Monday 16 November 2009

Savannah

Our two night stop on the way to Disney was in Savannah GA, a leisurely 6 hour drive. Savannah is a planned town laid out in a grid with park squares throughout. We stayed near the riverfront, the hub of this town. On Friday night the place was crawling with tourists and locals alike, waiting for ghost tours, drinking cocktails from Wet Willies, and eating freshly made pralines. It was noisy too with buskers singing, cruise boats blaring music and a general hubbub from the crowd. Wet Willies had 20 different cocktails on offer, all ready-made in large washing machine-like contraptions along the back of the bar. A policeman was perched on a stool near the doorway and patrons were free to take their drinks out for a walk along the riverfront. We grabbed some takeout from a Greek Taverna and enjoyed a Georgia Peach daiquiri. The famous pralines are made by two rival candy stores and we stopped in at River St Sweets for a taste of these goodies made from fresh Georgia pecan halves, cream, sweet butter and sugar (yum!) Lucy indulged in some rainbow ice cream and we left River St on a sugar high.










W
e did three classic tourist things in Savannah: a horse drawn carriage ride around the historic district, a visit to the Jepson Art Museum, and dinner at 'The Lady & Sons' (Paula Deen's original restaurant). I would highly recommend the first two and would give the third a miss. We ate a very poor Southern buffet at the restaurant all the while being herded like a pack of cattle. The line up at 9am and then the waiting at 5pm (1 hour in total) did not anywhere near justify the experience.

On a positive eating note, we ate breakfast both days at the Express Cafe and Bakery, an awesome small business producing very high quality food, just around the corner from Deen eatery. I could eat breakfast and lunch at Express everyday!

The carriage ride was a private affair for our family as no one else showed up. So we enjoyed the leisurely pace of Charlie and Clark pulling us around town. The Jepson has an 'ArtZeum' section for kids which Lucy and Andrew thoroughly enjoyed. Salad lunches at the Telfair cafe within the museum were just as stunning as the Dutch inspired paintings.

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