On Thursday, December 5th, we left Charleston, South Carolina, and drove straight through the state of Georgia, and into
Florida where we stopped for the night at the Mayport Naval Station in
Jacksonville. However, we did take in a
little bit of Georgia along the way.
While Steve and the younger boys drove straight through with
the camper, the older boys and I took a detour side-trip into the city of
Savannah. And it couldn’t have gone more smoothly! We drove right along the
interstate spur until it dumped us out almost directly in front of the city’s
visitor center. We parked the car,
walked in, asked about taking a day tour, and they directed us down the stairs
to the back of the building where many tour bus companies were lined up waiting
for us to climb aboard! We found one
company (the Grey Line “Oglethorpe Trolley Tours”) that was holding a
discounted special for that day, and their bus was leaving in 10 minutes, so we
grabbed our chance and off we went!
Savannah is an absolutely beautiful city, and it is very
unique in its design. The historic
downtown is still preserved from pre-Civil War days because as General Sherman
was burning everything in his path in his infamous “March to the Sea”, the
leadership of Savannah struck a bargain with him. They said that he could have the run of the
city if only he agreed not to burn it down.
He agreed, although he did take control of one of the most notorious houses
in the city as his headquarters. From
this house, he sent his famous message to President Lincoln offering the city of
Savannah as a Christmas present.
The city is arranged in a grid, as the early Governor
Oglethorpe designed it. Each city block
not only has beautiful historic mansions lining the streets, but also a city
square park. The historic downtown has a
park every block! It is amazingly
gorgeous! We even saw the park that
Forrest Gump’s park bench was!
Some of the more interesting sites that we saw along our
90-minute tour included:
-
The church were “Jingle Bells” was written and
first sung
-
The house where Juliette Gordon Lowe started the
Girl Scouts of America
-
The statue of the Waving Girl. Legend has it that the girl would never miss
an incoming ship, and she would always wave her handkerchief at the passing
ships. Today a statue stands in her
honor.
-
The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Since our tour bus was running a little ahead
of schedule, we stopped for ten minutes to go inside. It is beautiful and impressive!
-
The Pirate House. Apparently this old shanty was the inspiration
for Robert Lewis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”.
There were so many other noteworthy sites that we saw, but
these are the ones that really stuck out to us.
We also got to see the waterfront and marketplace, along with a house
that was notorious because some book was written about it. I’m ashamed to say that I don’t even remember
the name of the book, and so the house didn’t leave an impression on me. Something about murder and whatnot, and the
book was a huge bestseller several years ago.
(“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” was the name of the book.)
After our pleasant and informative 90-minute tour of
Savannah, we got back to the bus station, got into the car, and drove the rest
of the way to where Steve and the other boys were already setting up the camper
for the night. I really would like to go
back to Savannah some day and spend more time there. It is a beautiful city!
