Oh, Savannah, Oh Don't You Cry for Me!

I love Savannah, Georgia. I had a pretty good feeling long before I ever booked my hotel that I would dig on this peach of a town. It does remind me of New Orleans --always a plus -- only it's smaller and, well, cleaner. Also, it's not devastated by a hurricane and left to rot in the sun by the U.S. government. (Savannah is much whiter than New Orleans, so I'm sure that helps.)

This is a non-business trip - the first on this blog. Niels and I went to Savannah to celebrate the holidays early since we won't be together at Christmas. Also, it was that crucial "first trip as a couple." It was a total success - champagne, gifts, incredible meals, walking, sites, drinking local beer, the best corned beef sandwich in the history of corned beef sandwiches. We also completely charmed all the other guests on our Haunted Pub Crawl Friday night. They followed us - including the tour guide - to an Irish bar on River Street for post-tour beverages. And, yes, I do believe EVERY bar on River Street is Irish.

Which leads me to ask you a question... what's with all the Irish in Savannah? I've just checked with Wikipedia.org and that was no help. Awful lot of Irish wound up in New Orleans, too. Just curious.

Niels and I arrived in Savannah Thursday night after literally being turned back by a blocked road not 3 miles from his house. I was convinced we were heading toward the Weekend of Doom because I'd had a bad day and I'd had a black cat dart in front of my car right before I got to Niels' house. There were some bumps along the way - a mixup with the hotel reservation, bad traffic, etc.- but it certainly did not turn into the Weekend of Doom. It was, indeed, the Weekend of Awesome (Hangovers).

Friday morning we woke up bright and "early" and walked down to the River Street to enjoy the water and bridge views. We had lunch at Tubby's, Niels sipping on a pre-noon beer and both of us reveling in the fresh seafood - shrimp and an unbelievably good blackened mahi mahi. Yum! After lunch overlooking the river and watching a tanker sail by, we did the touristy shopping thang and stopped in at all the shops on River Street, finally ending with one of the 3,000 old-timey candy stores in Savannah. (Tourism pays.) Loaded down with chocolate-covered pretzels, chocolate-coated s'mores and chocolate-glazed marshmallows, he grabbed some coffee before driving to the beach on Tybee Island.

Tybe Island is where I would like to live... starting now. OK, now. How about now? It's this insane little paradise full of Carribean-inspired beach houses nestled next to old-timey '50s Florida homes and hardy New England Cape Cods. And palmettos, scrub pines and more line the streets. We drove around for an hour just enjoying the incredible homes. We also enjoyed being on the beach in bare feet on Dec. 14. It wasn't warm enough to swim but it was a warm and relaxing day.

Afterwards, we did some more auto-site-seeing and then went to Murphy's Law for dinner. The best corned beef sandwich I've ever had lives there. Truly. Amazing. Succulent - it's actually written like that on the menu... and it's actually true! Then it was on to the Haunted Pub Crawl, which started down the street at Molly MacPherson's.

Strange things were afoot at the start of the tour. Firstly, our tour guide was actually the 8 o'clock guide, but the 9 o'clock guide called out, so 8 o'clock guy doubled back to Molly's with his 8 o'clock crowd -- a very cheery, pub-y crowd. In that group was a woman named Lisa... she grew up in Smithtown, on the north shore of Long Island. She went to law school in New Orleans. She now lives in Atlanta. (Anybody see any parallels to my life???) We had a lot in common.

So, with a half-drunk group in tow, we began the tour. It wasn't very scary. It wasn't scary at all. But it was historically delicious and there is no open-container law in Savannah so we could toddle along from bar to bar with plastic cups and grins displayed.

And many beers were had. And then many shots were had. And then it was morning. And then it was closer to noon. And then Niels and I struggled to leave the hotel. And then it was raining all day. We drove around enjoying the gorgeous neighborhoods of Savannah. Eventually, in the evening we managed to amble over to the City Market for some fresh air.

After returning to the hotel and getting all gussied up, we walked over to the Chart House. It was a busy restaurant, but the atmosphere was cozy and the food was sensational. More shrimp met their maker in the form of my belly that night... it was heaven for me, anyway.

We had plans to make great use of the hot tub in the room that night... but the flail was mighty after that meal and all I could manage was watching some TV before falling asleep. :)

Sunday: It was cold. We packed up, stopping at Parker's Gourmet Market for gas and supplies on the way out of town. We hit traffic. We sat in traffic. We got home.

I love Savannah. Heh.