By special request, today’s installment of the adventures of the riders of Path is brought to you from Judy’s perspective instead of your usual narrator. She is being assisted by daughter Renee.
Why Savannah by stomach? We have devoured seafood meals on River Avenue (twice), high tea at the Griffin Tea Room (one of the seemingly thousands of locales associated in some way with SCAD or the Savannah College of Art and Design), and a fabulous Sunday afternoon buffet at Paula Dean’s restaurant, The Lady and Sons. Paula Dean is known for her cable program on the Food Network and her Southern cooking (butter is a key ingredient and now we know what a hoe cake tastes like – yum!). There were lines outside and down the block at this restaurant the first several times we stopped by, but we persevered and through some creative conjecturing discovered that Sunday afternoon is the perfect time to walk in and sit right down. It’s a good thing we were here for several days, since we rationed ourselves to one meal out per day!
One thing you can’t help noticing about the city of Savannah and the surrounding area, there are stately live oaks everywhere. Savannah’s charms revolve around its 21 squares – park blocks in the center of countless fascinating historic homes in a wide variety of architectural styles. Many of the city’s homes are open for touring, and one afternoon we went through the Davenport House, built in 1820. This house is billed as the first in Savannah to have been rescued and restored as a historical monument in the middle of the last century. The house is rumored to have a ghost cat in residence, but it didn’t rub up against any of our legs. Supposedly, the family had ten children in all, though only three survived past the age of twenty. Interestingly, the eldest daughter had her own room, while the only other children’s room housed up to six others in a bed and a large crib.
One of the things Renee was interested in seeing while in Savannah was the ‘bird girl’ statue that was photographed for the cover of the 1990’s book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”. The statue used to reside in the Bonaventure Cemetery, but it had to be moved to the Telfair Museum of Art after the book and movie made it famous. At least now that we k\now where it is we might be able to go see it.
Wormslow Plantation is another nearby site we visited. It is in ruins now. Small wonder, as it was originally built by one of the original Georgia settlers, Noble Jones, between 1739 and 1745. The house was made from locally available supplies; limestone, sand, water and oyster shells, a type of concrete called tabby. It was fortified to provide protection from the Spanish for Savannah’s southern approach by water. The site provided us with the opportunity for another walk in the icky woods.
By the way, if you are looking for a good Christmas ship parade, go to Portland, not Savannah. We did enjoy our dinner on the balcony of one of the restaurants along the Savannah River while we were waiting for the parade to start, though. They got a late start due to the untimely arrival of two massive cargo ships (Gary says Panamax ships). Of course, there is some possibility of a local bias in this comment.
We’d have to conclude, though, that Savannah is a lovely city to visit and we are glad we did. There is much to do, and so much beauty to behold.
Good bye from the four of us from Savannah.
Judy, Renee, Neil and Gary
