Atlanta and Savannah for Mom and Dad

In May, Daddy had a work conference to attend in Savannah, Georgia.  We organized it to go with Grandma and Papa H.  Grandma and Papa G were able to watch the kiddos for us.  

We flew in to Atlanta hoping to spend a day seeing the city and then drive over to Savannah to "see the countryside".  Since we were in Atlanta we had to go to the World of Coke.

Daddy (and the boys) collect lapel  pins so Daddy thought this collection was pretty cool.  They're pins from all the Olympics.

After the World of Coke we wanted to see centennial park, but it was all fenced off and inaccessible.  So we went ahead with our four hour drive to Savannah.  The whole "see the countryside" part really didn't work.  It was a solid wall of trees on both sides of the freeway... the entire time.

Savannah was a much cooler city than Atlanta.  So much of the city is original.  Many of the steps have signs warning about using them.  Often times they were uneven and very steep.  As you can see from this picture... we could basically use each step as chairs.

The streets by the river were all made with ship ballast.  They would unload the ballast and load up the cargo.  So the city used all that rock to make their roads.  Very cool to look at, pretty dangerous to walk on!

The street right along the river was my favorite.  It was especially cool in the evening.  Savannah seems to be one of those cities that doesn't sleep.  It had a very active nightlife so you'd be out walking late in the evening and it would still be busy and noisy.

While Daddy was at the conference, Grandma H and I spent a lot of time wandering.  Most of the time we were just walking around town.  Most everything you could want to see is close by.  One day we drove out to the botanical gardens.  I have one word for anyone thinking about doing this... don't.  This was the pretties thing we saw in the whole garden.  We wandered around for a while trying to find...more.

Savannah is full of squares.  Many have big beautiful trees.  I don't believe this area is considered one of their "Squares" but it sure was pretty either way.



We saw a lot of neat things, though I don't have pictures of many of them.


My favorite place was the Old Pirate House.  It was actually originally an herbalists house.  He was experimenting with different things that could be grown in Savannah.  Eventually it turned in to a bar.  Since it was a main location for ships many sailors frequented the establishment.  Apparently they were having problems with people disappearing, all from that bar.  So a policeman went to investigate. He ended up drunk, when he woke up he was on a ship bound for China!  Once you're on the ship you have two choices, work... or be thrown over board.  It took him 2 years but he eventually made his way back to Savannah and closed it down.  They were getting the patrons black out drunk and then secreting them out onto the ships.  How?  There were tunnels.  Savannah was all bluffs along the river so there were tunnels built to help get the cargo on and off the ship.  One of which led right into the Old Pirates House.  So they'd get the men drunk and carry them though the tunnel straight to the ships.  They claim this is where the term "shanghaied: came from. When they were doing some work on the building they actually found part of the tunnel.  There were tons of them throughout the city.  Though they are almost entirely sealed up now.  You can see part of the tunnel to the pirate house when you go on a tour.

One of the access tunnels in the Old Pirate House.

We went to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.  It was absolutely stunning.  From the stonework to the windows everything was incredible.

Grandma H and Daddy found the square where the opening scene of Forrest Gump was filmed.  "Life is like a box of chocolates".  It was interesting to hear about it from the locals.  There was never a bus stop there, much less a bench.  Hollywood removed a bunch of the Spanish Moss from the trees and rerouted traffic so it moved opposite it's normal flow for filming.  Grandma bought a box of chocolates just to have it while they were there.

More of those historic steps I loved!

I don't have any pictures of it, but we went to a dueling piano bar one evening.  There was a group of 4 men, some played piano, one would come on and play the drums and they'd rotate through so everyone would get a break.  They would take requests and then they'd be off.  They could play most anything people came up with, though they were encouraging rock and roll.  You would see one of them wander off with their tablet and earphones, listening to a song and then they'd be back and playing it... even if they'd never heard the song before.  They were incredibly entertaining.  It was definitely an evening well spent, though I wish I'd known more of the music.

Friday we went on an adventure.  We started at Fort Pulaski.  From what we were reading it basically sounds completely useless for it's intended purpose.  It had to be built three times...  and was used as a prison for a while, so I guess they got some use out of it.

All the old brickwork was pretty neat to see.  They still had quite a few of the guns there.  There was also a section where you could see damage caused by special "spinning" missiles which proved to them the fort was not impenetrable as they originally thought.

Then we headed to Tybee beach.  We got to the beach and Daddy realized he was missing his debit card.  So he and Papa headed back to the Fort while Grandma and I stayed to enjoy the sunshine.  They didn't make it back for a LONG time.  There was an accident on the bridge to the island and they stopped all traffic going on to the island.  When they finally made it we didn't stay on the beach much longer before searching for dinner. It amazes me how different the sand feels.  It is much coarser and has a lot more large chunks of shells and plants.  The ocean was as flat as a lake too.

Sunday it was time to head home.  We got home just about bedtime for the kids.  So we had to put them straight to bed.  Monday morning, I absolutely could NOT get Kayda to go to school.  A week away was just too much for her.  So of course Carson ended up staying too.  Dillon wanted to go to school though, he was working on his Mother's Day gift!