20th Anniversary Adventure 2016 - Day 4

Forsyth Park

Eating breakfast at our hotel this morning, Chad and I realized that we were the youngest people in the room by at least thirty years. We noticed the same thing on the trolley tour in Florida yesterday. As we ate, we listened to some great conversations. Like this one, between two women who could very well have been passengers on the Mayflower:

“I had a hard time rinsing the hotel soap off my body. It was some sort of gel substance,” shouted one woman.

“Are you sure it wasn’t shampoo? Why don’t you put your glasses on and read the bottle?”

“Well, I don’t know, Pearl.”

Just then, someone’s aluminum cane crashed to the tile floor making a loud noise, but I think only Chad and I heard it.

Everyone was shuffling around confused; I helped one man find the coffee lids while a hotel employee helped another work the waffle machine. We knew we were looking at ourselves in just a few years, and it was sweet. But on the other hand, a lot of them had some sort of chest cold, so we weren't really hungry anymore.

We drove to Wormsloe Historic Site for a tour. Wormsloe was a plantation built in 1739 by one of Georgia’s founders, Noble Jones. The road to the site is over a mile long, lined with 400 of the the most gorgeous Spanish moss-covered oak trees you can imagine. Visitors can’t go to the actual plantation because it’s the private residence for Jones’ descendants. But we walked through trails, explored a marsh, and saw the ruins of Noble Jones’ house.

Wormsloe Historic Site

Tabby Ruins
(Tabby is a cement-like mixture of
 sand, oyster shells, lime, and water) 

While Chad and I stopped to take pictures of a lizard we found on a stump, a woman walked passed and commented on the lizard. Somehow, we ended up talking with her and her husband for 20 minutes. We exchanged phone numbers, and agreed to meet for coffee when they come to Washington State next year. Lyle and Camellia live in Raleigh, North Carolina, and they were in Savannah on their honeymoon. Those two were the epitomy of Southern hospitality, and we were lucky to meet them.

Camellia and Lyle

Lyle and Camellia told us about a restaurant in Savannah called The Pirates’ House, so we obeyed them and drove there for lunch; it was our first stop in Savannah’s Historic District. The Pirates’ House opened in 1753 as an inn, but soon became a popular place for pirates and sailors. Chad and I ate lunch and then took a quick tour given by a nice young pirate. We toured The Herb House, Georgia’s oldest standing structure (erected in 1734) that is now part of the restaurant, then we tipped our pirate and left.

We bought tickets for another Old Town Trolley Tour, the same company who did our tour in St. Augustine yesterday. This tour had 15 stops and we spent 6 hours exploring Historic Savannah. The city has 22 squares, which are charming little parks containing gorgeous plants and trees, monuments, statues, or fountains. The first square we stopped at was Chippewa Square. Next to the Civil War, the square holds some of Savannah’s most significant history. It’s where Forrest Gump sat on a bench and declared, “My momma always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

We also saw the most amazing architecture, we learned more history than our brains could hold, and we visited the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was built in the 1870s and reminded us of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City because our experience at both churches was the same. Today, I decided to light a candle. I’m not Catholic, but I like to play with fire. I saw a box asking for a dollar for every candle lit. I frantically searched my wallet, but I didn’t have a dollar bill and didn’t want to pour a bunch of pennies and nickels into the loud metal box, so I panicked and blew out the candle because I didn’t want to steal from God, and I was afraid that the Saint of Illegal Candle Lightening would curse me. Also, I stuck my hand in the holy water and wiped it on my pants. I shouldn’t be allowed in Catholic churches. As we left the cathedral, Chad confirmed this notion by sliding down the brass hand rails multiple times while a group of fancy people conducted a wedding rehearsal.

Does this make me Catholic?

Each hop-on, hop-off trolley tour guide is different, like Forrest’s momma said, “You never know what your gonna get.” Some of our tour guides were funny, and it was obvious they loved their job and loved people. One lady had a voice that was so painful to listen to we got off on the first stop. Chad and I thought maybe she was doing it as a joke. Like maybe one of her friends dared here to talk like that and see what people would do. One guide said “But” before every single sentence. “But now we’re passing by the house that was used in the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. But if you look to your left… But it’s interesting to note… But next up…” Those were the trolleys that we couln’t hop off fast enough.

We looked at a map and chose a Hilton near the Savannah Riverfront. We checked in, and rested a bit before walking to the Bohemian Hotel on Bay Street. The hotel has a rooftop lounge called Rocks on the Roof, and we ordered drinks and tapas and sat in a hard-to-find quiet corner of the roof. It took us 18 seconds to realize everyone around us was in their mid-20s Or they were 50 pretending to be 20. They were (mostly) young, hip, and loud. We enjoyed our food, texted our kids, and looked at the city 9 stories below. Horse-drawn carriages and bike taxis called “pedicabs” were hauling tourists all over town. Chad asked me, “Do you want to ride in a carriage of embarrassment after this?” But I was good. At 9:00, right when countles cool kids started packing the rooftop and the live band started playing, we left. We walked along the riverfront and stopped for ice cream at River Street Sweets. Live bands played from open-door bars, but the people wandering the streets with their booze-filled plastic cups made me want to go somewhere quiet. Like back to our breakfast this morning with the cast of Cocoon.

The Bohemian Hotel

We crossed the cobblestone street and walked along the quiet river side, looked at a World War II memorial, and then went back to the hotel. We rode the elevator with an older gentleman who must’ve been in his 50s. He asked us, “Are you guys turning in for the night?”

“Yep,” we said and laughed.

“I’m going to a show at Club One. It’s starts at 10:30,” he said. We laughed again and told the young whippersnapper to have fun. 10:30 was way past our bedtime.

Georgia, Georgia

The whole day through

Just an old sweet song

Keeps Georgia on my mind.

    -Ray Charles

-Rachel