We spent the week end at St. Simons with our cousin, Marcella and her husband Dave, both retired from the medical field, he as a doctor, she as his office manager. They were amazing and delightful hosts, taking us to many historical places and both were full of informative facts...very interesting!
Our hosts, Dave and Marcie and their dog, Pete.
Their beautiful home.
Imagine waking up to this every morning! The marsh is glorious!
The Torras Causeway from the mainland to the Island.
The same bridge from the Island.
We attended Sunday morning worship with our hosts at this church-
just beautiful, inside and outside!
Christ Church is a well-known building that is decades old; simply a beautiful, beautiful building!
A derelict slave house that is an easy walk from our host's home.
The trees dripping with moss are amazing!
We spent one day at Jekyll Island; the island where at one time, the richest of the rich hung out. Personally, I much prefer St Simon's.
I'm not fond of water but did get my feet wet.
Savannah
Monday morning our hosts drove us to Savannah, ninety minutes inland. Our original plans were to rent a vehicle; we were so grateful for their offer. We all drove around Savannah so we could get our bearings while Dave and Marcie gave us a mini crash course as to where the main tourist places are. After lunch, they dropped us off at our apartment and we were on our own - no car, not knowing a soul and total strangers in our long-time dream to visit Savannah! We both felt a tiny bit scared.
Our apartment was five stories up with a tiny balcony and a fabulous day/night view.
We were seven blocks from River Front Street, the main attraction area. We walked the seven blocks through the ahhh-mazing! city squares. I just want to pitch a tent and live there, it's so beautiful! There are eight city squares, all of them shaded by the famous live oak trees dripping with moss. Each square is dedicated to a person, event or has a fountain and all have benches so one can simply sit and enjoy the smells and sight.
Every time we walked to the River Front we walked past this beautiful restaurant. It's famous for it's role in several movies.
Beautiful historic buildings, especially close by the city squares.
Decades old cobblestone streets.
We 'dot stopped' aka, bused our way several times around the city just to get our bearings and see the city. We even became friends with a bus driver!
Another free ride across the river that ferried workers to and fro.
We ate lunch at Paula Deen's restaurant...highly, HIGHLY overrated! We ended up sitting across the bar with lights so dim we could barely see our food. The food itself was batter deep-fried, with more batter than food. Except for our server, who treated these country bumpkins like royalty, on a scale of ten, we gave that experience a minus one, both in atmosphere and food. We walked past this building several times a day walking to and fro in our seven block journey.
This area was strangely beautiful and haunting, even before we knew what it's history was. This was where the slaves were held before being auctioned off to slave owners. A city worker told us before it was blocked off, visitors would fill the rooms up; now one can only look in from the outside and imagine. Sad, sad aura here, and yes, I felt it before I knew it.
And last but definitely not least are the Southern Belle's! This was our last day there; we couldn't go back to our cozy apartment so we were literally homeless. A strange, strange feeling! This was my favorite trip ever and so fun doing it with sis-ta. Oh, the belly laughs we had! The pleasure of strolling through the squares, the shops, watching them make pounds of taffy and other delightful foods all made for wonderful memories!
~ Esther
