Savannah! Down by the river

So this is the last of the pictures I have to update today. If you are starting here, this is the third posting I have done today, catching up on all of the pictures. I decided to do them separately, so they don't get confused.

So as I have mentioned multiple times, I LOVED Savannah. We stayed in a great hotel down by the river. It was actually owned by Days Inn, but it was an old building that they had restored. They were just recently given an award by Savannah for their great work on the building. It was awesome, because it was within walking distance of pretty much everything. Because of that, we were able to split up and see all of the things that we wanted to see. So my mom, Jimmy and I went on a really cool trolley tour of the city (you could get on and off as many times as you want, and they talked about the history of the city as you rode. It was awesome. The ADHD crew (my dad and Andrew) got to relax at the hotel for awhile, go walk around the old historic district, go back to the hotel and do whatever, and then go walk around some more. It was the perfect set up.

I played around with our new camera a lot over the last few days, so I included some of my more "fun" pictures, and not just the wide overview ones. So if you hate the fun ones... deal with it.

Our hotel! This is the old part, where our room was.

A statue in honor of the slaves that came through this port. They are facing east, toward Africa. It was really interesting how slavery is portrayed in Savannah. They put a very positive spin on slavery, often talking about what great conditions the slaves were privileged enough to live and work under. They conveniently left out the part about how they were owned by other people.

Our first tour guide on the trolley.

Paula Deen's restaurant and gift shop. We tried to eat there today when we left, but it was full.

The city of Savannah is designed around squares, many of which are named after various people who contributed greatly to Savannah.

And old cotton warehouse, now restored by the Savannah College of Art and Design, and used for some of their classes. I think it's really interesting

Inside a museum we went to, inside an old train station. I don't remember what it's called.

Forrest Gump's park bench.

Inside the museum. It was really well done.

This was a hat station, where you could put hats on the little people.

The "How tall are you" station.

Jimmy at the drawing station. They provided clipboards, paper, pencils, and a statue (as well as other drawings) for you to sketch.

Jimmy decided to create a more... original piece.

Annnndddd the finished product! It appears to be a creature with a fat body, a pig tail, dog ears, a beak, and either a crown or a chicken comb on it's head. He also decided to put it up on the wall with the other, more classical, drawings.

The trolley that we rode around town.

Tiffany stained glass windows in this church.

Front of the church

Another one of our tour guides, Tigger. Yes, Tigger.

I love policemen!!!

The Thomas-Owens house that we got a tour of.

The carriage house/slave quarters

The outside of the house. It was a really cool orange-y color, that was fading.

View of the garden and carriage house from the back porch.

They used oyster shells in the concrete. Heck of awesome.

The front of the Thomas-Owens house.

Have I mentioned that I really like the brick and stone-work around the city? Because I do. Probably because I come from a family of brick layers.

All the white you see on this house is made out of iron, not wood. The owner was an iron-worker (do they have a special name?), and was famous for saying that anything that could be made out of wood he could make out of iron. So he did, just to prove it.

And the same house again.

In one of the squares.

Working on my dainty southern curtsey.

Leopold's Ice Cream!!! 3 words: Ah Maze Ing. It was started by 3 brothers (the Leopold brothers) and then reopened and currently owned by one of their sons. The current owner also happens to be a movie producer, having produced Mission Impossible 3, Sum of all Fears, and some other random ones.

Inside Leopold's. We ate there yesterday and today =)

Walking along the river.

There are some really cool old buildings along here. That one on the left across the street is in a heck of a lot of my pictures.

Military stickers and patches. I'm pretty sure this place serves military personnel for free.

One of Savannah's finest in action. And my mom jaywalking.

Jimmy didn't realize he was in front of a "save the tata's" display. He wasn't very happy about it when he saw. Jimmy's new saying (not): "Big or small, save them all!"

And as a side note, anyone who would like to donate to breast cancer research should visit my website for the upcoming Avon Walk for breast cancer HERE .

I love old buildings

And this is where destiny brought me and my soul mate together. I first spotted her from the trolley as we drove by. Yes, it was love at first sight. So I knew I had to go back and find her.

And here she is. I shall call her Savannah. I love her.

My mom in front of the open air market.

Walking back to the hotel.

Spanish moss. Which is neither Spanish, or moss. At least that's what our tour guide said.

The cotton exchange or something like that (I've been uploading pictures for a few hours now, and I don't really remember what everything is...)

And here is that building once again. This is where we had dinner last night. It is the oldest stone building in Georgia, and one of the oldest the the U.S. It was built sometime in the 1700's. It is super cool.

Inside the super old building, the Dockside restaurant.

Jimmy and I shared this amazing platter of steamed seafood. Mmmmmmmm!!!! And Jimmy kept making faces while we were trying to take a picture.

Crawfish! Right before I ate it.

They taste extra good when you eat them whole. More texture.

Us 3 kids outside.

Family picture!

Sunset from in front of the restaurant/historic area by the river.

Fountain at night

A car driving away with their food on top. Some people tried to stop them, but they kept going. It made me laugh =)

The old building again, as the sun was setting.

Looking down the street. I love Savannah, I love this street, and I love sunsets!!!

The old building at night again.

Stairway, with 3 drunk guys walking down. This is after my mom had abandoned me by myself in this semi-dark alley (which she denies). Luckily the drunk guys were nice and didn't try to steal me, or more importantly, my camera.

Our hotel at sunset.

So today we checked out of our hotel, and went to a couple museums. They were both really well done. We met some mounted police officers in a park on our way back, with the CUTEST horses! They rode draft horses, which I have always wanted as a saddle horse. Someday! I will post those pictures tomorrow. There are just a couple of them, and I haven't had time to edit them yet.

We left Savannah, and drove to Charleston. We got there, and drove into the historic district, and...... it was a huge disappointment compared to Savannah. It was dirty, run down, and seemed to have very few historical things around. We talked about it briefly, and decided that there wasn't really anything that we desperately wanted to see there anyway. So... we left. We just kept on driving. We are staying the night in Summerville, and will drive to Atlanta tomorrow. We had 2 days scheduled for Charleston, so now we are trying to come up with plans for those extra days on the way home. We're thinking maybe more time in the Rocky Mountains. We'll see!

I apologize for any misspellings or anything stupid that I have said. I'm super tired. So goodnight everyone!

Bardle do,

Jenn