Unbelievably, the trip report for Savannah begins in Nashville, TN. We live in South KY and my wife was attending a conference in Nashville and we left from there. Being so close top Nashville, we usually go there for the day and usually never have a reason for a hotel. The conference was at the new Marriott on West End. I was very impressed with the facility.

On to Savannah?.
Stayed at the Mulberry Inn on the corner of Bay and Houston. Very nice?used to be a cotton warehouse, then became Savannah?s Coke Bottling facility until it became the hotel.

Walked River Street and the Factor?s Walk above on Bay several times. Very beautiful except for the Hyatt monstrosity that has destroyed the historic character of one of the blocks. City Market is a neat place as is most of the downtown area

Took a Gray Line Tour to get familiar with the layout and feel of the town. If you take a tour like this, DON?T use Gray Line in Savannah. Trolleys are supposed to be by every 20 minutes?we wasted 50 minutes waiting until we decided to walk on.

Went out to Tybee Island for an afternoon and enjoyed it. Toured Ft. Pulaski (another National Park stamp). Found a very isolated part of the beach toward the southern part of the island. Witnessed a near-drowning.

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Toured two homes ? Davenport House (the first house that was saved from being razed and began the revitalization)?and the Owens-Thomas House (a home that has been preserved through two families). We thought the Owens-Thomas was better because it has been ?preserved? and has many of the original furnishings as well as the original look. The Davenport house was, thankfully, saved from being destroyed, but is not that original through no fault of it?s own. Both houses were beautiful and very nice and both should be done on a trip.

When we decided we were going, I read ?Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil??.(read the book, the movie leaves out a lot of the Savannah character)?That made me see and do things we would have done otherwise. We looked at Mercer House, visited ?The Book? store, and drove out to Boneventure Cemetery. The Cemetery should be a stop even if you?ve never read ?The Book??Very beautiful.

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Eating
Fiddlers Crab House ? Had some REALLY good Oysters on Half-Shell?Good crab and shrimp as well. Ate on the balcony above River Street

Dockside Restaurant ? Stopped for dessert ? Fried Strawberries?better than you think.

Vinnie Van Gogos in City Market?.absolutely wonderful pizza?had the pesto with mushroom

Crab Shack on the way to Tybee Island ? Lives up (or down?) to it?s name?but very good. Also very touristy, but who cares when the food is good?

Huey?s on River Street for Brunch ? Good Eggs Benedict?horrible service

Six Pence Pub ? Good English food?nice place

Claires ? (mentioned in ?the book?) Good solid diner breakfast with some other more interesting items, too

Mrs Wilkes ? Should be a stop on every trip to Savannah. Be sure to bring cash?no credit cards?also come hungry.


Seems I'm forgetting something about this trip...I'll post if (and when) it comes to me.

Post if you have questions

Sorry for all the ????? marks. I typed this in Word and pasted it in. The ??? are supposed to be either "quote marks" or -hyphens-.

BigRed, I knew you'd have fun. The Owens-Thomas house is one of our favorite house museums, too. Isn't Savannah a great place!

Did you opt to skip all the restaurants downtown on Congress Street? Bad reports or better elsewhere? Just curious - I'm headed that way soon, and looking for new places to dine. Glad you enjoyed Sav. one of my favorite towns, even though it must be scorchingly hot right now and humid. Any reaction to Hyatt Hotel if you passed it on Bay Street? They would charge me well over $200 a night - can I do a little better elsewhere? Thank you.

itlyen, you'd do much better at either of these two places, which are nearby the Hyatt, but are charming and historic, unlike the Hyatt: River Street Inn (www.riverstreetinn.com) or Olde Harbour Inn (www.oldeharbourinn.com). The latter is in a quieter location on Factors Walk than the former. And Mulberry Inn, where BigRed stayed, is also is a very good choice.

Great ideas, dln - I'll give the two a call today. Many thanks.

Itlyn...

Imagine a beatiful garden that someone dumped a big concrete block in the middle of. That is the Hyatt in Savannah.

I agree...from walking by, both the River Street Inn and the Old Harbour Inn look really nice and charming.

Another choice (and remember, this is just from walking/driving by) is the Hampton. It's fairly centrally located on Bay STreet.

Also..to your question about restaurants on Congress....we had just a few places that we planned on eating...(Vinnie VanGogos, Mrs Wilkes, Crab Shack)...the rest were luck of the draw, what we were hungry for, and what the menu looked like

So BigRed, I take it your Crab Shack experience was OK and food was decent? Someone here recently had a not-so-pleasant experience, so I'm curious. It has been "found" that's for sure...no longer the little local's place it once was!

Bonaventure is wonderful...I'm glad you saw it--as many times as I was there though, I still for some reason needed a map to get to it. It was not easy. Did you find Johnny Mercer's bench (headstone is actually a bench) while you were in there?

Glad too you enjoyed Owens-Thomas house...my favorite. While we were living there the renovation was not yet complete but tours were still being given and it was especially fascinating to see before and after, and what devastation time and humidty wrought! Hopefully everything isn't pristine now. I much preferred this to Green-Meldrim, which is done to perfection, for that very reason.

I got a chuckle out of your description of the Hyatt, which my dH used to run. I have to say, we are in utter agreement about the architecture! LOL Interestingly, that was not the two owners' original design. The first one which was *rejected* by the historical review board, was actually more in keeping with the architecture of the area, yet this one was approved. Go figure. I can't recall now (CRS) their objection to initial plan, but DH I'm sure could fill me in. There is an addition being built which will be just across the alleyway from the primary structure and it'll be interesting to see what that design is!! It too will have to be approved by the Review Board. It all created quite a stir initially, but once in, was the favored spot for all the big local (oxymoron) social functions. My guess is that the Westin may have gotten its foot in the door in a big way since our time. Glad not to have had that competition!!

Sounds as if you enjoyed your visit and I'm especially glad you got to experience Mrs Wilkes! That came so close to closing...

We actually drove across the bridge (just b/c it seemed like something we needed to do) and while we were over there we drove around the Westin complex and also went in through the lobby and checked out the River Street area from the opposite perspective. The Westin looked really nice. I might consider it if we return.

The Crab Shack was good food I had the Low Country Boil and my wife had the Shrimp and Deviled Crab. The crab was on a plastic shell which was a little odd and I got a cup of clam chowder that was a little off...but for the most part it was good. It would have been better had we not sat on "the Gator Deck" and had 5 kids run around our table while the parents watched. If it ever was a local's place, it is not now. Good food, plenty of it.

Yes, we saw both Conrad Aiken's and Johnny Mercer's benches. I thought Aiken's was a little more interesting b/c of "The Book" (Cosmos Mariner - Destination Unknown)

Johnny Mercer's bench sticks out a little. It's more of a white marble and doesn't blend with the rest of the surrounding. It has several of his song titles engraved on it.

Actually there was one room in the Owens-Thomas house that was under renovation. The drawing room (on the right if you walked in the front door) was down to plaster and the ceiling was being worked on. Looks like it will be neat when they finish.

And as for Mrs Wilkes...we originally went for breakfast the morning we left. Apparently, they no longer do breakfast. (I had read that in an older guide book from when she was alive) We postponed out departure and had the 11am sitting of lunch. It was worth the wait and we met her daughter and one of the grandchildren. It was funny that there was a group from Buffalo asking them what almost everything was - (What's a Collard?)

I posted earlier about my plans to go there in August. Someone mentioned that she preferred the beaches at Hilton Head to Tybee Island. What was Tybee like in your opinion? We're going without our kids and would prefer not to be surrounded by loud families. Thanks

Hey BigRed~

Collards look like heads of big dark green lettuce , sort of like cabbage or kale.
I never ate them, but so many people like them!!!
I guess they go well with black eyed peas and pork thingees~

^^Ha Ha...definately LOL about "what is a collard" !!!! Glad you had a good time in our quirky little city

NinaMartin...Tybee would be an OK place for kids...as I mentioned it still is not commercialized..but is becoming that way (whether you think that's a good thing or not, I don't know as for me leave it un-commercialized). As for the beach, there were lots of families there....I would think it would be good for kids. When the tide goes out the water is very shallow in places. We saw people walk out about a mile. The thing I didn't care for was the proximity of fishing and swimming.

Scarlett...I was extremely familiar with everything on the table..esp Collards...I just wisked for some polk and mustard greens too. The folks from Buffalo, NY across the way were not familar with the dishes. Although, theyt cleaned their plates. (Way to go, South)

Blueaguave...sorry we didn't make it to your place of work. I forgot to write down where it was and I try not to access the Internet while I'm on vacation

Collard greens needn't be smothered in fat back or some other unhealthy version of pork fat. Picker fresh and in season, before the weather turns hot, they are quite delicate and suitable for souflets, etc. Stock (e.g., veal) makes a wonderful immersion for all sorts of greens, including collards. Curried versions abound. If I can recall it, in Savannah there is an art museum in the Historic Section, and they produce a wonderful cookbook. I had to have two copies just because it is so "haut" - and you will see collards et al promiently offered in the more delectible recipes. But you must carefully select the greens, and not allow old tough greens to find their wya into your shopping basket.

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