Miles Driven: 112
States: Georgia · South Carolina
Life is Like a Box of Chocolate, You Never Know What You’re Going to Get
Waking up in Georgia for Day 2 of our adventure, we were greeted by blue skies and no rain, which can be hard to come by in the south during the summer months. We set out to stroll through the Savannah Historic District. It’s the largest district of its kind. It was declared a National Historic Landmark District in the 60’s with its eighteenth and nineteenth-century architecture.
The city of Savannah is filled with history, founded in 1733 as the Georgia Colony by James Oglethorpe. Originally laid around four open squares and by 1851 there were 24 squares. Three squares were demolished, now known as the “lost squares”. In 2010, one of the lost squares, Ellis was reclaimed. Each square is named in honor or memory of a person or historical event.
Without a direction or plan, we stumbled upon ten of the squares and made our way to Forsyth Park. We got artsy exploring the Telfair Art Museum and Jepson Center for the Arts at Telfair Square. St. John Cathedral at Lafayette Square and Mickve Israel Temple at Monterey Square provided religious diversity while we found more of Savannah’s history at Owen-Thomas House at Oglethorpe Square. A trip to Savannah isn’t complete without a visit to Debi’s Laurie’s Restaurant where Forrest Gump was filmed at Wright Square. Just 8 miles later, we arrived back at our hotel to set off for South Carolina!
Ain’t Nothing Sweeter Than a Georgia Peach
If you only do one thing in Georgia, I strongly urge you to stop at a farmer’s market, or a roadside stand like we did, for a Georgia Peach! As we were heading out of Savannah on I-95, I saw a sign for Fresh Peaches. I made a quick U-turn and we bought a basket of peaches from two sweet southern ladies at a roadside stand.
Southern Hospitality
The pineapple is a sign of hospitality across the South (and the Caribbean). It symbolized extravagance and wealth because fresh pineapples were so hard to come by. Now it serves as a sign that all are welcome.
Charleston welcomed us with the largest piña I’ve ever seen! Okay, so it was a fountain, not a real one, but still, it was pretty impressive.
Arriving in the Battery district, cobblestone streets, pastel colonial houses, and salt marshes are exactly what I expected from one of the oldest cities in the United States.
As we sat on an old-fashioned park bench in Riley Waterfront Park, overlooking where the Ashely River and Cooper River meet to form the Atlantic Ocean, the Vendue Plaza fountain to our left, and the famous Pineapple fountain to our right, we indulged in our sweet Georgia peaches and watched children play in the fountain.
As the South graced us with one more rainstorm for my aunt to remember, we head back to our hotel room, but not before picking up a bottle of Apothic for the evening.
What’s your favorite Southern city?
Just great pictures. You descibed the peaches so well I can almost taste them!