Savannah, GA

Donna and I travelled to Savannah, GA primarily to see Nickel Creek in concert, but we made it a three day adventure in which we took in quite a bit. We arrived Wednesday afternoon and first headed to Ft. Pulaski, a park in the National Park Service. It was built in the 1830's, designed in part by Robert E. Lee, and was considered indestructible, but that was proven wrong during the Civil War, when the Union forces first tried their experimental rifled cannon. After 30 hours of bombardment the fort was in pretty bad shape, and the Confederate forces surrendered. After capturing it the Union repaired the damage and used it themselves, so today, it is in good structural shape, but it still has lots of evidence of the damage. It's a very cool place to visit; the fort itself is awesome and a great deal of fun to explore, plus there are several trails to explore. We even saw a couple of wild aligators around the grounds!




The fort closes at 5:00, and we had only about an hour to explore, so we did so quickly and then went out and parked at the gate and enjoyed some time out on the river watching gulls and pelicans fly around and dive for food.





We then headed out to Tybee Island for a bit of exploration, including the Tybee Island Lighthouse.



Cool shot Donna snapped of me



Thursday morning we headed into downtown and visited the Telfair Museum of Art, which is comprised of three buildings: the Telfair Academy, which houses old paintings; the Jepson Center, which houses contemporary art, and the Owens-Thomas house, which was built in 1816. All three were quite cool, but my favorite was the O-T house; it is in immaculate condition, and the architecture is amazing. Seeing 30-foot-long floor joists is a treat!

We had a couple of hours before the concert and were pretty hungry, so we went off in search of Wall's Barbecue, which I had discovered via hollyeats.com. He warned that it was off the beaten path and difficult to find, and boy, was he right! We had to wander around for a while and finally go down an alley to find it, but that made it all the better. It was a real low-key hole-in-the-wall, which is usually a sign of great food, and this was no exception. We had pulled pork dinners with cole slaw, fries, and black-eyed peas. Yum!

The concert was great, as usual. This was about my eighth and Donna's tenth times to see them, and they always put on quite a show. The opening act, a woman from Raleigh named Tift Merritt was also quite good. We sat next to a couple that Donna sat next to back in January at another of their concerts; how weird!

Friday morning following a hearty Cracker Barrell breakfast we headed back out to Ft. Pulaski since our visit was cut short on Wednesday. We spent more time exploring the fort, and we then headed out on a 1-mile trail that leads out close to the Cockspur Island Lighthouse.






We then headed over to Bonaventure Cemetery, listed as a national historic site. It's a beautiful cemetery, situated right on the Savannah River. There are many beautiful headstones and sculptures and some famous people buried there, including Johnny Mercer. This is where the "Bird Girl" statue, made famous on the cover of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" originally stood; it has now been moved to the Telfair Museum, as too many people were going to see it and not respecting the grounds as a place of rest.








After leaving the fort we weren't quite ready to head back home, so we drove into downtown, grabbed a bite to eat and then an ice cream cone for Donna and a cup of coffee for me; we enjoyed those as we strolled around and headed down to the river, where we walked up and down the riverwalk checking out the various stores and market. We finally headed home around 8:00, sufficiently worn out from a great trip!