Sunday, March 22, 2009

Southeast Road Trip Day 7

Wingate hotels have a great breakfast in their lobby, the regular continental stuff plus some kind of sausage or bacon, a waffle maker and cappucino. We took our time eating and getting ready, so we didn't leave the hotel until noon. Savannah has plenty of traffic, so we parked in a ramp a few blocks from the river and walked past another Custom House, the golden-domed City Hall and then down to the riverfront. We got tickets for Old Savannah tours and then ambled down River Street to the boarding area. From River Street, you can see Savannah's cable-stayed bridge, the Talmadge Memorial Bridge which looks just like the Ravenel bridge in Charleston. The trolley took us around to fourteen stops in the city, including some of the squares, the main campus of Savannah College of Art and Design, a house built out of marble dust bricks, the oldest tree in Savannah, City Market, the Historical Society, the First African Baptist Church, Colonial Park cemetery and the Pirate's House, which is now a restaurant. Our guide explained that the blue color is supposed to keep evil spirits away, and that Robert Louis Stevenson set some of the action in Treasure Island at the Pirate's House.
Once the tour was over, I stopped to get some boiled peanuts and then we stopped for ice cream. The peanuts smelled like overcooked peas, but they tasted good. We walked up to Johnson Square and then got back in the truck to drive down River Street, through the city and around some more squares. Heading back to the hotel, we went over the Talmadge bridge and then had dinner at the Longhorn Steakhouse. Last night's domino game continued and Mike won again.

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