We arrived shortly after 9pm to the Sage House in Savannah. My friend, Niki, bought this cool, early-1900's house recently. It is close to the historic downtown and is a great house. She rents it out on Air Bnb (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/23589546?guests=1&adults=1), but fortunately for us no one was renting it at the moment, so we got to stay there with her. We chatted until midnight, when we
finally headed to bed.
In the morning we visited one of Savannah's famous squares and wandered around downtown. I am glad Niki drove because the one-way streets are super confusing. Besides, I wanted to pay attention to the historic homes and buildings. Savannah really is a beautiful city!
From downtown we headed to Skidaway Island State Park, where Niki is also acting as a camp host. The boys and I played around at the outdoor workout area while Niki did her camp chores. We had lunch and took a bike ride around the park. We saw an old still from when moonshine was produced on the island, embankments made during the Civil War, and lots of beautiful trees. On the way back to Savannah we stopped at a farmer's market at Bethesda Academy, a boys' school and former orphanage. We got delicious-looking greens and hot peppers, all grown on site by the students. We also visited with the amazingly adorable goats.
The next morning we got up and headed to the Bonaventure Cemetery. This cemetery was made famous when it appeared on the cover of the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The self-guided tour was semi-successful. The graveyard was super interesting and really large. I think we missed some of the older and more notable graves, but still managed to see lots and enjoy ourselves. If I go back I would like to time my visit with one of the free tours offered by Bonaventure Cemetery Historical Society.
From the Cemetery we went out to Tybee Island. It was quite cold and windy, so we made just a quick trip to the pier and beach. Next, we headed to the Tybee Island Lighthouse. We didn't pay to climb the lighthouse or visit the historic buildings because we were hungry and ready to head back to Niki's for food. After lunch, we went out to the Savannah Botanical Gardens. It is free to visit and we were pretty much the only people there. The historical farmhouse wasn't open, but we enjoyed strolling through the gardens. They have so many roses! We wandered down a nature/archaeological path and came across lots of broken glass and identifiable bits of old bottles. We wandered further and found intact bottles in a random display case along the path. They were quite awesome. That evening I attended a Mala Meditation Workshop at Wax and Wane. Niki was leading it, and the Wax Wane (a waxing studio, but really much more) was a really neat place to visit and had beautiful handcrafted things of all kinds for sale.
On our final morning in Savannah we went to the Forsyth Park Farmer's Market. There were actually farmer's there selling produce! We ended up buying pecans coated in sugar and fresh bread. It was all so delicious. We wandered through the park and downtown area. We saw the house Gen. Sherman stayed in during his occupation of Savannah. An independent bookstore housed in a historic building, E. Shaver Booksellers, was quirky and fun to visit. We popped into the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was a beautiful church. We also wandered around the Savannah College of Art and Design store, ShopSCAD Savannah. We eventually made it down to the historic waterfront and the site where the slave ships unloaded, but due to a miscommunication we didn't get to actually see the area. Another time!
Back at Niki's we successfully jumped our car, which apparently had a light left on inside, and drove to Gainesville for dinner with my sister. After dinner we made it home. Exhausted and not ready for winter break to end!
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