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