Days 14 & 15 (May 16-17): Savannah, Georgia

Savannah is a great, history-infused, very beautiful city. Well, at least 'historic Savannah' is, as I did not venture much past the beaten path, in part because I wanted to relax a bit, after a stretch of three cities in four nights and it turns out Savannah is a great place to relax.

The historic downtown is roughly a square mile or so, with a perpendicular lay-out that makes it easy to explore. There are 22 public squares at the intersection of the major streets, some larger than others, with a major park and a historic cemetery thrown in to boot.  It is very easy to walk around, checking out the tree-overhung street and beautiful historic homes.  Some examples:

Corner of Habersham and York Streets, Savannah

Hamilton-Turner Inn, Savannah

The historic downtown is roughly 25 feet above sea (well, river) level. The lobby of my hotel (the River Street Inn), which faced Bay Street, was actually on the fourth floor. Taking the elevator down to the first floor brought you to the river level, and the imaginatively-named River Street. River Street is cobble-stoned and features shops and often-times two levels of restaurants, which seem mostly aimed at tourists.

Between Bay Street and River Street, I at first wondered if Savannah was a bit of a resort town, mostly aimed at maximizing tourism dollars. After exploring a bit, if only the downtown part, I changed my view, as there does seem to be a thriving commercial and entertainment industry that does not seemed to be aimed at tourists.

Random observations and comments:

• The semi-improvisational nature of the trip (i.e., not a heck of a lot of planning) may be catching up:  after missing out on the Fort Sumter visit in Charleston, I missed out on the walking tour which interested me (to be fair to myself, the guy was advertising a 5 PM tour, which he turned that into a private tour). Also, the place I wanted to check out for dinner on Friday (Mrs. Wilkes' Diner) is only open for lunch on weekdays. So instead of the walking tour, I sat at a brewpub (the Moon River Brewing Company) and had beer. Oh well.

• I visited two bars of note, first, the afore-mentioned Moon River Brewing Company on Bay Street, a brew pub, which has six or seven of its own selections on tap, plus a number of American craft brewers in their 'beer gardens', essentially a large patio.  On Thursday night, I watched the OT between the Bruins and Rangers with the barmaid who, hailing from Connecticut, is a huge B's fan. So that was nice. As far as their beer goes, I did not sample them all, but their IPA and stout offerings were above average.

• The second notable bar, The Distillery, has 21 taps, featuring American crafts brews, with the odd German or Belgian import thrown in. The food I had there was very good; I had some pork riblets with a mustard BBQ sauce which were nicely tangy. 

• The State of Georgia was founded in 1733 by a man named Oglethorpe. The name permeates the city: there is an Oglethorpe Square, an Oglethorpe Avenue and a number of Oglethorpe-named companies. Every time I saw the name I could not help but chuckle and think of Oogie...

• I got back to my hotel room at 2 AM on Friday night. The local PBS station was showing the Met's current production of Rigoletto (set in Las Vegas in the 50's). I was expecting, almost hoping for, a call from the front desk to please turn down the opera.