Georgia, Savannah - Monday, August 4, 2014 - The Lady & Sons and River Street

The weather report was for overcast skies and a chance of spotty showers later on today so we decided to take our first venture into Savannah.  We stopped at the first visitor center we saw looking for a map.  The information we had at the coach talked about all of these various things to see but didn’t include a map.  We also asked about parking.  According to the lady from the trolley service counter there was no parking available – that didn’t sound right, but then she wanted us to take the trolley tour.  I had read that there was parking near Ellis Square so we headed there and found a parking garage on Whitaker Street.

City Market was just across from the parking garage.  It’s full of small shops, boutiques and restaurants.

 

One of the restaurants, Vinnie Van Go Go’s was recommended to us for pizza, they said it was a little dumpy but the pizza was great.  It wasn’t open yet, but I think we would have been hesitant to eat there.  My pictures miss the guy that was sitting on the roof.

Belford’s is across the street from Vinnie’s and it was recommended in some of our reading for their crab cakes.

The flower wagons in the City Market are beautiful.

We had to laugh about these seats, they reminded us of a deck we saw some people building when we were in a campground in East Tampa, it was built up on some blocks that were leaning dangerously.  The deck surface was nice and they had some nice furniture on it when they finished it, but we walked by every day just to see whether or not it was still standing.

This is a view of the bridge connecting Georgia and South Carolina from River Street.  Crossing this on the motorcycle gave us quite a view.  This picture isn’t as clear as I would like since it was overcast the bridge kind of blends into the sky.

One of the things I wanted to do in Savannah was to eat at Paula Dean’s restaurant, The Lady & Sons.  Since it was just a block or so from the City Market we decided to try to get in for lunch. 

Everything we read said that reservations were required, but we walked right in and got a seat.

We decided on the buffet at $16 since the sandwiches were about the same price.  I’ve got to stop making decisions like this L.  I also wanted to try the fried green tomatoes so my decision was even worse.  But, boy was it good!!

After eating a lunch like that we really needed to walk and we did for a couple of hours on River Street.  One side of the street is old brick buildings with shops and the other side near the river is park like.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, our walk took us right by (and into) the Savannah Candy Kitchen.  There is a little train that goes around on a track near the ceiling.  It goes so fast it is hard to get a good picture.

 

We watched pralines being made and had a sample.  These things are pure sugar. Since this isn't a video you don't get the full effect of the little boy smearing his hands all over the window.

 

 

We watched peanut butter taffy being made and I had a sample.  Greg declined, no sense messing up that dental work he just had done.  After the taffy leaves the "puller" it goes up a series of conveyor belts to be dumped into the sales display.

 

 

More sights on River Street.  We ducked into the Harley store when it started to rain.

 

Savannah’s Waving Girl Monument which was built for the 1996 Olympics.

 

To get to the rest of the historical district from River Street we had to go up.  We came down in an elevator at a hospitality center.  We decided to go back up these stairs.  They were marked as “historical stairs, use at your own risk”.  They have been there for years and look to me like they have many more years to go.  The second picture is looking down after we went up the stairs, I like the cobblestones.

 

 

 

This is the old Cotton Exchange Building.  I think it is now the Chamber of Commerce and based on what it says above the door, it either was or is now a Masonic Lodge.  The building was completed in 1887 when Savannah ranked first as a cotton seaport on the Atlantic and second in the world.  At that time over two million bales of cotton were moving through here a year.

 

 

The old City Exchange Bell bears the date of 1802.  In its day the bell signaled the closing time for shops and was rung by a watchman when fire broke out.  The bell also range to celebrate American victories during the War of 1812.

It was starting to rain pretty steady so we decided we better make our way back to the parking garage and head home.  By the time we made it back to the garage the rain had let up so we didn’t get too wet going home.  What a wonderful day.

Our purchases today amounted to one praline to split and these masks.  Our granddaughter Maddie is having a pirate princess themed birthday party at the end of August.  Since that is where we are heading when we leave here we thought we better have some kind of costume or she was going to be disappointed.