Sonya's Blog - Day 181 - I LOVE Savannah!!!

Sonya’s Blog - Day 181 - December 20th - I LOVE Savannah!!

Today we go into Savannah and have our walk around. It did, indeed, go down to 1 last night and the ground was covered in frost. It was supposed to warm up to 18 so we thought we would head downtown when the temperature had gone up into the teens. Blake wanted to take Isaac to the driving range. Isaac has wanted to try real golfing, instead of mini-golf, so Blake said they should start with the driving range. They took off and left us girls to get ready at a leisurely pace.

The boys got back at around 11. Isaac was shocked that golfing is much harder than it looks. He did manage to hit a few balls, so it’s a start. They then went to a tree lot and came back with a “small” tree. It is pretty small, but we have no stand. I sent Isaac outside to get one of his buckets and he filled it with gravel and sand around the base of the tree. We then anchored it to the wall. While Isaac and I were messing around with that Blake packed a lunch and we headed out to Savannah.

It is a really easy drive into Savannah from where we are staying, only about 20 minutes. We brought Kizmet with us because we were just going to be walking around. On weekends street parking is free, so that is a bonus. It was pretty busy as we got closer to the water, so we went back a couple of blocks and found a perfect parking spot for our truck. This part of Savannah has a green square every few blocks all the way to the river. There are dozens of squares and it is very picturesque. We parked right in front of Orlean’s Square, which had a lovely fountain. We went and walked around it and Natasha took a picture of Blake, Kizmet and I. Sorry about Kizmet sticking her tongue out, but she does that.

We then walked towards the river and walked through a couple of more squares. When we got to City Market, which is a couple of blocks that are for pedestrian traffic only, with a square at one end, we decided to stop there for lunch. It was really nice out now and the sun was very warm. There was a live band playing and there were tables in the square where we could sit down. It was the perfect location. Just off the square was a souvenir shop, where both the kids got their collectables (Natasha is collecting keychains and Isaac is collecting magnets). There was also a really cool kitchen store that Natasha and I had fun poking around in. They had some antiques and some new stuff, that was displayed in older stuff. For example, all the wooden utensils were displayed in crockpots from the 50’s. I liked it. I could have spent a small fortune in there, but alas, there is nowhere to put it and it is not in the budget.

We settled down at our table in the square and had a nice lunch while listening to the live band. They had a bit of a county sound, but they did lots of rock classics. They were really good and Blake and I knew lots of the songs. It was a perfect way to spend our lunch hour.

After lunch we walked down the couple of blocks of City Market. There were some cute shops that we popped in and out of. When we were done with that we walked down to the river to enjoy the riverwalk. It is all cobblestone streets down by the river and there is a trolley car that still runs up and down the street. The riverwalk is quite long and there are placards every so often that tell a different story about the history of Savannah. The first thing we learned was that the streets were built from ballast stones that came off of the ships. They used these rocks to secure the loads and balance the ship. They were not allowed to dump the rocks in the ports, as it would fill up the the port sooner or later, so they left them in piles at the docks. Savannah took these rocks and paved their streets with them. There were 15 placards in all and we walked the whole riverwalk and read them all. They were really interesting and gave a good overall look at Savannah and the history behind the city. We also learned why there are so many squares. The founder of Savannah, General James Oglethorpe, arrived in 1733. He named the 13th, and final, colony Georgia. England’s King, at the time, was King George II and the colony was named after him. The first city was Savannah and was built along the river, which was called the Savannah River. Oglethorpe arrived with 120 passengers, working poor in England. The idea was to create a colony to give a new start to the working poor, but also to strengthen the colonies by increasing trade. Oglethorpe had a clear vision of what he wanted the city to look like and Savannah is considered to be the first planned city in America. Oglethorpe also made friends with the local Yamacraw Indian Chief, Tomochichi, and was given permission to settle the area that is now Savannah. Due to this friendship the town was able to develop without war with the local natives. Once Oglethorpe had permission to settle, he laid out the city in a series of grids. He wanted wide, open streets and shady, public squares and parks throughout the town. The squares and parks would serve as town meeting places and centres for business. Originally, Savannah had 24 squares and today there are 22. That is just a small sample of the things that we learned.

We walked the whole riverwalk and read all 15 placards. Along the way there were different markets and fairs going on with lots of music by local street performers. It was a lot of fun. When we were done it was almost 4 and it was starting to get chilly down by the river. We started walking back through the city to get back to our car. We walked down a street with a couple of pirate houses and then through some more squares.

We got back to the campsite right before it got dark, so that was good timing. We had some supper; ribs, potatoes and salad and then the kids and Blake settled down to watch the final Star Wars movie Revenge of the Sith. They will have watched all six of the movies and will feel ready to see the new one tomorrow.

Sonya