wind at our backs: SAVANAH THE BEAUTIFUL II

The riverfront in Savanah Georgia. The city was actually built on a cliff. So the streets are up a steep hill made of cobble stones. These stones were used as ballist in the ships that sailed into Savanah to pick up cotton. They would throw the stones off the ship as they loaded. The town used them to pave the streets and make sidewalks with them...very industrious.

The street actually runs up and to the right of this photo. The walk way is called Falkers Walk. The owners of the cotton distributors would walk from their offices accross the falkers walk to the buildings at sea level and grade and watch the cotton being boarded on the ships for export.

This is at sea level, where today they have made a lovely walk way and maintained the streets as close to original as possible. Of course in the buildings to the right are tourist spots. Ie: t-shirt shops, tour companies, restaurants, pubs, candy and novelty shops. Still very pretty. We actually had lunch down here one day, and saw a HUGE container ship bringing goods into the port of Savanah.

Another cobble stone street. And Savanah is one of 4 citites where you can walk around with your drink....so when in Rome ect ect ect

The city of Savanah has a lot of what is called Tabby. Tabby is made of shells, sand, water and lime. This was also used widely in building homes. Here is a sample of both cobble stones streets and recreated tabby sidewalks.

Bay street, Savanah. Such pretty streets. Here is a good shot of the trees dripping with spanish moss. Pretty as well as lending some mystery to the city. Especially at dark.

City Market in historic downtown Savanah. You can browse the shops or enjoy some good food at one of the fabulous restaurants while enjoying some good music. Reminds me of Granville Island. (Vancouver BC)

Savanah is full of gorgeous old homes... some quite famous. This is Mercer House and besides being a historic homesite, it was used greatly in the film "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" This shows will give you a really good sense of what Savanah is like. Very cool city.

This is the catholic church....we had to take this pic. Amazing, such great architecture and paintings as well.....massive building.

Some more historic buildings. This was actually the original showroom for Model T's in the south. Check out those windows....they are curved.

A wrought iron gate, (one of three we saw) very ornate. If you look closely you can find 3 humming birds in this one.

And this is actually a down spout for a gutter. They took decorating their homes rather seriously...

The back enterance of the Ownen Thomas house. Built between 1816-1819 and was designed by William Jay who had a penance for symetry. Notice how there are two staircases and each object (window, door ect) has one matching it....kinda cool. Even went so far as to have blind stairways and windows. It survived the depression of 1820 (although the owner lost her) served as a bording house and survived the revolutionary war.....

The back gardens.....

The Colinial Park Cemetary....some grave stones marked as far back as late 1700's. This cemetary once served as a spot for war horses to be kept when Savanah was taken over by General Sherman

A old grave with.......spooky..........

The bird girl pic in front of the museum where she is now....more Midnight in the Garden stuff....

And of course, once again, if you are in Rome....we had lunch at Paula Deen's restaurant. We enjoyed some good ole souther cookin'

Fried chicken with collard greens ( I know how to cook them now), mac and cheese, mashed potatoes with homemade gravy, corn bread cassarole, green beans with potatoes, sweet potatoe cassarole, baked beans, butter beans (yuk) awesome bbq'd pulled pork. As welll as these awesome garlic cheese biscuits and some "hoe" bread. (pan fried corn bread) Full salad bar and then of course some peach cobbler....

For the movie buffs...this is where Forrest Gump sat and told his story. The magic of hollywood had them sitting up on a platform so you didnt actually see the existing bench..... and in the movie the traffic runs both ways, while in real life, the traffic only goes to the right.