Savannah, Georgia
Of all our stops, Savannah was my favorite. It was beautiful, affordable, friendly, fun … we honestly looked at real estate listings here that’s how much we loved Savannah. We were very lucky with the weather, I’m sure the humidity alone would kill Jamey.
We rolled into the Savannah South KOA Sunday afternoon and took a walk around the park. This KOA was my favorite – it was on a small lake and it was very clean. The sites were a little smaller than in D.C but overall I liked this one best. Bonus points – the lake had a gator and lots of swans.
After getting settled in we found a local brewery for a beer and grabbed a bite to eat. I had the best intentions to eat most meals at “home” but after two days of driving neither of us had the energy to do anything but stare blankly.
Back to the reality of working from the road for me. Unfortunately while Shipt is available to Savannah residents, there wasn’t much work all week for Jamey. He did some Shipt orders and some Postmates orders, but this wasn’t a lucrative week for him. It was business as usual for me. The boys did a good job supervising me and the neighbors all day.
After my workday ended we went to Savannah’s historic River Street. On day one, we made the rookie mistake of driving on that road. It’s narrow. It’s full of tourists just stepping into the street. And we drive a monster sized truck. We quickly got the heck out of there, parked a few blocks away and walked back. River Street is a pretty cool area with shops, restaurants and bars overlooking the Savannah River, all built in historical buildings. We spent some time every day there, it was pretty cool. We ate some Fried Green Tomatoes, had drinks overlooking the Savannah River, watched big shipping boats cruise by and enjoyed some street performances.
It’s legal to drink alcohol and walk the streets in Savannah. Like Vegas, but less gross and obnoxious! On our first evening we spent too much money on overpriced beers ($10 each). The view from the bar was lovely and we paid for the location. But soon we discovered that two streets up was a pedestrian only street with restaurants, bars, live music, old buildings and best of all – drink specials. We went into a basement bar with very sticky floors (I remember college well) for two-for-one drinks and took them to go.
The main thing that attracted me to Savannah was the Spanish Moss on the trees. The pictures were so magical. Savannah is famous for those trees, all the city squares and of course, Forest Gump.
Like every other tourist, we visited Chippewa Square and took photos of the iconic spot of the park bench scene of Forest Gump. Since tourists ruin everything, the bench is now safely stored in a museum after too many assholes tried to take a piece of the bench home with them.
There is so much history in Savannah. From thousands of deaths due to the Yellow Fever epidemic to being to town Sherman didn’t burn on his March to the Sea, the town is also, allegedly, full of ghosts.
We took a walking ghost tour and learned so many interesting, chilling, facts about this beautiful city. As our ghost tour guide told us, “Savannah was built on its dead.” So many people died during the Yellow Fever outbreak the cemeteries filled up and people were just buried anywhere. Today, when you’re walking down the street and you notice an indentation in the cobblestone street, that’s where a coffin has collapsed. You’re literally walking over the dead. Our guide also told us how common it is for bodies to be found during construction projects.
When General Sherman lead his troops to burn everything, Savannah was spared. The city offered shelter and provisions to the soldiers in exchange for not burning their city to the ground. But, as our guide told us, not all the soldiers were housed in stately mansions. The lower ranking, young soldiers (some as young as 11!) had to camp out for the winter in the Colonial Park Cemetery. Cold, bored, frustrated and generally ill mannered, some of these soldiers desecrated the graves. From carving dirty diddies on the gravestones to breaking into the mausoleums for shelter and digging up & burning bodies for warmth, they left many city residents feeling disrespected to this day.
We saw no ghosts on our tour, but just to be safe, we both kicked the fish downspout that legend says protects you from being followed home by an evil spirit.
No visit to Savannah would be complete without a visit to Wormsloe Historic Site and Bonaventure Cemetery. It’s hard to cram everything in when there’s only a week and I have to work all day. So we didn’t get to spend as much time as we’d like at either location, but I am glad we managed to find time to visit.
Wormsloe is the iconic image of Savannah, with the gorgeous Oak Avenue with Spanish Moss. The ground close at 4:45 so we had about an hour to explore – not nearly enough time to take in all the beauty and history here! We also came at low tide, so we didn’t get see some of the shipping routes, but we did get to see the teeny tiny crabs being so brave.
Bonaventure Cemetery is another must-do. Many of the people we leaned about on the ghost tour are buried there. The cemetery also closes at 5pm so we were pressed for time. We opted to walk the grounds instead of trying to navigate the tank (I mean truck) through the narrow roads. Walking isn’t so easy on Toby, so we brought along his wagon. He alternated between walking on his own and letting us pull him. A Doberman in a wagon is a site to see!
Of course, we found a nearby brewery for a post tour drink.
Trying to squeeze in all the things is exhausting and impossible in the short amount of time we gave ourselves at each place. The best thing we did was take every Friday off for a full day of tourism. In Savannah we used the day off to go to Tybee Island.
We hired a sweet Rover sitter to check on the boys a few times during the day so they could stay cool and relax and we didn’t have to worry about them. She took great care of my babies.
What a fun way to spend a day. We sat on the beach drinking seltzer’s, got sunburned, biked to the lighthouse, and ate some crab poutine.
Did I mention how much I loved Savannah? I’ll be back!
