Savannah - Savannah, GA
Savannah, GA
We arrived in Savannah and it was finally hot, high 70s/low 80s and sunny. We pulled in to Becca’s, another old friend from Appleton, mid-afternoon. The neighborhood we drove through to get there appeared to be a tad less than savory but Becca assured us that the Scamp would be safe. We carried our things upstairs to an exquisitely decorated eclectic Victorian apartment. After a briefly introducing Gordon to Peanut and Dandy (Becca and Kristopher’s two dogs) we unloaded the bikes and headed towards downtown. Our first stop was a pass through Colonial Park Cemetery, known as one of Savannah’s most haunted areas. It is the oldest burial grounds still designated as a cemetery in Savannah. After the cemetery we stopped in at Abe’s on Lincoln to grab a beer and take advantage of the open intoxicant laws in Savannah. We strolled down River St., beers in hand, and enjoyed the warm weather. After checking out Becca’s favorite back alley we crossed through Forsyth Park and stopped at the local American Legion to grab a drink and dinner. We ordered our beers from a familiar looking American Legion/VFW bar and walked down the hall to Betty Bombers All-American Eatery. The eatery was an updated old-school diner decked out with old Coke and military memorabilia. Kaitlyn and I split the hot pastrami and fries. The pastrami was piled high and had a great peppery flavor, it would have been great on its own but the onions and swiss added the perfect amount of pungent kick. After dinner we headed back to Becca’s for a game night with fresh baked bread, cheese and a couple more drinks. We started with a game of dice (which was awesome, dice names required) and then played a couple of games of Labyrinth and called it a night.
We awoke the next morning to a incredible breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, fruit, fresh baked bread (Kristopher got up extra early to bake) and french toast made with said bread. It was a breakfast beyond what was called for but greatly appreciated. It just so happened that Gordon was due for a shot and Dandy had a vet appointment that morning so Gordon and I tagged along with her and Kristopher while Kaitlyn took care of some boring chores. After the vet, Becca had to get some sewing done (she is an incredible artist who makes gorgeous clothing and bags, check out her work at http://www.etsy.com/shop/THREADBEAT) and Kristopher had to study so Kaitlyn and I were left to our own devices until dinner. After Gordon persevered through an excruciating but much needed bath we jumped on our bikes and headed back downtown. Kaitlyn wanted to check out some of the famous Squares of Savannah. Currently there are 22 squares, originally the city of Savannah was layout in a grid pattern and divided into 24 different wards with a communal square at the center of the ward. The squares were designated as the neighborhood gathering spot where they held holiday celebrations and neighborhood meetings, set up markets, and generally used as a local hangout. Today the squares are decorated with statues, fountains, plaques and beautiful aromatic flowers that bloom continuously throughout the year. As we were sauntering through some of the squares we randomly bumped into Berta and Curt, a couple traveling from California that we met at Hunting Island, who loved our story so much that they invited us to stay with them in Redondo Beach if we made it that way. It was yet another moment that we have experienced on this trip that shows the true kindness of others. These moments are ones that I will forever remember, they are moments that exemplify the endearing qualities everyone would strive for.
We ventured beyond the squares to return to River St. to say hi to an old friend of a friend we had met in Asheville and do a bit more sightseeing including the Savannah Cotton Exchange. The Cotton Exchange was a major part in the success of Savannah and played a major role in the cotton industry nation wide. The Exchange building is a grand red stone Romanesque building with a large fountain and Griffin statue in front. It is believed to be one of the few buildings in the world that were constructed over an existing public street. Afterwards we decided to grab some ice cream at Leopold’s. Leopold’s is a Savannah landmark that served their “VeriBest” ice cream from 1919 until 1969 and then reopened using the same recipes in 2004. A son of one of the three original owners reopened it after a career in Hollywood. The new shoppe was designed by an Academy Award nominated designer using a number of fixtures from the original shop that were kept in storage to look like a 1930s ice cream parlor. In addition to the ice cream there is an old fashioned soda fountain and props & posters from his Hollywood career. I ordered a scoop of the Chocolate Chewies & Cream and Kaitlyn ordered the Pistachio. The CC&C was dense and creamy and loaded with chunks of fudge brownie and toasted pecans. The ice cream was rich and creamy, the fudge brownie was dense with a bit of bitterness and the toasted pecans were sweet and crunchy. Kaitlyn thoroughly enjoyed the pistachio as well.
From Leopold’s we headed out on our journey to find pizza sauce and some sort of salad or dessert to accompany the pizzas Becca and Kristopher were making for dinner. This ended up being a much more ambitious journey than we had expected. We stopped at a couple of coffee and sweet shops to no avail, then we stopped at a specialty cookie shop and were not impressed. We finally decided to just grab a salad at the convenience store when we picked up the pizza sauce. However, this was just as challenging because the two stores we stopped at did not have pizza sauce. Eventually we conceded that we were going to return empty handed. The path we biked from downtown to all of our stops led us a bit further from Becca’s house than we had anticipated but lo and behold we ran across a grocery store and found pizza sauce and a fresh olive bar. We got back on our bikes and ventured towards Becca’s. We knew the neighborhood surrounding Becca’s was a bit “rough around the edges” and wanted to be home before dark but we had failed. Kaitlyn was a bit worried when we biked passed a small congregation gathering around their frontyard, I scoffed and laughed at Kaitlyn’s Janet Berry naivety. We made it back safely and Kaitlyn quickly relayed her concerns to Becca and Kristopher as I rolled my eyes, only to have both of them instantly respond that they would not have biked down that street at that time. Opps!
The pizzas that Becca and Kristopher made were absolutely delicious. The dough was fresh made and ready to roll out as soon as we got back. The first pizza was prosciutto, caramelized onions, sliced apple, spinach and brie. The sweetness of the prosciutto was exemplified by the onions and contrasted by the slight bitterness of the apples. The Brie was rich and creamy after being baked and gave the pizza a good earthy flavor. The second pizza was prosciutto, pineapple, caramelized onions and tomato sauce. The sweetness of the prosciutto and pineapple was balanced by the acidity of the tomato sauce and a hint of saltiness. The dough was a really good neapolitan dough that was bubbly and chewy that had the right amount of crisp to it and was not at all dried out. After our candle lit pizza dinner Becca had more work to do and Kristopher had to do some more studying so Kaitlyn and I had a few drinks and called it a night.
The next morning we woke up and began our search for our next stop. This became a bigger problem than we had anticipated. It turns out that there are a lot of people who travel to Florida in December to camp...DUH!! For whatever reason we did not really think much about this fact. We were planning on heading straight to The Keys but could not find a campsite before Sunday night and it was only Friday. We were calling the State parks on the hour every hour just hoping for a cancellation but were coming up with nothing. Becca recommended Blue Spring State park in Florida which is a manatee refuge where a group of manatees come every year during the winter season. Since we could not find a place in The Keys and thought it would be cool to camp with Manatees we said our thank yous and goodbyes and headed out for Blue Spring State Park.