Savannah Trip Report
Devorah and I spent this week in Savannah Georgia. Our first time. For the past few years, we've taken a trip mid winter to someplace warmer. Not necessarily warm but warmer.
Last year was Charleston SC, this year Savannah.
The weather was perfect, at least for me. Mid 50s in the mornings so I could run in shorts and short sleeves in the morning and in the 70s by late afternoon.
We stayed on River street - right by, well, the Savannah river. That made running easy in the mornings. Each day I was up at around 6:00 out and off. The out and back by the river was a little shorter than my usual vacation run which was a bit annoying but still, it was mostly off street. Much better than other vacations when I had to just run in sidewalks and streets and watch for traffic at each intersection. Thursday morning was particularly foggy which also is kindof fun to run in.
Staying right by the river though did have one disadvantage. We were, staying in the cellar. Other than River Street, the rest of downtown is one flight up.
One interesting note was that the town is really empty. Busy season doesn't start until March or a little later but I was surprised. We read so many reports about how crazy lines were for places like Leopold's Ice Cream but there were no lines for anything. Well, one place - we couldn't get a reservation for the Old Pink House but that's fine, it's probably a bit touristy and we had lots of great food elsewhere.
Okay - here's what we did.
Houses of worship
Visited some really interesting houses of worship. First up was Temple Mikve Israel. America's third oldest Jewish congregation. The only older ones are Sheerith Israel in New York and another congregation in Rhode Island. All three predate the USA. Mikve Israel, like Sheerith Israel was founded by Portuguese Jews who landed in Savannah just months after Ogelthorpe founded the colony.
It's a reform congregation, having split with the orthodox faction years ago and the current building was built with that in mind. It's also buit in the gothic style which is somewhat unusual for a Jewish house of whorship.
Lots of interesting history including a Torah scroll from the 1400s.
We also visited the Cathedral Basilica of John the Baptist.
I didn't get a picture but it had an amazing pipe organ.
Having hit Jewish and Roman Catholic, our third house of worship we visited the First African Baptist Church. Great tour.
We learned about the church - its formation and development, largely by enslaved people, it being a stop on the underground railroad and more. Fascinating.
History
For the history part of our trip we hit the Massie Heritage Center - the first public school in the American South;
They had the history of the school and education, including information on the self educating efforts of the enslaved population along with the expectred artifacts. There were also other interesting exhibits in the school.
THe Owens-Thomas house and slave quarters was another must see. A house museum tour you get the usual info on the well to do homeowners and the history of the house but we also got to see the slave quarters and there was an emphasis on the slave experience. Highly recommended.
We also visited the Savannah History Museum which had some general Savannah history along with an exhibit on Jazz and one on Juliette Gordon Low - founder of the Girl Scouts and Savannah resident.
Right outside the history museum was the site of the Battle of Savannah from the American Revolution:
Art
We also got out art fix at the Telfair museums. Two art museums right next to each other. One, the Jepson center, had an exhibit on Venice and the Ottoman Empire as well as a terrific sculpture exhibit and an electronic media ehibit as well.
The other, housed in the Telfair mansion was a more traditional art museum but you also got to see the mansion itself.
These two art museums and the Owens-Thomas house were all on the same ticket. $30 and you had one week to visit all three.
Wel also visited the SCAD Museum of Art but only a couple of exhibits were open.
Bookstores
We also visited three independant bookstors - something we like to do while travelling. All three were terrific. The Book Lady was filled with both used and new books while the E Shaver bookstore all new. Both were great but I liked the feel of E Shave because it was a Frankenbuilding. If you've been to Powels in Portland you know what i Mean although E Shaver is MUCH smaller.
Third, Books on Bay was also a gem - a used book store but they had tons of old series and old kids series specifically. The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Doc Savage, Tom Swift and more.
Devorah bought a "Sue Barton" book that she remembered from her childhood and I bought a couple of Agatha Christies.
Food
Food was also great. Lots of great meals but the standouts for me were B. Matthews Eatery, a farm to table place just a couple of blocks from our hotel and Carly's Cafe for diner type food. We also had solid chinese at E-Tang's.
Of course we went to Leopold's Ice Cream multiple times. We were told that Leopold's is rated as a top 10 ice cream place in the world by whoever rates ice cream places. I don't know if that's true - we've had lots of great ice cream in lots of places but it was really good. We noticed that the labels on the ice creams were changed tonight. Each was now named after a book since Savannah's having a book festival this weekend. As it turned out, the ice cream I got was named after the book Devorah just read and what she got was named after a book I just bought at E Shaver's.
Misc
We also spent a lot of time walking around - really beautiful city.
So, that was our Savannah trip. Flying home tomorrow morning.
Don't know if we'll get back here or not but if you get a chance, come down in early February, you'll have a great time like we did.