Savannah and Charleston Weekend

 

When you think of Savannah, Georgia what images come to mind? Long avenues of shady trees with Spanish moss dripping from their branches, southern belles and their beaus walking arm in arm down cobble stone streets, perhaps even a lonely grave yard and the iconic statue of the young girl in melancholic deliberation? 

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Savannah is all of these things and more to me. I had the pleasure of going to school just 45-minutes away and spent a fair amount of time here as a college student. It was the quintessential getaway for a girl that was practically being driven out of her mind by lunatic roommates, papers, examinations, or just a desire to be outside with delicious frozen cocktail and never once be reprimanded by the authorities for doing so.

Will enjoying a frozen beverage on River Street, Savannah

  

While Savannah and I are on quite familiar terms, R has never been and so it being his birthday week and the 4th of July and all, the two siblings and their significant others decided to take a road trip and spend one night in Savannah and the other in Charleston. This worked out perfectly for me because while airplane tickets out of Savannah are out-of-this-world expensive, I was able to locate a one-way ticket leaving from Charleston for a very reasonable sum.

Day 1: The 4-hour drive to Savannah was fairly uneventful but as we drove into the city of Savannah, I instantly regretted letting R do the driving because the scenery was gorgeous and I wanted him to be able to take it all in. Every building looks like it did 150 years ago. The tree-lined roads lend perfect symmetry to its surroundings. Even the people are interesting: a dash of Daytona Beach Hill Billy, a sprinkling of street artist and jazz musician, a lovely southern genteel sashaying over to the Junior League or charity benefit, the occasional hipster art student speeding by on bicycles. This clash of culture definitely makes for obsessive people watching and makes Savannah a very charming place to visit.

Unsure of where best to stay, I chose the familiar Mulberry Inn on Bay Street right next to the Savannah Pirate’s House.  When my parents would stay in Savannah, they would often bring us back souvenirs of their travels - “real” gold doubloons and pirate hats from actual pirates that inhabited the Savannah Pirate’s House where they ate lunch that day. When we were finally old enough to see the place for ourselves, we were not disappointed  -the old house was eerie and lucidly reminiscent of its bawdy past. I had no problem at all imagining this as a place where real pirates once drank and ate. Dad further fueled our fantasies by telling us stories of the young boys they would take to the pirate house, get them drunk till they passed out, only to find themselves the next morning in the middle of the open ocean with the enticing agreement to work rather than "walk the plank."

After a brief and nostalgic lunch at a Greek restaurant I used to visit back in college. R and I spent some time walking around and just getting acquainted with the area. We walked to the old cemetery, where I remembered various antic dotes of union soldiers changing the dates and names on some of the graves so the markers would read as though a person had died before they were born, etc. I tried to look for some but think we were in the wrong cemetery and did not see anything mentioned on the ample historical plaques that were almost everywhere.

Jenny in Savannah

After our long walk, we met up with Jenny and Will at a brewery on Bay Street, and tried to narrow down our many dinner options. We finally decided on a restaurant close by, known for its locally grown menu, Cha-Bella. We weren’t disappointed. The food was both true to its Savannah roots and sophisticated. We were especially impressed by the long list of local farms they were buying produce from.   

After dinner we returned to River Street, where I drank a delicious frozen concoction from Wet Willies - something with banana and chocolate in it – yum!

Before leaving the next morning for Charleston, we breakfasted at a popular restaurant called B Matthew's Eatery. While I chose the white-chocolate and banana bread French toast, R had the most amazing plate of shrimp and grits I had tasted in my life. It was a wonderful way to say goodbye to Savannah.

The short drive to Charleston was almost nothing  -thank you GPS! We had no trouble getting to our hotel right on Meeting Street. We lunched at a well-known establishment, Jestine’s Kitchen. It was so sought after that we had to wait in line outside while enviously peering in at the customer’s enjoying their food and sweet iced tea in the air-conditioned restaurant. There were even t-shirts for sale, taunting us in the window, which said “I survived the wait at Jestine’s.” At least they had the decency to put a water cooler out there for us while we waited. Once we were inside I knew exactly what to order: sweet tea, corn bread and fried green tomatoes were our starters. For the meal, R and I split a seafood platter  bursting with deep fried oysters, shrimp, fish and okra, and  two “veggie” sides (macaroni and cheese and collards) For dessert I had a peach and blueberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Yes, I definitely brought my appetite.

R hates dislikes shopping and promptly left me to do some exploring while I perused the artisan stalls at the Old City Market on Meeting Street with Jenny and Will. Jenny bought some awesome cat-eye sunglasses and Will bought a driving cap that makes him look like a Newsie or at least member of the Mumford and Sons band.

After our shopping spree, we met Rudo by the pier and walked down to Rainbow Row to look at old houses.  We kept running into this strange threesome of teenagers dressed in pirate’s costumes. As we walked along, they kept reappearing and at one point even staged a sword fight on the beach to our amusement. I don’t know if it was some sort of club, they were hoping we would pay to have our pictures taken with them, or they genuinely wanted to be pirates. Either way, it was highly entertaining. I wish I had taken pictures of them; they probably would have loved it. 

Beautiful Houses on Rainbow Row, Charleston

As we walked back toward the hotel, they sky opened up on us and rained continuously for the next two hours. We were pretty drenched and Jenny had bad blisters on her feet, but I think everyone was in good spirits. 

Charleston, SC

Back at the hotel and waiting for the rain to let up we made plans for the evening, and decided on reservations at a restaurant that R had researched and showed us earlier that day. Despite many other awesome places to eat, Blossoms was within our price range, had received good ratings, and was going to have a Spanish guitar player perform that night.

Jenny and Will at Blossoms

At the restaurant, we chose a nice white wine and all four of us went for the She Crab Soup, a Charleston specialty. The soup was rich and tasted of crab and sea just as I remembered it. After dinner, we moved to the lounge area and watched the singer perform.  I ordered Red Velvet Bread Pudding - a magical twist on two traditional deserts.  R ordered a Spanish desert wine called Sherry that he adamantly said was different from Port wine, which comes from Portugal.  The two shouldn’t be confused, he said (even though they both taste the same).

Dropping Will and Jenny off at another interesting outdoor venue with music and lights, R and I headed back to the hotel, so I could prepare myself for the early morning flight back to reality.