Savannah, Georgia

History and the Beach

We recently spent a week just outside Savannah, Georgia enjoying the beautiful architecture and history of the area. Having not been here before, it was a wonderful spot to take a breather for a week and just take in the area. The city itself is actually fairly small and very manageable to navigate just by walking around, although we took a tour bus and feel like we got our monies worth in the hop on/off and for the free parking. Most of the historical area is built around seven squares, or small parks in addition to Forsyth Park. They are extremely beautiful and well maintained. It’s a wonderful city to just take a walk and Forsyth Park is worth a visit if you can only see one.

The architecture of the homes is primarily Georgian, Gothic revival and Greek revival. Almost all the buildings around the parks/squares include a marker with the original date built. Lots of 1700’s and 1800’s buildings. They really don’t make them like this anymore! They are truly stunning and I know my photography did not capture the detail you see when you are standing next to them.

The one thing we noticed about the historical district is that the trees are so large, even on a sunny day, you are primarily in the shade.

As part of our tour, the bus makes a stop along the river and the riverwalk. While I wouldn’t say this area is “pretty”, the river is very active, and you shouldn’t be surprised to see large container ships coming in and going out. The one thing to be aware of is the street itself. It’s known as an ankle breaker, and after trying to walk on it, we can see why. The bricks are the easy part to navigate, but several sections are actually rocks that you walk across. Reminds us of the “road” they found on oak island. Lol!

If you’ve been to New Orleans, LA, the building styles are similar but that’s where the similar ends. Savannah is a clean, tidy and pretty historic district. No odd smells and you can see that the city itself is very invested in improving their historic district and maintaining its beauty. New Orleans is a party city, and it smells like one – Day or night. If you’ve been there, you know exactly what I mean.

Tybee Beach

After a day in town, our next stop was to Tybee Island. We didn’t do a full on beach day but did take a short stroll and spend some time perusing the beach shops along with lunch.

We arrived at low tide and there is plenty of sand to hold any number of sunbathers and visitors. The shops and area around the entrance are for the beach goers and those looking for a Tybee souvenir. What we didn’t see or hear, were the crashing waves we’ve come to associate with the Atlantic. We aren’t sure if it’s just a protected area of beach by the outlying barrier islands, or if it was just a really calm day. Either way, it was pretty quiet and we saw more pigeons on the beach than we did actual sea birds. Interesting in an odd kind of way.

If you’ve ever thought about adding Savannah to your list of places to visit, we’d say yes but also take some time to visit the South Carolina lowlands, which are just 20 minutes away. We found the lowlands to be beautiful in a whole different way and since we are more country people than city people, that was actually prettier and more interesting to us. More on them in a future post.

Our next stop is Charleston, South Carolina. More history, more beaches and a longer stay to hopefully see some of the South Carolina highlands. Think there will be kilts involved?

See ya on the road,

Dave and Theresa