It was super interesting getting to see Savannah, but it was a little hard to get to know it. Because Savannah is such a beautiful and historic city it draws a tremendous number of tourists (us included) which makes it difficult to get a sense of the local fabric of the place. I imagine the “real” city is woven in among all the tourist-targeted stuff, but it would probably take more than a day to find it. That said, we really enjoyed ourselves in Savannah.
PICKS:
US 80 between Atlanta and Adrian, GA
We decided to take one of the smaller roads to get to Savannah and were really lucky to have chosen US 80. Between Macon and Adrian was the best stretch, meandering through small towns, past family farms, into the thick of springtime foliage and generally gave us a chance to check out just how pastoral rural Georgia can be.
Adrian Camp and Conference Center, Adrian, GA
We have a love/hate relationship with our GPS. Sometimes she directs us to turn “Sharply right” into a ditch. Sometimes she takes us to non-existent coffee shops. She’s even taken us to a couple of dead ends. However, on the day she helped us find the Church of the Nazarene’s campground in Adrian, Georgia, we forgave her many of her sins. When Pastor Jeff pulled up in his golf cart to warmly greet us and give us the lowdown on the campground facilities, we were astounded to discover that for a mere $2 per person we would get a campsite, warm showers, a fire pit and even wi-fi!! Holy good deal, Batman!
It was our first stop in Savannah and we managed to hit one of the classics with this one. It’s like the Central Park of Savannah complete with fountains, statues, huge meadows for playing and lounging and even tourists! We felt right at home.
We drove out to Tybee after our initial exploration of Savannah. It’s a pretty typical beach community, with the one exception that all the porches were completely ensconced by screen, which made us realize how grateful we should be that we arrived before prime mosquito season.
This was one of Brantley’s (our Asheville BBQ waitress) recommendations. We arrived just behind a party of 20, so we had about a 40 minute wait for a table, which we used to explore the island a bit. We walked around the beautifully marshy docks at sunset and even made it out to the beach for a look around before we had to hoof it back to the restaurant. We sat out on the covered dock, enjoyed our gumbo and crab and discussed our plans for exploring Savannah the following day.
Aside from having the best name of any coffee shop we’ve seen, The Sentient Bean was a comfy spot to sip coffee, work on the website and watch the morning go by.
Another Brantley suggestion, Blowin’ Smoke had perfectly passable BBQ and sated our hunger, but probably won’t make our list of fave eats. It did, however, seem to have a great patio on which they often host live music…bummer that we were there for lunch and not a night of music and fresh air BBQ eating, since that seems like their specialty.
The highlight of this decent sized gallery were some paintings by Laura Dinello in which she collaged small pieces of canvas on to the main canvas to create a woven, mosaic-y appearance to her brightly colored folky pieces. Kate Greene Gray also had some good photos of peeling paint.
Goldeneye is Carl Kotheimer’s exhibition space for his photos and paintings. His photos play a lot with shadow and light to create interesting spatial figures and we enjoyed talking to his wife, Cathy, a former New Jerseyite and all-around nice person.
Walking around Historic Downtown Savannah
Walking is the way to see Savannah. There are over 20 city squares, each with their own shady garden and group of park benches tempting me to give up my perambulating ways and become a lady of leisure. After wandering among the historic houses and under the Spanish moss covered oaks, we made our way to River Street and then over to City Market.
PANS:
Going to Savannah near Easter (or other times of tourist high-tide)
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