Monday morning (September 6th), we hopped in the car and drove to Savannah. We parked near City Market and explored. Our first stop was your typical souvenir shop. I bought a book on Savannah Ghosts and Gravesites, because I knew we'd be visiting an old cemetery (Colonial Park) on Oglethorpe Ave later that day (we had passed it when we first arrived in town on Friday). We didn't do any of the 'official' tours, we just wanted to explore the city on our own. I am sure we'll do some next time we go back, though!
Next, we went to a really wonderful art gallery:
We discussed buying a print or something before we left for the day, but we never went back, unfortunately.
We followed that up with a wine tasting (where we bought two bottles of wine and one bottle of muscadine cider, and all we got was this lousy blurry photo):
We had not eaten yet, and all that wine made us a little lightheaded, so we thought it might be a good idea to eat something! I wish I could remember the name of the place... it was "Tapas by --" something. Anyway, their food was delicious! Josh said it was his favorite meal of the whole trip. He had shrimp ravioli and I wasn't that hungry (my stomach still wasn't 100% after my seafood free-for-all of the last few days), so I just had the she-crab soup. Yep, more seafood. I couldn't help it. We sat outside with a view of a skeleton in a window across the street:
We then ventured to Savannah Bee Co, which we just went into on a whim. Had no idea how much we'd enjoy it! We did a honey tasting, and oohed and ahhed over all their products. We left with a bottle of winter white honey, and a bottle of cheese honey (the bottle says it's good paired with manchego or blue cheeses). I can't wait to bust the latter out next time we have a dinner party.
They even had a 'hive' inside.
Also, the next time we visit, I think we're going to have to do the Foody Tour!
Savannah's City Hall:
At last we headed to where we had been wanting to explore and bask in Savannah's Historical beauty. Oglethorpe Ave. It took us forever to find a place to park, but once we did, we walked up and down the street taking photos.
(When we arrived the previous Friday and first drove through Savannah, Josh took one look at the spanish moss everywhere and exclaimed "Look at the trees! Aren't they beautiful? Vampires live here!!" Cracked me up.)
Small aside: Several months ago, I received Paula Deen's Savannah Style book.
Believe it or not, I hadn't had a chance to look at it until last night. It has photos of her home, and other homes throughout Savannah and the area (including Tybee!), and I was feeling mighty nostalgic already - and then I turned the page and saw this photo -
and had a moment of startling recognition - we were just there, and I took similar photos of this same, beautiful stairway!
Oh, the Savannah area certainly has my heart!
Our last stop there was the cemetery. So beautiful.
This one was my favorite:
A lot of the gravesites looked like this:
Don't they look like big, stone beds? I wonder if that was intentional - being a "final resting place" and all.
The far wall was covered in tombstones like this:
Apparently many years ago, it was decided the cemetery looked too 'cluttered' and they removed a bunch of stones and just lined them against the wall. Hence, you never know what grave you are walking over, as so many are now unmarked!
By this point we were hot and tired and hungry, so we decided to head back towards "home" - Tybee. (There is still so much more for us to see in Savannah, though. Cannot wait until we return, hopefully for our first anniversary!)
Of course, once we were there, we couldn't just go back to our cottage! We had to stop at a few of the gift shops there, including Seaside Sisters, which I loved.
Really fun stuff there.
The movie "The Last Song" with Miley Cyrus was filmed on Tybee. I swore I'd never watch a Miley Cyrus movie, but I am going to have to. They built a church specifically for the movie, and partially burned it for one scene, then left it there after filming. It was recently moved, and is being restored and will become a wedding chapel.
Here it is:
And the Steeple:
We then stopped at Mexi-Cali's for some delicious mexican food, and went back to our little cottage where we spent the rest of the day and evening just chilling. We hadn't stopped moving since we arrived, so a relaxing night was in order. Unfortunately, it was also our last night, and the next morning we'd have to say goodbye to Savannah and Tybee.
