After our 2 hour walking tour we had our bearings and set out for a number of interesting days exploring. It was also time for us to get back out and do some exercising. Temps have been in the high 60s during the day and mid to high 40s at night. Beats the negative 10 temps we would have been experiencing back in NY.
First stop, the Savannah History Museum. It was designed around the old railroad depot and covered the city’s history from the 1600s to the present.
Laurie is wondering how much a ticket to the North Pole would be, ha haFor a mere $1100 in 1910 you could purchase a nice carriage.For about half of a horse drawn carriage one could purchase an automobile. Looks like fun!We found this placard to be fascinating. I might even consider owning a dog like this one!This canal boat is being pulled by a lone horse. Hope they fed that horse nicely. It reminded us of the Chenango Canal and Erie Canal back home. The picture is not far from our campground also found on the Ogeechee River. Even after watching the movie Deliverance I might still learn how to play the banjo.A shout out to the banjo from Thomas Jefferson.
Savannah is also the home to the founder of the Girl Scouts. Juliette Gordon Low met Robert Baden Powell in Europe and enjoyed the thoughts he had regarding his Boy Scouts becoming ready for military action and having fun too. She started the Girl Guides in 1912 and by 1915 they were renamed the Girl Scouts.
An old Girl Scout uniform from back in the day.
The Battle of Savannah in 1779 found the colonists trying to retake the city from the British. That failed but they did get one good shot in. Poor house. The section of the clapboard siding was here in the museum. Looks like there was a bit of fixing done before being put on display. Notice the board on the right is clean cut?
These earthworks are called redoubts. Latin for “withdraw” and the hopes were that the redoubt would cause the enemy to retreat.
We spent another fine day in Savannah touring the Sorrel Weed house. It is named for a doctor from the area back in the mid 1800s. He performed many surgeries in the basement when the survival rate was not all that great. Word is that only half his surgery patients survived! Maybe we should have signed up for the nightly ghost tour instead of the historical guided tour . Besides being a doctor he evidently enjoyed travelling, or at least, enjoyed not being in one place for too long. Sound familiar?
Not a great picture but notice the medallion on the ceiling. This one is original to the house but the one in the next room fell off the ceiling at one point and had to be replaced with a replica. There were many purposes to these medallions. First, they were ornate and a talking point when entering the room. Second, they absorbed some of the soot and ash that came from the fire place and third, some acoustic help as the room is cavernous.A vintage wheel chairThe good doctor’s office.No children were allowed to eat dinner at this table. Once they had gone to school to learn proper etiquette, they could join the party. They ate in a separate room, maybe they preferred it that way… since children should be seen and not heard, or so we have all been told at some point in life. A fascinating way to do “wall paper” back in the day. It is actually paint on plaster to look like real wood. It fooled us until we touched it.
While visiting everyone asked us if we had visited Tybee Island just south of the city proper. Of course, we took our bikes down there to explore.
The sand was compacted enough for us to ride on the almost empty beach. Much fun!One of the many jellyfish washed ashore as an appetizer for the waiting gulls. Evidently these are not poisonous nor do they sting. Good for the birds we guessed.The island also had a nice 5 mile long bike path that paralleled the main drag. So nice to be out on a bike ride in temperate weather.Laurie asks “What’s keeping you dear?” A nice bird sanctuary was near the island too.We heard a large animal rummaging around off the trail.Lots of cool literature regarding the make-up of the forest
We spent our last day in Savannah back in the historical section. The riverfront offered many historical placards, restaurants and views of some major commerce going on.
We could not believe the river was deep and wide enough in the city to keep this container ship from Hong Kong afloat. The tug drivers had their work cut out for them here.Really nice parks like this ran the length of the river walk.More of the cobble stone streets we found back in Charleston.This back alleyway is called Factor’s Walk. It connected all the buildings housing the cotton trade companies. A Cotton Factor basically was the front man for the business and many times, owned the business. Most of these factors became stinking rich over the course of the cotton trading times.We chose the Cotton Exchange restaurant for a nice lunch.
Crab chowder and a local IPA for me. The waitress was nice enough to take our happy picture. We feel that we will revisit Savannah, Georgia again sometime in the near future.
