Savannah is one of my favorite cities to visit. It’s just a unique and beautiful place to be with history, culture, and picture perfect scenes around each corner. The first time I visited was for my friend Josh’s graduation from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2005. After leaving Tallahassee Friday afternoon, we got there with enough time to drop our stuff off at my buddy’s place and then head down to Forsyth Park for the James Brown concert that night. It was an awesome weekend, with most of the time spent walking around the historic district, hanging out with good friends, and experiencing the Ultimate Hashbrowns at the Pancake Palace.
When Erin and I started seeing each other, it seemed to be the perfect place to spend our first weekend away together. Savannah is incredibly romantic as well, so we planned out a few things to do, leaving most of our time open to just walk or explore. The hotel we picked was the Thunderbird Inn, an old motor hotel that had been renovated into a really modern, comfortable place to stay. It was near the bottom end of the price ranges in the historic district at about $120 a night. It is a few blocks west of the district on Oglethorpe Avenue, and the neon sign out front is original. It was a really great place to stay…very clean, comfortable beds, completely up to date.

We got checked in and dropped our stuff off, then we headed down to the district. Erin was completely taken with how pretty everything was. We walked around and scoped out what we had planned to do: Eat at the Lady & Sons, go to the Telfair Museum of Art, and the rest was pretty much open to whatever we decided to do on a whim. We then cruised down Broughton Street where I snapped this little beauty:

It was starting to get late and we hadn’t had dinner yet, so we went down to River Street and ate at Fiddler’s Crab. We shared a Low Country Boil that was just awesome. Needless to say, we ate well in Savannah. Then we headed back to the hotel.
The next day, we got up early and started exploring again. We walked all over downtown Savannah, through all of the squares, parks, and markets. They were everywhere. Art shops, antique shops, bookstores, and other little specialty shops lined the streets and squares. We ate at a little cafe in a market and then braved the line to get our names on the list at the Lady and Sons. We got in line at 3:00 and waited for 45 minutes to get our reservation, which the earliest time at that point was 9:30 pm. You have to stand in line to get your name on the list if you want to Paula Deen’s restaurant, so get there early and be prepared for a good, long wait. Once we realized how much time we had until dinner, we tried to figure out what to do. There was plenty, but ultimately we both decided a good nap would be the best thing. Erin had just had around of tests in her PhD program and I had just returned from a trip to Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic and was still recovering from jet lag. So we headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours before heading out again. Here are a few pics from our morning. They’re of the Lady and Son’s with a trolley out front, Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Lafayette Square, Forsyth Park Fountain, and River Street:





Dinner at the Lady and Sons was awesome. I, unwisely, chose to eat healthy, while Erin took the plunge. My food was really, really great, don’t get me wrong, but my plate of broiled seafood was nowhere near as good as Erin’s crab stuffed shrimp wrapped in bacon. My God, that stuff was just amazing. We ended dinner by sharing a piece of Key Lime Pie and then headed out to walk it off. We walked up to Forsyth Park again and just sat on a bench, watching people stroll by. After a while we headed back to the hotel.
The next day, we went to the Telfair. It was really enjoyable and had a lot more than I expected. We went on a Sunday though, and some of the exhibits were closed for one reason or another on Sundays, so if you go, do it any other day of the week. After all, this is a southern city and most people are in church. After the Telfair, we headed down to find some food and hit a cajun restaurant on Bay Street. It was really good. Everywhere we ate in Savannah was really good. After lunch, we packed our car and headed down to Tybee Island before trekking back to Tallahassee. It was a pretty little island that reminded me of the ones off of the North Florida coast. It was glitzy or uncomfortably rich like in South Florida. It was just a nice island community. We went down to the lighthouse and walked near the beach for a while before heading home. It was a nice way to cap off the weekend.

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Savannah, do it. It’s such an amazing little city. I’ve been twice. Both experiences have been completely different, and I know that I’ve barely scratched the surface of Savannah.