Exploring Downtown Savannah

After picking up Denisa's Mother, Betty, at the airport, we let her have one night of rest before we began exploring Savannah. We had been collecting ideas for things to see, and the historic downtown was at the top of everyone's list. So the first day we stopped by the Visitor's Center to pick up a wheelchair, and wheeled Betty up and down the streets of Savannah.

Being in that chair had some benefits, including getting a hand-made palm frond rose from a local hanging out in Wright Square.

We would walk through 15 different squares throughout the historic downtown, including Pulaski Square, with its huge live oak trees and azalea bushes that were still blooming.

Interestingly enough, Pulaski was one of the few squares without a statue. But a statue commemorating Casmir Pulaski is found in nearby Monterey Square.

Savannah's historical downtown is a very organized system of streets dotted with same-size public squares at regular intervals. We had a map indicating a route best for wheelchairs, but Mark had to do some mighty fancy driving to get that wheelchair up and around the curbs and rough brick streets. But actually being in the center of each square is the best way to get great views of the most beautiful public squares in the United States.

We chose to walk the seven miles today, rather than the more leisurely (and more expensive) carriage ride option. We really came to understand that you really need to walk into each square. You can't really see and experience them from the side of the road.

We walked through the largest public park downtown--Forsyth Park. This white cast iron fountain was placed here in 1858, and is one of the most-photographed things in all of Savannah.

We had beautiful blue skies to meander through one historical square after another.

We also walked past the Savannah City Hall, with its gold dome that can be seen from far away. Seen in the bottom left hand part of the picture is another method many use for exploring downtown--the hop-on-hop-off trolley tour.

All this walking can build up an appetite, and we had a 1:00 reservation at Paula Deen's restaurant--The Lady and Sons. They have a buffet, but we chose to order off the menu.

Diners are greeted with two things immediately--a cheese biscuit on top of a fried corn meal hoe cake. Both are seen in the small plate on the left. We also ordered an appetizer of fried green tomatoes just to get us in the mood for a Southern meal.

This was Betty's birthday meal, so the three of us tried two of the signature dishes on Paula Deen's menu. On the left is chicken pot pie with puff pastry crust. On the right is shrimp and grits, described on the menu as "hot butter grits topped with tasso ham, pepper and onions, finished with shrimp sauteed in white wine cream sauce." Not a single calorie in any of this food.

After the meal, we took pictures with Paula, who stood perfectly still as if she were a cardboard cut-out.

One of Betty's favorite parts of the meal was the welcome we got from Jelly Roll, the resident greeter at The Lady and Sons restaurant.

This was our first opportunity to celebrate together last week's birthday that Mark and Betty share. Jelly Roll sang "Happy Birthday" to them. One of Mark's favorite parts of the meal were the free desserts that they offered in celebration of that double birthday. When we couldn't decide on one favorite dessert, our waiter just packed up all three--banana pudding, peach cobbler, and ooey-gooey butter cake. We were too stuffed to eat them right after the meal, so after they blew out the candles we got them to-go so they could be enjoyed later.

Stuffed from a very rich meal of classic southern food with a Paula Deen flair, we hit the road to explore more of the squares.

There is a lot of Methodist history in Georgia, as Rev. John Wesley landed on this coast from England. Since Betty is a life-long Methodist, we had to take a picture in Reynolds Square with the statue of the founder of the Methodist church.

One of our favorites was Chippewa square, named in honor of the American victory in the Battle of Chippewa during the War of 1812.

But it was made famous more recently by a movie character named Forest Gump, who ate a box of chocolates sitting on a park bench in this square.

Mark is actually standing on the spot where the movie prop bench was set facing the street. They tried leaving the bench there, but it disappeared more than once.

Our last stop on this seven mile circle around the city was the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. They were celebrating mass at noon when we were there earlier, but we got to go inside on our afternoon attempt.

A beautiful example of French Gothic, we would put it up against any of the cathedrals we have seen around the world.

It is nicknamed "The Sistine of the South" because of the 34 religious murals throughout the church. While we were there, the sunshine was lighting up the stained glass windows, but it was actually too bright to photograph the details of the beautiful bible stories they portrayed.

We have seen some of the most iconic sites in the downtown part of Savannah in our first day, but we returned for another afternoon on River Street. For a view from the water, we rode the free ferries that cross the Savannah River.

We got a view of the gold-domed City Hall that we had seen from the other side when we were walking the historic squares.

River Street is an old section of Savannah that has been refurbished with shops and eateries that stretch for half a mile along the river.

Our favorite of those shops were the candy stores. Savannah is famous for its pralines, and the guy on the right was spooning out another delicious batch. But we were also watching the guy on the left, tasked with the important job of cutting pralines up into bite size samples for the tourists walking by.

We also enjoyed watching the guy making the salt water taffy. He was adding flavor and then coloring as the taffy-pulling-machine stretched and mixed it to perfection.

When it was just right, he removed it from the puller, and started the 100-year-old machine that would stretch, cut, and package the taffy. The machine parts are working so fast that they are just a blur to the camera, but we can see the finished product clearly as it drops into the bin at the bottom of the picture. From there it will be transported on a conveyor belt around the store where it flies through a chute into the salt water taffy display. There was a sign alerting customers to watch out for flying candy as they crossed that side of the store. Not all the candy made it onto the conveyor belt, as the candy-maker threw warm samples to interested spectators like us.

A famous attraction on the landing on River Street is the statue of the "Waving Girl." The statue is a memorial to a long-time citizen of Saannah, Florence Martus, who waved to every boat arriving or leaving this port from 1887 - 1931. Folklore says that she had fallen in love with a sailor, and was waving at each ship in hope that he would be returning. Beside her this day is Denisa Engelman, short-term citizen of Savannah, waving her bag of candy that she had fallen in love with on River Street that day.

We had to try all the different flavors of salt-water taffy, and we really like the glazed pecan samples there too. It was another delicious day in Savannah!