Will Write 4 Travel: Thanksgiving 2013 + Savannah and Charleston Road Trip Part 1

I can't believe it's December. Since Thanksgiving happened so late this year, we only have 22 days left until Christmas! That reminds me, I need to put up the Christmas tree.

Raisin Bread and I had a couples' Thanksgiving this year. We decided to take a mini-vacation to Savannah and Charleston. Since we were going out of town for the weekend, I decided to make Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before actual Thanksgiving so that we could enjoy all of the lovely food that we only get to have once a year.

We had a decent spread. I roasted a half turkey breast with herb butter and made stuffing, corn bread muffins, roasted whole sweet potatoes and green bean casserole with bread crumbs instead of fried onions. We also had cranberry sauce and gravy for good measure. For dessert, we had a store-bought pecan pie. So delicious!

On Wednesday, we started our drive south. Our plan was to make it half way to Savannah and spend the night in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Getting out of DC took forever! It took us almost four hours to get to Richmond! By that time, we needed to stop for dinner.

Soggy weather on our drive

We had dinner at The Black Sheep in Richmond. Raisin Bread ordered the fish of the day, which was tilefish, and I had shrimp tacos. We both really enjoyed our food. My tacos weren't heavy at all but very filling. I loved the seasoning on them too.

We finally reached our destination about three and a half hours later than we planned. That's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving for you! It was a really frustrating drive. All we wanted to do, of course, was wash up and sleep.

The next morning we had a quick breakfast at the hotel before heading out on the remainder of the drive to Savannah.

For lunch, we stopped at Clark's Inn and Restaurant in Santee, South Carolina. We were extremely excited to find something open on Thanksgiving Day that wasn't a fast food chain.

The hotel was all decked out for the holidays and it added to the already beautiful ambiance. The restaurant was serving some specials in addition to its regular menu. Raisin Bread ordered the pork with blueberry sauce plus sweet potatoes and green bean casserole. I had Thanksgiving meal #2: turkey with cornbread dressing, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and cole slaw. So much food. We also had dessert but they were both pretty awful.

A few hours later, we reached Savannah...on schedule, I might add! Our first stop was Bonaventure Cemetery. The first thing I noticed about Savannah was all of the beautiful, haunting Spanish moss. I find that it gives a place such a sense of mystery and calm.

We drove into the cemetery and walked around to visit the different sections on the grounds. The weather was gorgeous and made for a peaceful walk.

We also sought out three of the most famous grave sites in Bonaventure. We saw Gracie.

Conrad Aiken and the famous bench next to his grave. After I took this photo, we saw two ladies take over the bench with their glasses of martinis! Just like in "The Book."

Lastly, we saw Johnny Mercer's resting place. This is a photo of the engraved bench next to his grave site with the names of his most famous songs carved into the sides of the bench.

On the edge of the cemetery is this river. The cemetery was pretty empty. We only saw about ten other people wandering around while we were there. I guess visiting cemeteries isn't high on people's list of things to do on Thanksgiving Day.