End of tour

Day 32

A flight from Spokane to Chicago and then 3467 miles, 16 states and 2 provinces later we are at the end of our trip.  Today we continued on our walking tours of Savannah.  We made our way to Forsyth Park, a beautiful 20 acre park with a stage for performances and events, a beautiful fountain and other memorials.  The

Forsyth Fountain erected in 1858 is the most photographed site in Savannah. Beyond the fountain a bit is the Confederate Monument.  It was erected in 1874 in honor of the Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War.  It was made in Canada, and transported to Savannah by ship so it would never touch Yankee soil.  We went to Clarys to have a cuppa and discovered they had old fashioned malts.  We went back later to get ours.  Evelyn is reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil where the Clary Cafe was described as a local hangout.  We went to St.John the Baptist Catholic Church in Charleston and discovered St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Savannah as well and the two buildings are nearly identical gothic structures.  Both large and beautiful.  Today I found my BBQ.  We had asked around and discovered that the best was Angels, a hole in the wall on an out of the way side street.  Angels we discovered has only three tables.  I called around 1:00 and asked how late they were open and learned they would close when they ran out of food, which could be fairly soon since they had a very busy lunch  hour.  We had Angel's Special and loved every bite.  There are quite a few bicycles in Savannah.  Most were single speed with fenders, a chain guard and fat white sidewall tires.  We are now ready to sleep our last night on the trip, catch our plane at 6 in the morning, get to Spokane by 12:30 and on to Ed and Lynn's pig roast.

Forsyth Fountain

Confederate Memorial

St. John

Malts at Clarys

Angels BBQ

Walking Around Savannah

Day 31

When we first arrived in Savannah we went to the visitor's center.  I was wandering through the gift shop and stumbled on a brief publication called "The Savannah Walking Tour Guidebook:  4 Unique Walking Tours."  For each of the tours the guide book directs you to a number of historical buildings, sites and squares.  We did the first one yesterday with Lesley-a tour of 23 sites.  Today we walked the second one-a tour of 35 sites.  We ended at the Pink House-built in 1789 and was the residence of James Habersham Jr.  It is now a restaurant with about 450 seats and two taverns.  We had wine, she crab soup and fried green tomatoes.  (I have found all of my southern foods except BBQ which I will get tomorrow).  The basement tavern is lit only by candle light and is very cool and opens at 5.  We were there earlier and ate at the ground level tavern.  Talking with the wait staff we discovered that they had over 400 reservations for the night. Some of the buildings on the tour included Luthern Church of the Ascension, originally built in 1756 of wood and then rebuilt between 1875 and 1879 as the gothic structure you now see.  Another beautiful structure is the Independent Presbyterian Church, built in 1889-90.  Savannah has an open container law so as we walked the tour on a warm afternoon we were able to sip from the pint of Sweetwater Ale (Atlanta).  The oak trees here are old and massive with the Spanish moss hanging from their limbs.  On some streets they form a canopy over the entire street.  Lesley took us out to Tybee Island--east of Savannah-this morning so we could see the lighthouse and spend a brief time at the beach.  We were able to climb 178 steps inside the lighthouse and at the top get a panoramic view of the area.  The first lighthouse was built in 1736 and then was rebuild 3 times as the result of storms.  The current version was built shortly after the civil war.  It played its part and is now a historical site.

Evelyn and Oak

Oak Canopy

Lighthouse View

Tybee Lighthouse

Luthern Church

South to Savannah

Day 30:
For breakfast, we walked to a French Bristo that I had visited with Lesley and Louise the last time I was in Charleston. We both had French Press coffee, sparkling water and I had a crossiant and Al had a dish with cold ham, swiss cheese, baguette, and fruit. We took along a sandwich from there for our lunch.
We left Charleston after 9 and arrived in Savannah around 11:30. We met Lesley at the visitor center and the three of us went on an interesting tour of Black Heritage in Savannah. Our tour guide, Johnny, was quite knowledgable about slave history as well as Savannah history of the Civil Rights movement. We visited a church built by the people that was likely a stop on the Underground Railroad. Martin Luther King, Shirley Chisholm, and many other notiable individuals spoke from this pulpit.  We also visited a cemetery segregated by color.
After Johnny dropped us back at the Visitor's Center, Al and I checked into our B&B which is located in historic Savannah. The historic city is organized around a series of squares and our B&B is located on one of these squares. Lesley met us and we headed out for a walk to the river and a brew. We debated about dinner and found a place that serves organic soul food. We headed out to find Cafe Florie and found authentic food in a restaurant run by African Americans. What an experience. Al had fried chicken which they prepared on the spot. I had meatloaf and I also had collard greens. We greatly enjoyed the experience.

Jonnie our guide

Pulpit of first black church in Savannah

Cafe Florie

Charleston

Day 29:
Lesley stayed with us last night and this morning the three of us headed to Hominy Grill, a restaurant that Lesley and I visited (along with her friend Louise) the last time we were in Charleston. We walked there from our lodging and had a southern breakfast that included grits and biscuits and gravy. Lesley left to head to Savannah and we will meet her there on Wednesday.
Al and I took a tour of Charleston. It is a beautiful city with lots of history and interesting architecture, and is noted for its shot gun homes. These homes are long and narrow, two stories and a porch on each story facing the prevailing wind for cooling. We had a 2:00 reservation at Husk(the chef and its sister restaurant, McCradys, were written up in the New Yorker a few months ago) a famous restaurant noted for using grains and vegetables common over a hundred years ago from their own farm and sourcing other products in the south. We had wonderful yeast rolls, cornmeal crusted okra with a sauce and shrimp and grits. We also had a side of succotash that had lots of sausage in it. We each drank 3 glasses of sweet tea!
We then walked and walked, enjoying the architecture. We ended the day with an ice cream. Tomorrow, we will move on to our final destination...Savannah.

Typical Shotgun House

Husk Restaurant

Succotash at Husk

On to Charleston

Day 28

We visited Brookgreen Gardens on our way to Charleston.  OMG what a beautiful place.  This National Historic Landmark is the home of several hundred bronze sculptures set in beautifully designed and manicured gardens.  The site was once 4 rice plantations producing during the 1700's and 1800's (before the civil war) that used several 1000 slaves to develop and manage the rice fields.  The Gardens were created by Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington in 1931 and have been continually developed since then. The works of many well know sculptors are on display here.  A couple of outstanding examples are the goddess diana (three different poses all in bronze) and a hugh granite sculpture of Pegasus. Many of the oak trees on the grounds were over 200 years old.  From there we went to Huntington State Park just across the highway--a beautiful park with an outstanding beach at least 2 miles long.  We waded in the Atlantic which wasn't so bad and much warmer than the Pacific. We found our B&B, settled in and waited for Lesley to arrive.  Shortly after her arrival we went to the highly acclaimed restaurant Fig and enjoyed an outstanding dining experienced that lasted almost three hours.  We had a flounder dish and Lesley had suckling pig as well as appetizers and dessert. 

Diana

Pegasus

Oak with moss

southern belle

Moving further South

Day 27

Time to reflect on our driving from place to place.  We have driven over 3000 miles since leaving Chicago and have less than 200 to go.  I have noticed for the most part that on the east coast the lanes on the highways and freeways are narrower than those we are accustomed to in the west.  Driving with a truck on one side and an suv on the other it seems that there are only inches to spare.  Travel on the highways has been enjoyable.  Often they are tree lined and sometimes form a canopy over the road.  Wildlife signs are very misleading.  Through much of Maine there were signs warning of moose; however, we never saw one on the road or anywhere within sight of the road.  In North Carolina there were signs warning of red fox and bear but with the same effect--none were sighted.  The only wildlife I saw (outside of the streets in the big cities) was various species of roadkill.  I will say one thing for the highway engineers in the mid-atlantic and south--they are ambitious.  If they decide to build a bridge it must be at least one mile long and usually several miles long.  The Chesapeake Bay bridge and tunnels accounted for at least 10 miles.  The number and length of the bridges around the outer banks and inland NC were all very long.  I was surprised at how far inland the swamps went in North Carolina.  I believe we were 30 miles inland and still encountering swamps.  We went to Holden Beach in NC where Lesley spent many of her summers in the family beach house. And speaking of the devil, we will meet with her tomorrow.  We have seen a lot of corn and soybeans along the way.  Today we saw hundreds of acres of cotton.  We are in Shallotte tonight and we just finished eating some delightful hushpuppies and a blacken filet of flounder.  Alas, we did fail, however, in finding a brewpub.Tomorrow, on to Charleston.

Cape Hatteras

Day 26:
We had a leisurely morning. We went to a farmer's market in Manteo and I purchased a piece of beautiful pottery for a souvenier. We also purchased a variety of vegetables to cook for dinner as we are craving fresh veggies.
After taking the veggies back to our room, we headed to Fort Raleigh, the site of the first settlement from England on this continent. The history was quite interesting. The settlement disappeared and no researchers have been able to determine exactly what happened. The settlement was on Roanoake Island which is where we are staying.
Then, we headed south toward the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. When we finally got there, we found an amazing lighthouse, the highest brick lighthouse in the U.S. On the way  back north, we stopped at Pea Island Wildlife Refuge and took a nature walk. We saw many birds on the walk, plus some turtles.
We also stopped at Bodie Island Lighthouse which is being repaired.
We got back to our lodging where a wedding is taking place. We cooked our supper and are now settling in for the evening. Tomorrow, we head south for the last few adventures of our trip.  Ev and Al

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Pea Island Wildlife Refuge

Bodie Island Lighthouse