SAVANNAH, GEORGIA

Currently, we are anchored just north of the ICW and just west of the Beaufort City Marina, in beautiful Beaufort, South Carolina. However, let me regress a tad to discuss our visit to Savannah.

From this walk way, cotton buyers would look down on bales of cotton before purchasing them, after which they were loaded onto ships.  Note the cobble stones.  These stones were actually ballast stones that came in the empty ships coming from England and Europe.  Each bale of cotton weighed aroun 500 lbs.  So, when they loaded the cotton, they unloaded the ballast stones.  Well, they had to do something with them, so they used the stones to build walls, foundations, streets, etc.

When we crossed from Florida into Georgia, we started seeing a lot more trees; not just trees, but very tall trees in large forest groups. Things had become quite green. The ICW goes from wide and deep to shallow and winding, depending on whether you are on a river, creek or sound. To visit Savannah, we decided it best to stay in a marina on the outskirts of town, so we chose Isle of Hope Marina. It was very cool. Rustic is the best way to describe its appearance, but it was otherwise very modern in terms of its amenities.

I previously mentioned that, upon our arrival, we grabbed the courtesy car and ran into town to do a little shopping. Well, we actually went about 2 miles towards Savannah to the WalMart and loaded up on stuff. You have to do that when you have a car. Then we spent the rest of the evening figuring out how we were going to get “downtown”.

Well, it turns out that the IOH Marina is only a block from the bus line that goes downtown. It only costs $1.50, so we took it. We got up early and ran out there because it only goes by a few times per day. If we had missed this last morning ride, we would have had to wait until nearly 2:00 to go to the city and then we would have had to be on the bus back by around 6:00 in order to get back by bus. Anytime you take a bus, it always takes a little longer since its route is anything but direct. A side benefit of this is that you get to see things of, about, and around the city you would not otherwise get to see.

This is the front of Paula Deen's restaurant.

For instance, when you think of Savannah, you probably have images of grand antebellum buildings all shiny and restored. Well, if that’s what you thought, you would be wrong. That is only a small part of downtown Savannah. The rest of the city is quite “normal”. It’s where folks live and go when they get off work. From Isle of Hope Marina, we passed through what some might consider the rougher neighborhoods on the way to that shiny downtown area. There are a lot of homes built of brick. I guess it was an easily available building material. There are also sided homes. Many of the homes on the outskirts were single story. There were no fences and there were a lot of trees. Neighborhoods were interspersed with shopping malls, low lying affairs and not big, flashy, indoor malls. Many rough looking characters got on and off the bus between Isle of Hope and downtown Savannah. Every bus line has its crazy folks, too; you know, the ones who get on the bus and have to talk up a storm about nothing really whatsoever, and to nobody in particular? In this day and age, it could be someone talking on a blue tooth device. Unfortunately, this was not likely the case. Entertaining.

The bus ride into downtown took nearly an hour. (It took almost 2 hours to get back). The bus stop was 3 short blocks from the Savannah Visitors Center. There, we hopped a tour bus/trolly that would take us all over the city and afford us the option to get on and off wherever we wanted and then get back on again later if we chose. This way, we say a lot more of the city and learned some interesting stories and historical tidbits as well.

Certainly, the architecture and restorations is a primary reason to come to Savannah, and the tour bus drivers made sure you got the skinny on many of the oldest and most interesting structures. For instance, there is one house which belonged to the guy who started working with cast iron. Where there were parts of his house that appeared to be wood painted white, it was actually cast iron painted white, he having said that whatever you can make of wood, I can make of cast iron. We also learned where the word, “Shanghai’d” as in , “I got shanghai'd” came from.

This was General Sherman's house/headquarters.

Although this looks very much like a Christian Cathedral built during the gothic ages, it is actually a Jewish Synagogue, the only gothic synagogue in the world.  Although there were originally no Jews or Catholics allowed by Ogelthorpe for his new colony, the jews were allowed to settle there after the Jewish doctors provide services during an outbreak of Yellow Fever that affected everyone and nearly killed most in the colony.

All the white painted elements of this house are not wood.  They are cast iron.

There is a place closer to the river where the pirates of the day used to hang out. If you were young and dumb, and they were recruiting, it is possible you might be sitting in the bar and one of these characters might slip something in your drink. When you finally fell off your stool, they (the pirates or merchant shippers) would then drag you out through this black door (there were tunnels under the walls that went all the way down to the river) down to the ship, and you would wake up a couple days later far out to see with a new “career”. In some cases, these folks might not let you get off the ship until you reached Shanghai, and thus the term.

Do you see the black door?  This is one of the ports from which you might be plucked having been "Shanghai'd".

We also learned why so much of the beautiful antebellum south is so well represented in Savannah. It was spared in both the Revolution and the Civil War. During the revolution, the city was packaged up and handed over to General Washington as a “gift.” Well, you’ve heard of “re-gifting”, well, at the beginning of the Civil War, Savannah was packaged up and given by General Sherman to Abraham Lincoln…..as a gift. So, Sherman put his headquarters downtown on one of the original 4 squares and ran his operations from there.

In all seriousness, Savannah is an interesting place understanding that it was originally started as somewhat of a social experiment. In the early 18^th Century, the King George of England needed to establish a buffer between his English interests in the north and the Spanish interests in the south (Florida). So, he called in his friend General Oglethorpe and asked him if he was interested in traveling to the new world to establish a colony in Georgia. He was asked to build homes, to help grow new crops, to exploit other natural resources, to build forts, etc. He agreed, and came to the new world with a bunch of his followers. They had rather strict rules, but managed to start a colony. Unfortunately, the colony suffered from disease and never really recovered. Oglethorpe was called home, accused of mismanagement, and never came back to Savannah. However, he was very well remembered for, among other things, laying out the original plat of the city, around which the entire city was developed and continued to develop.

Here is Mr. Ogelthorpe.

Savannah is also where Juliette Gordon Lowe was borne and raised, and where she founded the Girl Scouts.  There are many, many things that had their beginnings in Savannah.  It's also a simply beautiful city worth of a visit just to visit.

Those of you who have seen the film, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" or who have read the book, might recognize this house.  Yes, it is the Mercer House.

Savannah is also the home to the Savannah College of Art and Design. This was of interest insofar as my brother graduated from Art Center in Pasadena. I suspect SCAD is also touted as one of the top design schools around as well. This college is huge, however, and takes up several/many buildings throughout the city, similarly to NYU which has its buildings scattered around a part of New York City as opposed to being on an enclosed campus. One of the biggest areas of SCAD’s concerns is the restoration of Savannah. It would seem that they acquire an interest in a building and raise the money, and then engage in the restoration. In several cases, they ended up owning the buildings. It’s a good deal for the city for sure and an excellent way for students to really learn something other than working on computers.

Of course, a visit to Savannah would not be complete without lunch at Paula Deen’s restaurant. Wow, now that was the best southern fried chicken I have ever had, and the pecan pie was just about fatal. We were lucky to even get in. Generally, you have to show up at around 9:00 in the morning if you want to get a seat for lunch which is seated from 11:00 to 3:00. We just walked up and asked about a seat in the bar. We waited around 20 minutes and then at 2:59, they let us in. The food was good.

We had a nice time in Savannah, and I would recommend Isle of Hope as a stop on a trip north.
The next morning, we left for Hilton Head, South Carolina and anchored in a place called Skull Creek. We decided Hilton Head Island had really nothing to offer us, so we decided the next morning to head up to the town of Beaufort, South Carolina. We are currently anchored here in front of the town. This is a great little place of which I will tell you much more later.

Bye for now.