Lunch on Tybee Island - Savannah

Sunday afternoon, we were looking for a place to get lunch before heading north for two hours to Charleston. Andy was looking though the Savannah guide we'd picked up at the Visitor's Center and saw a couple of seafood places out on Tybee Island. It's 15 minutes east of Savannah and on the ocean. Savannah is located on the river and I compare the terrain to New Orleans because it's marshy and located on a delta. All was good until we hit about 9 miles from the island where we hit wall-to-wall traffic. We instantly realized our error. It was the day before a holiday and everyone was trying to get to the beach. Two lane roads kept becoming one lane as we went over several bridges on the way to the island. It took us an hour to go those remaining 9 miles, and by the time we got there, we were starving.


We ate a little place off the side of the road that was simply named The Crab Shack. They had a little alligator exhibit outside the restaurant and of course Brady was laughing and smiling at them. They were way lower than that walkway, so there was no danger (they were babies) when Brady decided he wanted to reach his arm in. I got deviled crab served in the shell and Andy got the sampler platter. It was huge! He amused himself by taking the crawfish and pretending to have them crawl at Brady. Brady even played with a mussel shell when Andy had finished eating it.

Maritime Museum & River Walk - Savannah

Sunday, we headed back to downtown Savannah to check out the Maritime Museum. It was in an old historical building that had three floors, each one dedicated to a different exhibit. The main floor had scale models of ships throughout Savannah's history. There were ones that were from the 1700s, all the way up to the 1900s. The scale was 3/8" to every 1 foot. It was amazing looking at old ships.



The upper level was dedicated to maritime memorabilia. There were rooms with artifacts for navigation, sailor's life at sea, and much more. The basement contained a replica of the bridge of a ship. Brady got to spin the "ship's" wheel. There were also tons of ships in a bottle. It's awesome to look at some of them that are really intricate and realize that someone did that with two sticks with hooks on the end. I certainly wouldn't have the patience for that.



After our visit to the Maritime Museum, we walked to the River Walk to check out the shops and stroll along the riverside. It's all old brick roads that are gorgeous. It's so nice to have that old time feel and Andy said it reminded him of Boston. There were tents set up along the river of little vendors and this where we bought a box of chocolate pralines at the sweet shop. There were lots of little shops where you could get souvenirs and I got a Christmas ornament and shirts for all of us to remember our trip.

Ellis Square - Savannah

Saturday, after our carriage ride, we spent some time in that area around the Savannah City Market, and right next to that is Ellis Square. We noticed there were some dancing fountains in the square and there were kids running around in it. We didn't have a bathing suit or swim diaper with us, so Andy immediately started to say that it was too bad Brady couldn't go in because he was starting to get really excited looking at it. I told Andy that when we were kids, there weren't swim diapers, so we wore our bathing suits with plastic pants and just regular diapers, even though they balloon up with water. I stripped Brady down and set him loose. Andy went down with him while I took video and pictures. Brady loved it and got sprayed in the face several times. He was certainly in his element.

Carriage Tour of Savannah

We arrived in Savannah around 3PM on Saturday afternoon after suffering bad beach traffic the 50 miles between Columbia and when I-26 crosses I-95 where we got onto I-95. We had been told that one of the best ways to see Savannah was by carriage tour, so that was the first thing we set out to do. We drove to downtown and got tickets. The tour covered 25-35 city blocks.



We got to see great buildings and hear a history of Savannah from the tour guide. The carriage is pulled by two horses and the ride is right in the streets with the cars. The guide told us that the horses do about 5-7 tours per day for 90 days, then go out to the country to rest for 30 days before doing it all over again. They respond to verbal commands, so the guide can tell them to stop at lights and stop signs and to stay to a certain side of the road when there are cars.



We got to go by Juliet Gordon Low's house, who is the founder of the Girl Scouts. This was cool for me since I was a Girl Scout for 12 years. Her house was tan with brown shutters and the guide said the colors for Brownies were taken from her house colors. We also passed by the first Girl Scout Meeting Center which they still use for big events today. The Girl Scouts will celebrate their 100th anniversary next year and there will be a celebration in Savannah.



The architecture in Savannah is truly breathtaking. There are no skyscrapers, which is so refreshing and all the buildings constructed before 1955 can not be torn down, so there are many buildings from when Savannah was founded as a buffer colony between Charleston and the Spanish in Florida. There was so much greenery and the tree cover made everything shady and cool. I had heard so many wonderful things about Savannah and was so glad we got to experience it.

Back from Savannah and Charleston

We are back from our long holiday weekend to Savannah and Charleston. It was a lot of fun and we saw a lot of great things that we might never have seen if we didn't move to SC. All the time, we talk about the opportunities we've been given because of Andy's job and our constant moving, even though sometimes it's taxing. To put into perspective the number of things we've seen in the past 4 days, I have 255 pictures on my camera. Given that, I will break up our journey into posts by the things that we've seen or done so that they don't get long and I don't spend over an hour writing a post for each city.

Although, it is nice to be home, I have 3 days to do laundry and repack to leave early Saturday morning so we can meet up with my parents, my brother, Alex and his girlfriend at VA Beach for a week-long vacation. There are plenty of things I have to do outside the house in the next 3 days so wish me luck with packing around all of that!