Beautiful Savannah

Our first order of business is to get out and see the downtown district of Old Savannah. Trolley tours are offered which show all the important sights and the guide tells about all the interesting facts. But, Carmen decided we should go anyway.

After an interesting tour, we decided to walk the areas which we found most interesting. This statue was high on the list. Don't read anything into the fact that my left hand is not visible.

The city was originally laid out so that every second block was a park, so we didn't have to walk very far before we came to a park where we could relax. This area was used as a dueling field. The southern gentry needed somewhere to go to settle disputes so this area was set aside to resolve these conflicts. One of the signators of the Declaration of Independence, Button Gwinnett died here after losing a duel. On the other side of the fence behind me is a cemetery. Pretty handy, just throw the loser over the fence.

This is part of the cemetery on the other side of the fence. The wispy tree behind me is actually covered with Spanish moss which make it look so lacy. During the American civil war, union soldiers camped here and destroyed most of the headstones.

Time for lunch so we stopped for seafood at the Pirates House. This has been used as a Tavern and Restaurant for over 200 years. Pirates used to hang out here. Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Treasure Island, used to hang out here and stories say that he developed the plot by listening to the pirates tales here. The food was great and the stories even better.

Time to get walking again and wear off some of the grouper we had for lunch. The houses in the old part of town are all hundreds of years old and in great shape. This area was obviously where the wealthy lived.

House after house looked like this, or better. Between the beautiful houses and the lush parks, this is the prettiest city we've ever seen.

Here is the entrance to the main park. It is a huge park with wide paths and flower gardens.

The central fountain is lovely and on a hot day the cool water makes the area feel much cooler. Yosemite and I appreciated the coolness.

If you've see the movie, Forrest Gump, you will recall the scene in the park where he is eating chocolates and says "my momma says life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get". He was sitting on this park bench at the time. The church is behind me, from which the feather floated down and landed by him. Really cool to be here! What a great city to tour; we're glad we came.