Tybee Island Lighthouse

After leaving the Cemetary, and stopping at Wiley's Championship Barbeque for some excellent pulled pork, we drove out to Tybee Island, the "beach escape" for Savannah, to see the dramatic Tybee Lighthouse. The current lighthouse consists of the 60 foot base from the previous lighthouse plus another approx 84 feet added to it to form the present day 144 ft lighthouse. It is quite dramatic, with its black base, mid section of white, and top of black.

Bonaventure Cemetary

On our last day in Savannah we drove outside the city this morning to the 160 acre Bonaventure Cemetary, situated on a bluff above he Wilmington River. It was once a plantation, but became a Cemetary in 1846. Set in a large grove of Live Oaks dripping with Spanish Moss, it contains graves of a few colonists, along with many from the notable families of Savannah. One of the more recent notables is Johnny Mercer, songwriter (Moon River, That Old BLack Magic, You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby) and founder of Capitol Records. It has some lovely headstones, and wandering among them is interesting. Here are pictures of a lane of Live Oak trees, a contemplative young woman on a headstone, and Shana sitting on the Johnny Mercer memorial bench which lists some of his songs.

Savannah Buildings

This morning we ventured down Bull St., a main north/south street in historic savannah, with lots of lovely old buildings. These pictures are from our walk.

This is the Savannah National Guards building. There have been Savannah guards units since the revolutionary war, and on the front of the building two old cannon barrels are mounted vertically (sorry, they're not very visible in my picture).

This Scottish Rite Temple building housed Solomon's Pharmacy on the corner, which is now the home of the Gryphon Tea Room (more about that in the next post). A lovely building with beautiful detail around the coving trim. 

Further south on Bull Street is one of Savannah's most famous squares, Forsyth Park. Here I am by the fountain in the park.

There are hundreds of large, lovely, beautifully kept homes along and around Bull St and 

Forsyth Park. Here are three of them on the edge of the park.

Arrival in Savannah

We finally got away this morning about 11 am and drove up to Savannah through several rainstorms with slow traffic along the way. We arrived about 5pm and settled into our vintage 60's motel. Fortunately the rooms have been nicely updated, and its location is on the due of the historic district, so we can walk to everywhere we want to see. We had a nice dinner of local shrimp at a well known restaurant above the river, Vic's on the River. On the way back we walked through several of Savannah's famous downtown squares. Downtown is a mix of lovely well kept old buildings and rather run down old buildings. Should be fun to explore.

Below is are pictures of the Thunderbird Inn, Shana at dinner, and one of the squares. Tomorrow we continue our exploring....slowly! At 8 pm it was 83 degrees with 75% humidity--HOT! Tomorrows high is supposed to be in the high 80's, with thunder showers. We will take our time and plan plenty of rest stops.

Moving Shana Out

This week I flew to Tampa to help Shana pack up her apartment. We got everything packed and wrapped in miles of plastic and she hired two guys from the Gentle Giant moving company to move the boxes, couch, bed and mattress, etc. down two stories to the trailer she hired. Despite intermittent rainstorms they finished in under three hours. Here are pictures of the trailer being packed, the staging area at the bottom of the stairs, and the emptied bedroom with our air mattress that we used for the last two nights in the apartment.