The drive from
Atlanta to
Savannah was about 250 miles and all on Interstate, so not so interesting to us.
We have noted how everything is green.
We are actually getting tired of nothing but green.
And the trees grow so thickly along the highways that there is no view except a hedge of trees.
And some of the trees are tree farms, so the uniformity is especially boring to this highway traveler.
Actually, that was my impression from the time, but as we’ve driven on more Interstate on the east coast since we returned, I realized that it was the Interstate Highway driving and not the scenery that was so boring.
We’ve gotten used to the
US and State and County highways and byways that have curves and turns and variety of small town scenery compared to our fine Interstate system.
While in
Savannah, I met a former LA resident who had moved to
Atlanta a couple of years ago and was vacationing in
Savannah.
He told me that he had headaches for the first few months living in
Atlanta and finally figured out that they resulted from straining his eyes to find an opening in the trees along all the roads and highways he drove on.
There aren’t any.
We checked in to the Thunderbird
Motel, which was conveniently located near downtown
Savannah and went out to find some seafood for dinner.
We went to River Street which is alongside the
Savannah River (duh) and is the old waterfront.
River Street is a cobblestone street made from ballast from sailing ships.
As we parked, we were helped by a local fellow to be sure we didn’t inadvertently park where we could be ticketed as it was dark by time we drove over there.
The fellow turned out to be an artist name of Oji Lukata who weaves with sweetgrass – a local, traditional item.
Reyna immediately was on to “the” hat and we had a good time talking with Oji who recommended the Oyster Bar on River Street for some fresh oysters.
He didn’t steer us wrong.
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| A little blurry, but Oji made sure we parked on the right side of the line so we wouldn’t be ticketed. He was at his car when we drove up and he had the hat in his car that immediately went on Reyna’s head. |
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| Oji with sweetgrass. |
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| Oji weaves baskets too. |
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| Oji wove this hanging decoration thingy while we watched. |
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| Happy shopper. |
June 23 - SavannahWe really had a great day today. We started with a visit to our friends at JIT Warehouse, Ben Goldberg and his daughter Evelyn (Evie). We only knew Ben and Evie from doing a little business together via email and phone, but were greeted and treated as old friends. Ben took Reyna and I on a tour of their facilities. They have about 200,000 feet of space and handle mostly steel that is discharged directly from vessel on to their waiting trucks and taken to their warehouse about ½ mile from the docks. They also handle all kinds of other cargo. Ben had just about completed the building of a 92000’ warehouse with clear span technology. It’s also built for steel with floors (laser leveled) about 1’ think and double rebar. The truck pads outside the same. Lots of room for the trucks to turn too. And the real bonus is an indoor rail siding that can accommodate up to 7 rail cars, so he can handle his customers’ cargo in any weather.
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| JIT Headquarters and Warehouse |
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| The new warehouse building with no columns to hold up the roof and the indoor rail siding |
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| lots of room for trucks |
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| and a nice pad with rail access for heavy lift cargo |
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| Ben and Evie |
Along the way we learned a bit of
Savannah history.
I had read in one of my books that a boatload of Jewish refugees from some European disaster way back when had arrived in
Savannah in 1733.
The Governor let them come ashore while he asked the King if it was okay.
The King said no, but by the time his refusal got back to the Governor the refugees were part of the colony.
Ben’s a direct descendant.
Talk about roots!
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| The entrance and wall around the cemetery. |
We also learned from Ben about General Sherman’s
Savannah days – that’s Civil War Union General Sherman who torched
Georgia.
Except when he got to
Savannah, he decided not to burn it down as he had
Atlanta, and instead “gave” it to President Lincoln as a Christmas present.
As a result,
Savannah still has many ante-bellum homes, and many are open for tours.
We toured the home that General Sherman used for his headquarters.
We’d never been to
Savannah before, and didn’t know that there are many public squares/gardens throughout the city and all are surrounded by these beautiful homes.
We had a great lunch with Ben and Evie at Bubba’s Oyster House, which is in Thunderbolt -- a bit out in the country from
Savannah proper -- and then did some touristing around
Savannah after lunch.
Along the way, I spotted a sign that said “We do Full Detailing” cars at an old gas station near Ben’s warehouse.
Since our newly painted VW had not been waxed since its paint job before we left home, I decided to get it taken care of in
Savannah.
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The team. The 2 girls in the background were kind of shy when I first sat down to watch the job (the group was kind of a tag team on the washing and waxing and buffing), but I learned that they have ambitions to start a corporation to do their own business. The taller of the 2 is a volleyball player and senior in high school, and I encouraged her to consider Cal State University at Long Beach. |
Later that afternoon, we met up with Matt Powers, a former colleague at Fritz Companies.
Matt is owner of Powers Trading and doing salvage/liquidation work from his
Savannah headquarters.
Matt took us for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at the Olde Pink House, which is an ante-bellum home in
Savannah that has been converted to restaurant/inn.
They have a beautiful bar in the basement with 2 fireplaces – cozy in the winter, but not being used in June.
I highly recommend their Habersham Platter which is Shrimp and Grits, Crab Cake, Seared Scallops.
Shrimp and Grits may not sound so wonderful to we non-Southerners, but the grits were made into a light cake and the shrimp were on top with a very tasty gravy.
The Crab Cake was also fine and our bartender gave us the hot tip to substitute 6 blackened oysters for the 2 scallops at no up-charge.
The platter made dinner for all 3 of us.
We next went over to River Street to the Bohemian Hotel with a rooftop bar and fine view of the river and ships entering the harbor (except for the smoke and haze from the
Okefenokee Swamp fire I mentioned earlier).
Lots of pretty women (and a few pretty men) there for sunset.
With Ben’s and Matt’s guidance and suggestion from yesterday, Reyna and I spent the morning touristing around
Savannah and then left for
South Carolina.
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| The house Sherman used |
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| Garden at the house Sherman used |
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| Every square has a statue |
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| Typical Savannah street view (cobblestone street here too) |
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| nice door detail |
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| these guys and trolley buses jammed up the streets for the cars |
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| Cotton Exchange and warehouses built above River Street, which runs behind the building |
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| Ben told us about this map which was on a wall in a private office until the office was turned into a restaurant, so now it is available for public to see. Vic's on the River for those of you who may get to Savannah and would like to see it better than my picture below. |
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| A little too much glare maybe to really see the map that is drawn with pencil/charcoal. |
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| River Street buildings from across the river as we left Savannah and crossed the bridge to South Carolina |
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| We had to stop at the “Squat and Gobble” in Blufton for some BBQ on the way to Hilton Head, SC. This one is not to be confused with others with same name that are in Castro district and Haight Ashbury in San Francisco as I found when I googled it. |
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| The beach at Hilton Head, SC. Getting a bit late in the day and starting to drizzle. Beach is pretty, but limited access due to condominiums and golf courses everywhere. |
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| The Macy-Rhett House from 1810 also known as Secession House |
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| This is in Beaufort, SC |
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| low tide and mud flat channels looking at harbor in Beaufort, SC |
From
Beaufort,
SC we went to
Charleston where we camped at
James Island County Park and enjoyed the Splash Zone that was part of the Park.
Water parks are quite nice on a warm and humid SC afternoon (what other kind of weather could it be in June?)
Pic 208
Pic 210
Pic 213
Pci 219 Our second float on a tube experience
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| Another "river" to float tube in. |
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| Really liked the waterfall. I stood under it and let it pummel and massage my back. I enjoyed a similarf experience many years ago at a Japanese hot-spring resort in Noboribetsu with warmer water. |
Waterslide was fun. No wonder kids love these places – old kids too.
