Oh Savannah!

I was rather forced to start singing "Oh I wish I was in the land of cotton....Look away, look away, look away, Dixiland" as we were driving up I 17  (vs I 95...ar narn..farv, in sthern parlance!) towards Savannah, yesterday.

On Friday night, over pizza at Fox's Pizza in Brunswick, my eye glasses broke. This is a bit of a catastrophe, you understand! I do have another pair of prescription glasses, but they are dark glasses, and not so much fun at night. I also have a large variety of ersatz $2 glasses to choose from...left overs from the New Orleans 'trip' (literally) into the briny at the Seabrooke Marina Dock. There, my very expensive ($1500 NZ) glasses were sucked of me as I went head first into the fetid, fast flowing waters of the Industrial canal, between the ICW and Lake Ponchartrain...but I digress.

These eye glasses have a tiny metal nose-piece that broke in a place that one couldn't fi it without welding gear! hohum!

This, of course, necessitated a trip into Savannah or JAX. Having been to Jax several times, we opted to go to the Sam's Club in Savannah. New horizons are always welcome. I am sure you have guessed that I got the original pair at Sam's Club...in Port Charlotte, December of 13, to be exact, because of the aforementioned trip into the briny in NOLA.
We planned to leave around 7am, and leave we did. As you can see from the photos, the sun is just coming into the Marina.

Looking back to the low-tide view of our dock.

 ...and out over the marsh

 ...and along I 17, northbound.

However, we needed fortification, before heading out, and Daddy Cate's is open at 7am, fortunately for us. We stopped off there to chat with Miss DeeDee and co, and to buy a medium Latte and Flat white for the road. We also were persuaded to try their fresh -from -the- oven muffins. Delish!

On the road again...I 95 is a rather scary highway in my opinion. I like to sit in the middle lane, for the most part, and on the right with the slow folks when I get tired of 'keeping up', as it were. Knowing this, we opted for I17, as being a slower, albeit a more scenic option. We cant help loving the trees hanging out across the road.
This highway takes us through all the little settlements, and of course, our other favorite place, Darien.

Savannah was just over an hour north. We made it to the outskirts with a stop off at Walgreens Pharmacy for a couple of supplies and a pit stop...(all that coffee!). We arrived at Sam's Club just after 9.15 am. The Optical dept. didn't open until 10am, so we sauntered around the store and found a pack of 6 pack of Heart of Romaine lettuce..the only thing on the list besides the glasses frames...and looked at all the meat and produce. We also spent some time looking at electronics (of course!) and the books.

It would take another half hour for the Optical tech to fix my glasses, which necessitates buying a new frame. Not that there is much to the frame! The technician decided to just replace the nose piece, so I now have the arms as spares. All that for $110. A bit expensive, in my opinion, but then nobody is asking me!

Armed with new sight..yay! ...we decided to make the most of the journey and head for the Historic Downtown part of Savannah.

We kept crossing  bridges over little rivers ...low tide, here.

Our first glimpses of Savannah's Historic District.

 By the time we got to THIS area, I was in Victoriana overload! aieee.....so much gorgeousness in one place!:)

Speed bumps on the deck! hmmm...

As always, we are captivated by the details, the colors, shapes and designs of these building.

The HUGE Live Oaks are what make this all the more memorable. Nowhere to park your car, though...but on the street at the curb.

We have to remember that Savannah, and most of Georgia was founded by the British. General Oglethorpe was the man responsible, and there are many parks (this isn't one of them), Streets, boulevards and highways named after the man. The town (city) is laid out in a classical English style with grand homes (for the most part) surrounding a small garden/lawn square such as this. It is where the homeowners walked and met and talked on steamy days and evenings, and where children no doubt played with animals both large and small. It is easy to imagine the local population dressed to socialize, strolling in this lovely place.

A Typical street in these parts.

This is looking up between two houses. At one point, they overlap!

I don't know what the churches are, but I liked that the three steeples were aligned:)

So lovely on this hot and humid day. It is cooling to just contemplate the scene.

Many of the homes are 'row' houses and all one building, but painted different colors. Lovely to see the Crepe Myrtles in bloom, out front.

Is this picture worth a thousand words?

per usual we drove up and down and in and out of narrow street full of these Victorians. We boggled over the larger ones with antebellum features such as huge columns out front.

Having had a short 'fix' of all the aforementioned, we decided to seek our destination....the waterfront. This historic area is right on the Savannah River, which is rather large and wide.


At street and park level, we parked alongside on the right side (pay parking) $1 per hour, and in the shade!:) There is a main road that the trolley at the end of this avenue of trees will travel on, alongside the park.

We had to climb down stairs like this to get to the riverfront. These walls are ancient, in the scheme of things.

 Well, actually, that was ONE level, and this is the next flight of stairs down to the riverfront. Waz beat me to it, per usual. Those are ancient stone steps, I might add. There is a decided dip in the middle of each stone step.

 Looking back down the Savannah River...

 Passengers embarked further down from our vantage point, and waves as they passed us. IT was too hot to stay out in the sun, so we quickly sought shade.

Moseying along the riverfront shops, I am never surprised by what I find, I have to admit....make that ALMOST! Deep Fried Cheesecake...blech! Im not a cheesecake kinda person, so the idea that they are now going to fry it, ...well, I need say no more.
Of course it wouldn't be a Southern Dessert offering without the Pecan Pie. Just as in Florida, there us a Key Lime Pie on every menu.

 

 

This is only a SMALL part of the waterfront district. With only an hour to enjoy it, our movements were somewhat ...well,...timed!

 

I hate how the same kinds of shops selling the same kind of kitchy merchandise are everywhere.

 We went this way back to the upper street level.

The waterfront park was lovely for shade.

A Savannah River Boat.

 

 

So, back to the main drag, and I got stuck on a main road, Abercorn Street, where the traffic was going really fast...much too fast for me, so I ducked off onto a side street that was going parallel. Nice pace, no traffic to speak of and we could take our time getting back to I95. We had decided on the faster route back home...pity! Stressful driving!

 

More lovely squares in the residential area.

The garden in the front of this house was lovely. I didn't capture it well here.

 

We arrived home around 4.30pm, happy but tired. Our early morning rather caught up with us.
Thank goodness I had Curried Pork for leftovers dinner.

We had appointments the next morning...:)