Savannah

 We went to 3 weddings in 2022, the first was back in June. Angie's cousin got married at a big estate in Savannah. Like the trip to Italy in 2019 we decided to make a vacation out of it.

Savannah is a great little city and we stayed in three different hotels, the contrast between the three was really interesting. The first was Avid. This is and IHG (think Holiday Inn) hotel and is marketed as "midscale" but I would consider to be somewhat downmarket from Holiday Inn express. We stayed because it was the closest to the wedding venue and I could get it free on points. Thank you to Avid, my employer, for years of having me stay at IHG properties.

Our second hotel was the McMillan Inn. It's a fairly large B&B on the edge of the historic district of Savannah. Nice place, good food, nice people, fun little pool.

Finally we stayed in the Marshall House. The most expensive of the 3 it's a grand old hotel near the river. The room was small but this one is all about location, it's a short walk from all the touristy stuff in Savannah. The breakfast was fantastic as was the wine hour in the afternoon. One day we played trivia, the next they had live music. The wine flowed freely and Wayne, the host, made us feel very welcome.

Yup, those are Segways. This was our third Segway tour, the others were Chicago and Nashville. If a city is walkable at all then a Segway is a great way to see a bunch of the city. Our guide was very knowledgable and we had a great time.

Savannah the city sits on the Savannah river. There is a bricked in walking path along the river ("River Walk", imaginative name) and it's pretty nice to just sit and watch a working river do it's thing. We saw a number of giant container ships going up and down river and even got to see dolphins.

Johnny Mercer was a Savannah native who wrote a bunch of songs you've probably heard, even if you didn't know who wrote them. He's buried in the Bonaventure cemetery which is worth the short drive. There are guided tours and, when you first get into the cemetery it's easy to see why people take them but aided by the Google machine we found a bunch of the touristy graves and even a bunch of interesting graves that aren't typical tourist spots.

Of course being in the south I wanted a low country boil. This was from a place just across the street from the Marshall house. It was very good and not expensive.

Angie got a po-boy. I can't remember what the protein was, probably shrimp. She was jealous of my meal...

One of my favorites from the trip was the Savannah history museum. This is the bench from the movie Forest Gump and while it looks like a real bench in pictures (and in the movie) in real life it's obviously fiberglass.

While wandering around the museum this young fellow approached us and asked if we'd be interested in hearing a talk about the siege of Savannah. We followed along and he talked for 30+ minutes with no notes and covered all aspects of the siege. The detail he provided was amazing including names and dates. Places, guns, famous people, the whole bit. We then followed him outside where he fired his musket 3 times.

As a black powder shooter I knew he was the real deal when I saw the black smudges on his hands. It was hot and muggy (normal for Savannah) and he managed to get the gun to go off 3 times with zero misfires.

I'll confess I travel largely for my stomach. On our last night in Savannah I convinced Angie to go to a British pub for a meat pie. We'd had a big lunch and ended up having just one pie between us but it was a good un.

The drinks were also fun, on the left was a rubarb drink I can't remember the name of, on the right was "Gandalf the Grey" which featured gin steeped with Earl Grey tea.

I don't have pictures but our last stop before leaving Savannah was "Mrs Wilkes Dining Room" which is a MUST if you're going to the city. We'd seen it after our Segway tour on Wednesday, but there were maybe 10 or 15 people in line and we'd decided to wait. BIG mistake. Doors open at 11am and by 10 there were probably 50 people in line, so many in fact that we missed the first seating. I knew we were cutting it close but persisted and I'm so glad we did.

Food is served family style, big plates of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fried okra, buttered corn, rolls, turnips, squash and I can't remember what else. We ate until our buttons were bursting and then they brought out desert! What a place, a meal I'll remember forever.

Anyway we really enjoyed Savannah, oh wait, one last spot:

Leopold's ice cream, a real old time ice cream shop. Another MUST if you're in Savannah. Get the waffle cone, you'll thank yourself.