Pralines, Moss that is actually from Pineapples, and the Beach.
Since our vacations were canceled, at least for the first part of 2020, due to Covid-19, we decided to take a road trip.
We decided to head down to #Savannah, GA. From Pittsburgh, it is about an 11-hour drive.
On our way down, we stopped for a night in Cary, NC, just outside of Raleigh. Our friends had moved about 3 weeks prior, and it was a nice way to break up the drive. Their house was a new build and beautiful, we actually didn’t leave their house once we got there since bars and restaurants were closed from Covid-19. We had a great night with shrimp tacos and too much tequila.
We woke up the morning and continued our drive to Savannah. We ended up taking some back roads and didn’t follow the main route. The drive wasn’t too bad, but the Carolina’s weren’t as scenic as driving through W. Virginia and Virginia in the mountains.
Speaking of scenic, we stopped at the New River Gorge Bridge for a quick rest stop. The restrooms were closed due to, yep, you got it, Covid-19), (this is why you bring your own TP on a drive). But we were able to go to the outlook spots and get some cool pictures. Note, that on our way home from our trip, the rest stops we pulled over to were open.
We started coming onto the Talmadge Memorial Bridge (aka Savannah Bridge), as we crossed over the bridge we noticed all of the shipping cranes to our right, and a dolphin, then you could make our River Street on your left.
We stayed at The Alida Hotel, just one street behind River street. We looked into Air B&B’s but prices had soared, so my husband was kind enough to use his hotel points on me for the stay. We arrived, greeted with some champagne, and headed to the pool. The pool was packed, there were groups of families (with and without kids), groups of friends, and couples. The pool area was nice, had some music going and the bar was open. We hung out in the water of the beach entry pool, chatted with some people, and grabbed a few more drinks (yes, they had frosé) all in the 114 Heat Index.
After our time at the pool, we got ready and headed out for dinner. There was no rain for our entire trip, with the exception of about 15min at this time. We were told this rain was just due to how hot it was. Getting stuck in it felt so good, we didn’t mind it at all.
We attempted to go to The Olde Pink House but were told about an hour wait. So, we hopped in an Uber and made our way to Cotton & Rye. We were able to get in and sat at the bar. We were really hungry so we ordered the wings, (highly recommended, as they were breaded) we soon came to find out that Savanna likes their carbs. After dinner, we were planning to go grab a drink at Artillery but found out it was closed. We decided to take a stroll back to our hotel. We made our way through some of the squares, hit Bull St the entire way, and walked through Forsyth Park. There were a lot of people out in the parks, on ghost walking tours, taking their dogs for a walk, and even playing Frisbee. We were able to admire all of the Houses (Mercer, Sorrel- Weed, Davenport) at night with all of the uplighting and flame lanterns.
By the time we hit Bay street our feet were exhausted. REMINDER, to take good walking shoes! And mind the stairs. Yes, the signs really mean watch your step, they are historic. They really are the stone stairs of death.
The next morning, I got up for a run down on River Street, and through all of the squares, it was nice to see everything in the daylight for a different view. I did run into more than a few homeless people on benches waking up as well.
Once I got back, we headed out to Wormsloe. Less than 20 min. drive from our hotel. I had read to get there right when it opens to avoid crowds and get the best pictures. We got there about 15 minutes after it opened and were able to get the beautiful pictures of the entrances and were able to get the incredible fairytale view of the oak and Spanish moss.
We paid the $10 per person to drive down and be able to do the self-guided walk the grounds with our map. (You can’t walk this, a misunderstanding we had prior.) As we started our drive you could tell it would soon be busy with all of the photo ops from engagement, baby, graduation, and Instagram and not busy for the history lesson of Noble Jones from the 1700s. (Of course, I posted my pictures on Instagram.)
We took our time driving and admired the live oaks while reading the short note on how and why the trees were planted (thanks to Jones’ son). Once we got to the end of the road, we parked our car and made our way by food around the grounds. We were able to see the tabby ruins, (oldest standing structure in Savannah), the cemetery (interesting story), the ‘help’s’ house, where Savannah’s main water flow used to be (agriculture was different back then). IT was fascinating and gave a look back in time. We recommend to go, don’t worry, you will get the same results if you type Wormsloe or Wormslow, and you will gain understanding of the pineapple family.
On our short drive there, we noticed Auspicious Baking Company, so we stopped for a few pastries after our tour and they were delicious.
We parked our car in the city and made a short walk to Clary’s café on Abercorn St. for a late breakfast (world-famous and est. in 1903). We had some southern breakfast outside and took the time to walk around Historic Savannah again. After this we took our car back to our hotel and made our way to River St. We stopped at Books on Bay, and a few other stores, and grabbed a frozen drink at Wet Willie’s. Since it is open container in Savannah, we continued our walk again through the streets and squares. It started to get so hot, we decided to go to our hotel pool for a little. Since it was Sunday, it was quiet at the pool, only a few couples lounging.
For dinner, we headed out of the city to a local spot called The Wyld. We took an uber since we wanted to enjoy a few drinks. We arrived, and it was a local spot (someone was even meeting a blind date!). The place was casual, small menu, and outdoors. You were able to see everyone coming in with the boars, jet skis, or paddleboards. The staff was great, but the painkiller frozen drinks were even better. We went back to our hotel to the rooftop bar, since we were told The Lost Square had the best sunset in town. We had a few (more than a few) cocktails and enjoyed the views of the sun setting, and the shipping headed out to sea boats (look up the images from the search results of Evergreen Ships).
Our last day we headed to Tybee Island. Less than a 30 min drive from our hotel. We parked at Tim’s Bike and Beach Gear and rented bikes. Since the island is so small, we were told this would be best to rent a bike instead of drive. We took backpacks with towels, lotions, and waters to make it easy to bike, but there were bikes offered to us with baskets. We paid $15 per bike and made our way on the bike trail through the Island. We stopped at the North entrance to the beach, by the lighthouse and Battery Brumby, and made our way to Java & Juice for iced coffee and a breakfast sandwich. From there we entered the beach from 12th street. This spot was not as crowded as the N. entrance since you could not drive your car up to this entrance. You could tell most people walked there from their house. We hung out on the beach all day. Since we had to return the bikes by 4 pm, we headed out around 3 to grab a quick drink and snack at Sting Ray’s Seafood. We got the steamed shrimp and highly recommend it.
Once we got back in the city and got ready, we walked to Alley Cat Lounge. The cocktail bar is a basement bar serving hundreds of cocktails. It really gives you the feeling of old Savannah. You are handed a newspaper-like cocktail menu that you could look at for hours. Luckily, the bartender was helpful in deciding and the menu provided options for drinks based on your palate.
After a few drinks, we went to our dinner reservation at 17Hundred90. We enjoyed our service and dinner at this haunted inn and restaurant (we recommend this as well!). On our walk from dinner, my earing kept falling out. I ended up not being able to find it after the 3rd time, we are pretty sure Anna, one of the 3 ghosts from the inn had something to do with it.
We had a great time in Savannah. We wish we could have stayed longer and went to other recommend bars/ restaurants like Mata Hari, Fox and Fix, The Collins Quarter, Maple Street, and Perch, and got to see a cemetery (Bonaventure). But we always have next time. For some of the great views of Wormsloe, and pictures of the house take a look at the video I made, and don’t forget to read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt to really get a feeling of the city.
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