My alarm went off at 8 am and it was good to wake up to a sunny warm day – we’ve been promised that temperatures were rising to the 90’s today. By 9am we were having our breakfast as this was complimentary at the Best Western and soon we were ready to start our full day of exploring Savannah of which we had already had a taste yesterday afternoon.
The old historic town is only some 2.5 square miles – Savannah, Georgia, is situated on the River Savannah which is also the state boundary between South Carolina and Georgia and was established back in 1733 by James Oglethorpe who arrived on the banks of the River Savannah with a 144 colonists. This was the first city established in the state of Georgia.
James Oglethorpe https://en.m.wikipedia wanted to give English debtors who had been thrown into prison a new lease of life by taking them to the new colony. Along with the released prisoners, Oglethorpe also had seeds for cotton and that is how the cotton growing business started and enriched the state of Georgia.
All this information was shared with us while we were touring the historic town in a trolley bus where the chauffeur also was our tour guide.
At times we stopped at various points of interest and different historical characters came on board to bring us up to speed on Savannah’s history.
Another interesting detail is that Savannah is used quite a lot for filming and one of the films which is well known is Forrest Gump – starting off with Forrest sitting on a bench at a square waiting for the bus and saying :life is like a box of chocolates…….The square was: Chippewa Square
When we reached the river front we decide to get off the trolley as we had tickets to take a cruise on the Georgia Queen – a paddle steamer – on the River Savannah. The weather was perfect for a cruise – sunny with a gentle breeze so we made our way up to the top deck – fantastic views and certainly enjoyable with an afternoon cocktail for me and a large local beer for Gerry.
As we were cruising along the river, we had a charming guide who was also very informative for instance, the Port of Savannah is a major seaport for the US and once the Jasper Ocean Terminal is completed in 2020, then it will be the largest port in the US.
Further down the river, we sailed along Old Fort Jackson where we were greeted with a cannon being fired. This is one of the oldest brick fortifications on the east coast.
Back on shore, we strolled along the waterfront and made our way back to the hotel. It had turned quite chilly once the sun set some needed to change into some warmer clothes before we went out for dinner. We decided that it was best to return the the water front as there was quite some choice of restaurants and great to stroll around here. We finally settled for Joe’s Crab Shack which had a great verandah overlooking the river so we got a table outdoors – glad I had put on my jeans and had a fleece jacket…… and we were in for a treat. First to share a sampler seas and then a steamed bucket of crab, shrimps, corn and potatoes……..
What a way to close our day of exploring Savannah…… but no we weren’t ready yet …… we missed Gerry’s desert – ice cream – so we walked back to City Market and found Gerry’s ice cream parlour all decorated for Halloween – and that was the close of day – tomorrow driving down to St.Augustine.
