Savannah, Georgia and Beaufort, South Carolina

Dear Family and Friends,

I left off about our tour of the southeast coast with our visit to Jekyll Island, Georgia. I have taken some down time to enjoy the holidays with family and friends. Now it is time to resume our trip.

We arrived in Savannah about 5 pm. We stayed at the Double Tree hotel on Bay Street. We were free to have dinner on our own, so we chose the Grove. The Grove restaurant was only about a two blocks walk from our hotel, right behind the city market.

Chuck ordered the succotash. He liked this dish very much. It had great grilled sausage and shrimp with vegetables cooked with delicious spices. I had a taste and YUM!

I ordered the Baja salad with shrimp. It was very good. I scarfed it down so fast Chuck did not even get to have a taste.

If you live in Savannah or if you visit Savannah, this is a great restaurant. It seemed to be a very popular place. Here is a link to their menu.

The Grove Menu

After dinner we went back to the hotel and visited with some of our new friends before calling it a night.

The next morning we had a guided trolley tour of historic Savannah.

The sky was overcast and threatening rain. The city is lovely, but it would have been nicer if we had had sunshine. I made photos when possible. Making pictures from a moving trolley is difficult but, of course, I will share some with you anyway.

Historic Savannah consists of many squares. They are so beautiful and make Savannah unique. It is wonderful that Savannah was not burned by Sherman at the end of the Civil War. Our guide told us that a delegation of prominent Savannah men met the Union army as they were approaching Savannah. They begged that the city be spared. Upon seeing how beautiful Savannah was, General Sherman agreed and later wrapped it in red bows and gifted the city to President Lincoln.

Below is a photo of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Our guide said that back in the early days of America Catholics were not allowed to settle in the South out of fear of their potential loyalty to the Spanish crown and possible secession of the southern colonies from the English-controlled North. As a result, Savannah had no Catholic church until 1799.

I snapped a photo of the house below and now I cannot remember the name of this house. I liked it because the third floor roof reminds me of a house out of "Mary Poppins."

Here is Chuck coming out of Colonial Park cemetery through an arch memorial presented by the D.A.R.

Below is a photo of the Owens-Thomas House, built between 1816 and 1819.

Below is the Gordon monument. It was erected in 1883 to honor the founder and president of Georgia's first railroad, the Central Railroad and Banking Company. He is also known as the grandfather of Juliette Gordon Low, Founder of the Girl Scouts of America.

Below is a photo the Lady and Sons restaurant. Owned and operated by Paula Deen and her two sons. We did not eat there. I wanted to see inside so bad, Chuck walked on in embarrassment when I cupped my eyes against the window to see what was being served. LOL

Before we knew it, we were on our way to Charleston, South Carolina. On our way we stopped in Beaufort, South Carolina for a quick tour and lunch.

Beaufort is a city on Port Royal Island, one of Couth Carolina's costal Sea Islands. It is known for its antebellum mansions, especially in the historic district.

We were fortunate to have our tour in the horse drawn carriage. We all jumped on and started clip, clopping along.