Flagging Fannie", one of the many statues that stand throughout the city. Fannie was supposedly a 19 year old girl who fell in love with a sailor. He left for sea and promised to come back for her. The story goes that for 44 years she waved at every ship that passed.....and ended up dying with a broken heart.

The magnificent Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, dedicated in 1876 http://www.savanahcathedral.org/

The inside was so beautiful but it was so hard to capture the magnificence on camera as it is so huge.

Well, right after this stop the bus blew an engine. We were transferred to a trolley, where we continued the tour. I will resume on the next post.