Savannah and Charleston Road Trip - Part 2

My last post left off with us exploring Bonaventure Cemetery. For the remainder of the afternoon, Raisin Bread and I took a walk through Forsyth Park, which is a large public park in the middle of the city. Kind of like Central Park but smaller.

The main feature of Forsyth Park is Forsyth Fountain. I was half expecting the fountain to be shut off, but I am happy that it wasn't!

For the entire trip, I could not get enough of the trees and Spanish moss. This tree-shaded path leads into the park. 

Being from California and the Northeast, we both find it incredibly strange to see monuments to Confederate soldiers. This was the first of many such memorials that we saw over the course of our weekend.

Confederate Memorial

We checked in to our hotel after our visit to Forsyth Park and spent a few hours resting our feet.

During the evening, we took a long walk from our hotel down to River Street.

This was the only glimpse of The Lady Chablis that we got during our visit!

Not surprisingly, River Street was very very dead, being that it was Thanksgiving Day. Most of the shops and restaurants were closed and there were hardly any people walking around.

My favorite part of our walk was seeing Factor's Walk. It is basically a series of walkways that lead from Bay Street down to River Street. It was sort of eerie walking along them since it was dark and there were few people around.

We passed by City Hall and some other historic sites along the way.

We had to walk back up to Bay Street to get to the restaurant that we had reservations for. These stairs seemed like a good way to get there!

We got to the place we were planning to have dinner at and waited for our table for about half an hour before I realized that they were only serving a Thanksgiving buffet. The thought of eating Thanksgiving food again made me want to barf, so we decided to find something else to eat.

We stumbled upon Wet Willie's and since it was so late by then, we decided to go for it. I'm not sure what Wet Willie's is like on a normal night but it was very calm on Thanksgiving Day. There were two cops standing by the bar the entire time, which made Raisin Bread and me think that this place is normally crazy. That was not something we had to deal with this night, thank goodness.

For dinner, I had a pina colada daiquiri and nachos, while Raisin Bread had a burger and a chicken salad that I also picked at. Funny how I couldn't stomach another Thanksgiving meal but I was all over the greasy bar food!

Wet Willie's has lots and lots of different frozen daiquiris, some with silly names. 

After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel and hit the hay.

Next up, a full day in Savannah!

Wet Willie's
101 East River Street
Savannah, GA 31401

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.

Our first taste of Savannah was very pleasant and I couldn't wait to see what else it had in store for us! Stay tuned for more of our road trip!

The Black Sheep

901 West Marshall Street

Richmond, VA 23220

Clark's Inn and Restaurant
114 Bradford Boulevard
Santee, SC 29142

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Source

Hope you all are having a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! 

I'll be enjoying a few days off from work, eating a ton and spending some quality time with loved ones.

I will also gobbler galloping some virtual miles. 

One thing I will not be participating in is the saddest American tradition of all - Black Friday. The last time I went shopping on Black Friday was in college in the late-90s. I have never looked back or regretted it. There are some many other things to do: go watch a movie, work off the turkey, spend some quality time with the family or take in some culture. Then, go shopping on Small Business Saturday! 

Enjoy this Thanksgiving weekend. Stay safe and eat turkey!