Just before we left for our trip, I gazed at the 5 pairs of cute sandals I had packed and made a last minute decision to throw in my pair of Innov8 athletic shoes and two pairs of socks. The Good Lord moves within me because that was the best thing I packed! (Close second would be the lavender scented biodegradable poop bags we got for the dogs).
So today was packed with activity! Let’s begin.
We woke up to a wonderful breakfast in our B&B (after all, it’s the second B so one could hope for a great one!) It’s been fun to get to know some of the other people who are staying. You are all staying in the same old house together so you might as well get on a first name basis and learn each other’s stories, right?
After breakfast, we took the dogs on their morning walk through Forsyth. Don’t you like how, after only less than 24 hours, this is already their “morning walk through Forsyth?” We may never return to Huntsville.
After half an hour or so of walking around the nearby neighborhood streets, we returned them to their room so we could set off on our “On/Off Trolley Tour”. We chose the company Old Savannah Tours and purchased our tickets through our B&B which came at a ten dollar discount. The cool thing about this tour is that you can either ride it from start to finish, or get off and on at the different stops if you want to explore that particular area. We got on at Stop 4 since it was just a block from our place. We rode it around several stops listening to the guide and enjoying some of the neat “Savannah Characters” that would get on and give a short speech about who they were and their significance.
We rode all the way down to River Street where we hopped off and decided to spend the majority of the rest of the day on foot. Can you guess the first stop we made?
It was really hot this afternoon! So these helped. We then started walking west down River Street, going into the shops and neat little places. We found ourselves in an Art Gallery
Rob is admiring the sloth dressed up as a brewmaster. There are a lot of art shops in Savannah. I wish we had more wall space at home. And money to buy the art. But it was nice to admire it and think about buying it. 🙂
We wandered over to City Market to walk around (lets go walk so we can go walk over there!). By this time, it was around 2pm and we were hoping to grab lunch at this local pizza joint called Vinnie Van Go-Gos, but when we walked up we realized they didn’t open on Mondays until 4pm, we so walked around a little more (really loving my Innov8s by now) before deciding on a second choice.
Making friends with the locals
We chose Molly McPhearson’s Scottish Pub for lunch. I believe this is more of a night life place, because we were basically the only ones eating there at that time, but the place with bright and clean and COLD inside.
They have tons of scotch choices.
Lunch was good!
Luckily, when we finished, there was more walking to be done! We didn’t have the dogs with us, but that didn’t mean we weren’t thinking of them. There are a few dog shops around, and so we went into the one in City Market (I think it’s specifically a bakery?? for dogs) to get them a treat.
Yeah, it was pretty nuts. Still, we indulged.
We made our way back East on River Street to try and catch a Trolley at the stop we got off at in order to finish our route, but we were caught by a short summer rain storm. Luckily, we were able to hide out and wait it out. This was my view from a sidewalk waiting for the rain to pass.
Rob found himself a Cigar Shop and decided to be very James Dean.
The rain past over us a short while later and we were able to finish our Trolley Tour and make our way back to Catherine Ward. If you are thinking of doing a Trolley Tour, there are several companies that offer them. It took about half an hour waiting on our Trolley toward the end and during that time, we saw 2 or 3 for one other company come through. So, if we had chosen differently we may have been shuttled around a little more efficiently but I can’t attest to their tour guides. The ones for Old Savannah Tours were great.
Later in the afternoon, we took the dogs on another walk (because walking is the new black) to the nearby Kroger to pick up some beer. It’s funny to see how people react to dogs. Dogs are very common here, and it’s pretty normal to see them walking with their humans in and out of shops or eateries and certainly common to see them in parks or on the sidewalks. But even still, people go out of their way to come up and pet them. I waited for Rob outside of the Kroger with them and 3 or 4 different people had to come up and just love on them. It made me realize that animals do something for people naturally and without intent that people can’t do for people. And that’s make them smile, and make them interact effortlessly with another person. None of those strangers would have said hi to me, or probably even looked at me. But because of the furry wagging butts on the ends of the leash I was holding, strangers approached me without caution or weirdness, and exchanged happiness with me, and with the animals. I decided then that a really cool job would just be to sit outside of public places with friendly dogs and give people something to smile about.
 Finally enjoying our treats on our porch 🙂
Wouldn’t you know, that after that it was time to eat dinner. Because we were hyped up for pizza earlier but couldn’t make that happen, we wanted to go there for dinner. Once pizza is on the brain you might as well give in and get it. So, we showered and then set out for pizza!
Rob and I were trying to get a good picture before heading out to dinner, so I was tasking him with snapping pictures of us and of course, I didn’t like any of them. After glancing quickly at this picture, I decided it was a throw away and we took another one, but after we got back and I started uploading photos, I kept laughing hysterically at this. So, I decided to post it because my husband makes me laugh every day and I am so blessed by it.
We decided to drive back over to the City Market area (i didn’t want to wear the Innov8s with that dress) and luckily we found some parking a few blocks over and walked the rest. After 5 pm on the week days, all of the street parking spaces are free! The rain storm that came through cooled everything off dramatically and it was seriously the best most comfortable evening. It felt like being at the beach! The wind was breezy and it felt perfect.
Vinnie Van GoGos did not disappoint!! By far the cheapest meal we’ve eaten so far. They are a cash only place, just a heads up! (our tour guide taught us that!) They are located right on the Corner of City Market across from Bryan Square. We sat outside.
After we ate, we….walked around! City Market is super alive during this time of the evening. Most of the shops are still open and there was live music happening. We walked into Savannah’s Candy Kitchen because I wanted taffy. Unfortunately, there was someone right at the front door handing out praline samples, and damnit if that didn’t cause a chain reaction in my reality resulting in a praline purchase. Check out this crazy wall though- this was only one area of the shop. (we also bought taffy).
So ended our night. We strolled around a little more just enjoying the weather. We also drove to a nearby package store because I wanted to buy a bottle of Madeira wine. Has anyone ever had this before? It’s a dessert or after dinner wine and can be pretty varied from what I’ve read. It comes from Madeira (In Portugal) and was once extremely popular in Savannah. I read about it when I was reading “In the Garden of Good and Evil” and decided I wanted to buy some while we were here. No clue what ours will taste like! Rob got some bourbon too. He’s so spoiled!
Looking forward to Day 3.
The Wayfaring Friend 