Music, Magnolias and Monuments
I tried my first grits this morning at breakfast! I assumed it was just like porridge because the instructions on the packet said to just add boiling water and stir. The waitress with the very unnaturally shiny bun came to my aid and told me to heat it up in the microwave for a better result. She even did it for me so it would be the perfect consistency and told me to add butter for a better taste. They tasted a lot better than I was expecting; sort of a buttery popcorn taste, with the consistency a bit like porridge but a bit smoother. Not bad at all.
Keeping up our tradition of going to church locally whenever we are away from home, we took a stroll this morning to the Anglican Church of Savannah, right near where we are staying and were welcomed, literally with open arms. We haven’t come across any other Australians in Savannah (unlike on the West Coast where there are Aussies everywhere) so our Australian accents are a bit of a novelty. We are smitten with the strong southern drawls of the Georgian locals and can’t believe they think our accents are great! The minister, decked out in what he called his “holy poncho” gave a cracker of a sermon and we sang along with the blissful harmonies of the resident choir to “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Glory, Glory Halleluiah”! At the conclusion of the service, the choir and ministers filed out with an American Flag bearer leading the procession and the congregation being led in a rousing rendition of “O Beautiful For Spacious Skies” (‘America, America….”) So patriotic! It was quite an experience. Afterwards we met the warm and welcoming Janet Stephenson (pronounced “Jay-net Stay-ven-sohn”) who introduced us to half the congregation! She was proud to have been born and bred in Savannah and wanted to show us some southern hospitality.
Later in the morning we secured some tickets on the Old Savannah Trolley which would take us on a circuit of the city and allow us to hop on and hop off as many times as we needed to during the day. When we first hopped on we were greeted by Lillie, who was a dead ringer for Whoopi Goldberg and she drove us down more of the historic streets, seeing a bit more of the city than where we’d been able to walk the day before. We fell in love with the Georgian and Victorian houses with their crepe myrtle trees in bloom, fern-laden hanging baskets, window boxes brimming with colour and huge shady magnolia trees with big fragrant flowers. The manicured gardens were exquisite. One street in particular, Jones Street in fact, had particularly nice gardens. Legend has it that the Jones Family had the best garden on the street and everyone became competitive, trying to better it, hence the saying “trying to keep up with the Joneses” was born! (The green thumb gene must have been bred out by the time our branch of the Joneses came along!)
The trolley rattled past City Hall, with its 23 carat gold dome, past old cotton warehouses and the City Market, with its many galleries and restaurants spilling out onto the footpath. We saw our first Walk-Through McDonalds, with a window opening out onto the street where you can place your order. That was pretty cool! The trolley then took us down to Forsyth Park, a huge open space containing a beautiful fountain and a plethora of monuments. Georgia has really gone to town with statues, monuments and memorials! One of our drivers commented that the great Savannah secret is, if you want to make something look classy, stick a statue in front of it!
We had some lunch at the City Market and Toby and Sam ordered burgers…again! Pretty soon they are going to turn into burgers!
Where you press the button to cross the street at the lights here, the button actually talks to you. Every time you press it, it says “WAIT” and Toby finds it amusing to push it over and over again so it says “WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT….” until we’re all ready to clobber him! Then, when it turns green it tells you which street you are crossing which is kind of handy – especially if you are blind!
We were back at our hotel waiting for the lift, and were loaded up with cameras and backpacks, still sporting our Old Town Trolley stickers on our shirts, when we came across a big, tall guy wearing a generously sized black cowboy hat. He was also carrying out his constitutional right to bear arms and had a gun (!), clearly visible and sitting right out there in its holster! He struck up a conversation with us and laughingly said “y’all wouldn’t be tourists now would yeh?” Once he heard us talk, he was totally enthralled with us and our accents, telling us his wife had some relatives down under. We later saw him down at the river with his wife (and without his gun – thank goodness) and he had obviously told her all about us! She told us they were from middle Georgia and that she worked in Savannah. He jokingly told us he liked to come to the riverfront and pickpocket all the tourists (well at least I think he was joking. Come to think of it, where is my wallet?) Apparently he’s written a novel called “Low Country Boil”, not to be confused with the recipe for a low country boil, where you boil up shrimp, sausage, corn and rice when you have a ‘low country boil party’. He told us WHEN we Googled it to type in “Low Country Boil” novel. Well, how could I resist? As soon as we got back to the hotel tonight I Googled away. My limited research turned up, however, with the only novel of that name written by a woman named Susan. Unless he was a cross-dresser, he was telling us porkies! Just in case we do run into our gun-toting friend again, I don’t think I’ll call him Susan to his face. Never mess with a man with a gun.
The Savannah Riverfront is the place to be at night so again we ventured down there at dusk, ready to watch the sun set over the bridge that leads to South Carolina. We tried again to get a table at Vic’s On The River, with its cool pianist tinkling the ivories, but again it was fully booked. We ate instead at Tubby’s, on an outdoor elevated balcony, with spectacular views of the bridge and the river, and where there was a fabulous female singer, playing acoustic guitar and belting out some fine tunes, albeit with a bit of a country twang. She was great! Our poor waitress made the mistake of asking us “did we have any questions about the menu?”. Oh boy did we ever! We needed an interpreter! We had “po’boys”, “fried green tomatoes”, “hush puppies” (and you always thought they were shoes!), “Texas toast” and “buffalo-style sauce” just to name a few. Everything can come “blackened” if requested. I think that’s quite a good scam for if you happen to burn something. Rather than toss it out, you can just say it’s “blackened”!
We finished the evening with a stroll a block or two down from our hotel, past the big old theatre that plays old movies on the big screen (it’s screening “Shawshank Redemption” and “Cabaret” at the moment) to the very famous ice cream shop – apparently Savannah’s finest – Leopold’s. Even Harrison Ford and Morgan Freeman endorse it! It did live up to its reputation and we all enjoyed the retro feel inside, disappointed only by the fact that we’d run out of coins for the old jukebox.
We’ve had to pack up tonight as sadly, our time in Savannah has come to an end. We indulged in a few Georgian souvenirs from the novelty shop, one of them called the “Redneck Horn” which spouts abuse when you push it. It sounds terrible but it’s actually a crack up. It’s packed into Maisy’s bag and whenever the bag gets knocked, an angry voice starts hurling insults at you, southern-style. We’re a little worried about the luggage handlers at the airport tomorrow, when they inadvertently set it off and assume we have a hostile little person stashed inside our luggage! Let’s hope we pass security!
