On day two, we left Tybee Island and headed into Savannah. We had been recommended a walking tour by some friends so we started our day with a little history and a lot of humor. His name is Savannah Dan and we highly recommend him. He was full of lots of information about the history of the South and Savannah and he came complete with fedora hat, bow tie and seersucker suit.
Savannah is built around a series of squares. Lots of monuments and lots of live oak trees. It has the largest historic district in the country, 2.5 miles square.
This is the square where they filmed the Savannah parts of the movie Forrest Gump. His bus bench was placed right where that sign is. They also built a platform and covered the white wall with ivy for the film. During filming, they closed off all roads to the square and ever had to change the direction of traffic.
Beautiful lemony magnolias!
This cemetery was really interesting. We learned that the Union Army soldiers camped here during the Civil War. To make room for their tents they removed headstones, thousands of them. After the war, there was no way to know where they went so the city lined them up against the back wall. Sad.
Here we are with Dan. Henry was pretty good on the walk owing to my preparation with lots of snacks.
After the tour we went to Leopold's (a Savannah Dan recommendation) for BLT's and lemon custard ice cream.
After lunch we went to River Street which was cobble stoned and right along the river. It was getting hot at this time so we cut it short. The street is lined with lots of shops and restaurants but we didn't go in any of them. It wasn't too stroller friendly.
Downtown offers a lot of free transportation. We took a ride on this ferry out into the river to see the city from the water. Henry really liked it, calling it a "Pirate Ship." The boat is named after a slave who worked herself free at the age of 14. She later aided as a nurse and teacher to the Union troops and also started Savannah's first school for African-American children.
After being downtown in the heat all morning, we headed to our hotel to rest and refresh. We stayed at a hotel about 15 minutes outside of the downtown area and it saved us a lot of money. Rested, we headed out again to check out the Bonaventure Cemetery, a huge old cemetery with lots of great old trees and Spanish moss. Henry fell asleep in the car so we didn't do a lot of walking around.
After the cemetery, we drove back downtown to see the mansions and antebellum homes around Forsyth Park. Henry was still asleep or I would have insisted on walking around. We stopped for dinner at Wiley's BBQ-another Savannah Dan recommendation-and it was good BBQ with sweet and tangy sauce and melt in your mouth pork. Yum.
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