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.

A beautifull fountain in Forsyth park....


And these guys are called gaurdian angels...no affiliation but they cruise the streets and keep it safe for tourist and locals alike...

More to come....

SAVANAH, GEORGIA....so beautiful

SOMEONE IS WAITING FOR SANTA CLAUSE IN CHARLESTON, SC

Looks like someone is waiting for Santa Clause....looks kinda like Cleo!!!!!

A SOUTHERN PLANTATION

THE AVENUE OF OAKS AT BOONE HALL PLANTATION

The Avenue of Oaks at Boone Hall Plantation....Charleston, SC. These trees were planted by the son of the original owner. Some of them are the originals but some have been lost to pure old age (live oaks can live to be 700 years old) and some to of all things, lightning. Makes sense though.
This plantation used to be a cotton plantation, as well as a pecan farm and finally it was used as a brick building plantation. Most of the buildings in Charleston were built from bricks made on the plantation. Here is a picture of rows of cotton. It seemed weird to actually see how cotton grows. I always just invisioned it as a raw material.

The cotton ball startes as a flower and when it blooms....viola, a fluffly soft cotton ball. It feels just like the ones that come out of the package. Weird but cool. The fields were worked by slaves for many years. At the beginning of this plantation there were about 30-40 slaves and they lived in these slave houses. Mind you, only skilled slaves got the luxury of living here. Others, such as field workers only had wooden shacks out near the edge of the cotton fields. Skilled slaves included folks who could sew, carpenters, or a blacksmith. And at one point they figured there were around 350 plus slaves living on the plantation.

This is a re-creation of what they think the inside of the cabin would look like. Since slaves weren't allowed to learn, yes, not allowed to be educated, they couldn't read or write. so as such there is little information regarding them. But the basics would be there. such as the fireplace to cook, table, cutlery and plates. This shows a bed but it would have been in the carpenters home and only after the slaves were freed. The slaves would have to work too many hours while under their masters rule, but once freed, they would "earn" their way. And as such would be able to work on there own land as well as "contract" themselves out. Also, they would have more time on there hands to make their own lives more liveable.

This is one of the original trees on the plantation. Not quite as big as the redwood cedars us westerners are used to but much older and the arms extend out quite far.

This is the Boone Hall home. It was actually rebuilt in 1935 after the orginal home was taken down. A couple from Canada rebuilt it to this. The present owners live upstairs when they are in Charleston but made the lower part into a museum when they found people continually looking into the windows. Imaging sitting down to lunch with a audience. tee hee

Oh, the good ole South!!!!

Arriving in Charleston, South Carolina...a beautiful bridge

Such a view.........

So, we figured one of the best ways to get a good feel of the city of Charleston, was to take a horse drawn carriage ride. I heard through a friend that this was a cool thing to do. They give you about a hour long ride through the city, showing you all the landmarks and beautiful homes. As well as historic sites. Telling us about some of the homes that were built in the early 1700's

This was our horse, Max...he liked to talk alot and didn't especially like the tarp that was covering a car on one of the streets....lol
He is a beautiful Percheron horse. They only work a short time during the day and they also get to spend alot of time at "the ranch" to graze and hang out with their other worker friends.

The arcitechture is awesome...so different from home on the west coast...
This home has a double stairway going to the front door as well as a "basement". It really is only a crawl space as they can't dig down. Because the city is at sea level....they would just dig up a swamp.
This is a entry door of a home downtown who's origianl owner was very very wealthy. In those days, if you were in the shipping industry, (were the money was) you built your home with a wooden "rope" around the door. This home actually had rope around each window as well as the front door. Look at the leaded cut glass windows in the door.
A cobble stone alley.............How was that to travel on horseback?????? Yikes!!!!

Charleson is big on protecting the heritage buildings and if you own a heritage home, they have all the rights to tell you how the preservation is to be made. On the outside of the home only...If you follow there rules and keep it looking as it was in the days it was built, you get a plaque declaring it as such. This home got its plaque in 1965 as a preserved site condusive to the style of its origin. Charleston was founded in 1670 and it actually has a row of homes (The Rainbow Row) that has original homes of pre civil war period.

They also will place plaqes to tell visitors who's home it was originally. And, if you notice on the right side of the picture a large bolt....This is a very common site on the homes in Charelston. The city of Charleston is on a major fault line and as such they took steps to keep there homes from falling down. (After a few times of rebuilding them lol)

They are called earth quake bolts. The idea being that a steel rod is place through the walls in the floors and in the attic. These rods are tightened occasionally to keep the walls from falling outwards. It gives the home strength especially when they are getting tremors!!!!!!!!!! Crazy hey?

Some of the earthquake bolts are plain, without any covers, and some are very ornate. With lion heads or pretty flowers to cover the bolts.

The gardens of the homes in the historic district are lovely. Most of them are hidden from the street to allow the occupants of the home privacy. The summer months are very hot and humid (and in that era, the average dress for a lady weighed 40 lbs, and you were ALWAYS dressed. No tank tops in that era) so the gardens were placed at the side or rear of the house so the occupants could enjoy the cool, quite area in privacy. And, if the garden was at the front, in those days, you never looked backwards. Eyes always front so as not to intrude on the owners space.

This little building was a original bank in the days of civil war. It actually took confederate money at par....it closed it doors soon there after, going broke.
This is a little glimpse of what the southerners call a piazza. Or patio. This one could be seen from the street (especially because I didn't have my eyes front and center!) and on the left side of the pic (which you can't see) is the street and where the piazza ends, there is a large "front" door. This is not actually a front door but a door to access the piazza where you would sit and cool off and enjoy some breezes from the ocean. The front door is located somewhere in the piazza. It does make the street look very neat and tidy. And rightly proper!
Also, in Charleston, you will find lanterns like there burning day and night. In the early days, when the harbour was full of pirates, worldy sailors and other sorts, the crime rate skyrocketed. So as a measue to control this, a law was passed that the good people of Charleston must light and keep lite, lanterns. To keep light in the street to deter criminal acts! They are all over the town shining in the sun and at night. This is the door that faces the street and leads only to the piazza and the real front door.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM JAMES ISLAND COUNTY PARK

The county park we stayed at in Charleston held a AMAZING festival of lights and a awesome display of ginger bread houses. I thought that Mary Bronson would love this guy!!!!

Bronson As well as a Christmas stroll, complete with artwork from the local schools, a old fashion carasole, marshmallow roasting around a big fire and Santa's Christmas shop. Oh, yeah, sandcastles too.... watch out Parksville
One of the gorgeous Christmas light displays. There was just about 3 miles of great displays. Everything from reindeer to a lite display of the beautiful bridge coming into Charleston, to Santa Clause teeing up and hitting a golf ball to a green........very cool. Well we are off to a plantation tomorow

MYRTLE BEACH

THE VIEW FROM OUR FRONT WINDOW ....

This park has only just over 3800 sites...................

With about half of them devoted to "summer homes" Alot of them were started as a trailer and a deck, but progress has moved it into a beautiful community with lovely "cottages"

Even in the "winter months", there are nice activities going on. Adult mini golf, indoor swimming, bingo and crafts and family based activities....nice for the folks that are here for some winter "sun" and who's young families come to visit.

And then, out for a drive yesterday, we found the House of Blues. Complete with the "Blues Bros" car....very fun

Off to Charleston SC tomorow....some plantations, and mansions and maybe a civil battle field or two....