Savannah

Well, I promised Savannah pics, so here they are!

We left Tampa at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning and got to Savannah, GA at 2:30 p.m. We checked into the hotel and immediately got ready to head out to see what this great town was all about. We took the bikes, and the hotel was awesome about letting us take the bikes up and down the elevator to our room. We were basically in and out all weekend long because it was so convenient.

Savannah is AWESOME on bikes. We didn't have to fight for parking at all. Everyone knows there isn't much parking available in the city and it's so much worse on a holiday weekend! We had a backpack with us at all times and we traveled all over the city by bike.

First line of business....River St. We had to get it of our systems because its such a touristy part of town. There was a Memorial Day arts and craps festival on River st. We did a bit of shopping right away and had a snack to hold us over until dinner.

We had booked a ghost tour for that night, so we had a few hours to kill in the city before the ghost tour. River Street has some crazy awesome stairs that lead down to here. Here I am walking up the stairs to Bay Street.

 For dinner, we ate at a place called Churchill's where they have A.M.A.Z.I.N.G firecracker shrimp. We split some appetizers, then headed back down to river street so we could hit up Bamboo Willies. Savannah does not have a strict rule on alcohol in the streets, so we filled up the ole bike water bottle with "Call A Cab" frozen drink from bamboo willies with hopes that it would keep us (ahem...me) from getting too spooked out on the ghost tour. Then we rode down to The Pirate House where we got on the trolley for the tour. The tour guide was awesome and hilarious. She knew a lot of history about the city even though she was from New Orleans.

This is me, a little freaked out (and sweaty, I might add) before the ghost tour. The building behind me is The Pirate House, the oldest building in Savannah.

All of the pictures I add to this blog will consist of me being sweaty in them...downside to biking everywhere in May;)

The first stop was the old Candler Hospital. If I remember correctly, part of the hospital is being used as an assisted living facility at the moment, but the actual hospital ward was moved across town. The rest of the building is empty and un-used. The hospital is across the street from Forsyth Park, which is a big open field where they do events. At the time of the ghost tour, there was a moving being played in the park. Underneath the park was a tunnel used for transporting people who died of Yellow Fever. This was back in the 1880's, I believe.

We were able to go into the part of the tunnel that was used as an autopsy room. It was really hot down there, and we had to duck almost the whole time. Autopsies were secretly done in the tunnel and the names of the Dr's who performed them were on a plaque on the wall. I wish we could have gotten pictures, but it was just way too dark to have anything show up in the pictures.

Next, we got back on the trolley and were driven around the city to hear more fascinating stories of haunted places. We decided if we ever go back, we will try a different experience and stay at one of the Inn's, like The Magnolia Inn, which is known to be haunted.

The old houses even kind of look creepy from the outside, even though people live in them and these houses have been re-done.

Later that night, following the ghost tour, we rode our bikes down Broughton Street, one of the main retail strips in Savannah. It was so beautiful at night! The weather was great and the streets were fairly empty.




 We stopped at this cute little bar where we heard some good music, so we decided to park the bikes and check it out. The band was fantastic and we had a very nice time just sitting there, drinking some beer and listening to the music.

Let me tell you something else bout Georgia...they have 24's for $4. I had to take a picture for proof.

I wish I had caught the name of the band because they were really good and I enjoyed them a lot!

After two of their sets, we hopped back on the bikes and headed back to the hotel. The streets are pretty empty at 1 a.m. in Savannah, but it was a gorgeous ride back. The night thing about our hotel was it was just on the edge of downtown, so we were right in the middle of everything, but we could walk/ride to everything if we wanted.

(This is the only picture we have of us together from the whole weekend!)

The following morning, we slept in, then hit the bikes and rode around town. We wanted to see if Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House was open. It's been told that they have the best southern, family-style meals. Unfortunately, her place is closed on weekends, so we ended up in the City Market (I think that's the name) area. It was hot as heck and we were starving, so we ended up at some cafe in the market. There was great music outside and they had pretty good food. We did a bit more shopping and riding around before we decided we had to retire for a bit and hit up the pool at the hotel. It was 95 degrees and there wasn't much shade.

 Later that night, we decided to head out to Tybee Island to see what it was all about. It was a nice experience to see the island, but all the restaurants had a really long wait, so we ended up at one off the main road (no water view or anything). The food was good though and we had a great time!:)

(Casey in front of the restaurant sign.)





















The following day, we did a trolley tour to learn the history of Savannah and familiarize ourselves more with the town. Savannah is made up of squares. The tour was fun and the last thing we did before we hit the road back home to tampa.

The following are pictures Casey took of a few of the squares and cool buildings on our tour.

Check out the dog on the cannon:)

Well, that's all my pictures! We had a great time and we're looking forward to the next adventure! Vegas, Nashville, Portland or Seattle. Guess we'll have to start plannin' here shortly!