Life with the Ootens: Savannah, Georgia

Savannah, Georgia... home to the greatest round of golf ever played. Or something like that. Every time I say Savannah, Georgia, I hear the voice over of someone from the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance in my head. And, I love it. I wish I could sound that cool when I say it. :)

We visited Savannah on our vacation trip to Hilton Head a couple of weeks ago. I can now mark it off my list... number 23. It was beautiful. It was hot. I think it was about 96 degrees or something ungodly like that on the day we were there. I sweated. It felt like someone had installed a faucet at the base of my neck and it had a slow leak, gradually dripping and running down my back consistently all day. No matter how dry I tried to get, I just kept sweating. It was disgusting. But, back to the interesting stuff, right?

I had big plans for Savannah, and it started with good home cooking at Paula Dean's restaurant Lady and Sons. Everyone (or mostly everyone) had told me to try it. I heard many reviews that said it wasn't worth the wait, but many that said it was. So, we got to Savannah at about 10 a.m., put our name on the waiting list, and found out we'd eat our "lunch" at 3 p.m. Hmmm... not that I was at all surprised, but we were already hungry, so I knew that we'd be eating twice.

Colt and Emily went their way. We took the kids and headed to River Street to see the river, the boats, and whatever else was down there. We walked around and saw amazingly large ships, beautiful old streets and buildings, cannons from the Revolutionary War, homemade pralines (where we tasted ice cream), and a wonderful little market with tons of fun things, including ribbon flip flops that were interchangeable but not in the way that I've made them (possibly more on this later). It was all very exciting. And very hot. So, we ate in a little tavern (of course, where there would be beer for my hubby who was not really all that excited to be in Savannah on this sweltering hot day). The food was good, the air conditioning was great. :) We did more shopping and walking around... researching ideas of river boat tours, horse drawn carriages, and ghost tours for a later trip when we wouldn't have the kids. Savannah is a wonderful city, but it is jam-packed with history and things that a 5-year old and a 3-year old really could not care less about. :) So, I got it in my head that when Brad and I come back to South Carolina (Columbia, to be exact) in October for a friend's wedding, we should try to take an extra day and spend it in Savannah. And, of course, since it will be October, I think we should do the ghost tour. How wonderful will it be around Halloween with all of the weepy trees and old buildings?! I'm really excited.

Anyway... we caught up with Colt and Emily and made our way back toward Paula Dean's restaurant. We let the kids play in the city fountains, which they loved and I'm quite certain was their favorite part of Savannah. Then, we changed their clothes and headed for the restaurant, right as a huge storm blew through and cooled everything down. :)

The restaurant was great. It wasn't as wonderful as I had hoped, but I wasn't starving when we got there either. Have I mentioned how hot it was? Well, I wasn't super hungry after being in the heat all day. But, we did enjoy ourselves some wonderful country cooking. I think the biggest problem for me with the restaurant is that I was raised by a mother who could cook country foods wonderfully. She learned it from her mother and grandmother, two of the most amazing cooks I've ever met. The food in the restaurant tasted similar to their cooking, but I couldn't help but compare. My grandmother could cook the best fried corn ever. The corn at Paula Dean's was great, but it wasn't just right. The green beans needed more bacon grease (disgusting, I know), the fried chicken was fabulous, and the bread delicious. The peach cobbler was to die for, but it did need some ice cream. lol. It really was a great meal. I think I'm just a hard customer when it comes to country food.

So, that was the adventure. It's enough for me to mark it off my list. But, I'm hopeful that I'll get to go back in October and experience more of the history. I think I'll enjoy it more then. Plus, I will probably not sweat like a pig the entire time then. So, we shall see. Until then... here are some of my favorite pictures from our day there:

The trees are all creepy and gorgeous at the same time. :)

George Washington went to this church on his visit to Savannah during Revolutionary War times.

Cannons... from Revolutionary War times.

River Street...

A trolley on River Street in front of the cool market that I was talking about.

The river with some smaller ships on it. I couldn't get a good picture of the HUGE ship that came through because some guy was a complete jerk and told me to get off his private parking lot, even though I was just wanting a stupid picture. :( He was clearly from the north. No southern gentleman would have been so rude. lol.