Bonaventure Cemetary

On our way out of Savannah, we passed a sign for this cemetary.  I knew it was famous, but didn't exactly remember why.  We thought it was a beautiful look at the nature in Savannah.  It was also kind of eerie with all the moss hanging.  

I looked it up afterward, and it's most famous for being the setting for part of the movie, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."

The Lady and Sons

We went to Savannah and the historic district on Tuesday.  We wanted to make sure to get some good southern cooking in, so we went to Paula Deen's Lady and Sons restaurant.

We were so excited to met the Lady herself...

Obviously kidding...

We all got the buffet with fried & baked chicken, sausage & peppers, mashed potatoes, greens, mac & cheese, sweet potatoes, black eyed peas, and lima beans.  There was also a good salad bar and a dessert.  It was all good, but we are kicking ourselves that one of us did not get something off the menu. 

But the best thing we ate were the hoecakes...cornmeal pancakes fried in butter, served hot with maple syrup.   When you sat down a hot cake (and a fresh cheesy garlic roll) were put on your bread plate.  What a way to start a meal!

South Beach

We spent one day hanging out on the island.  We journeyed down to the south tip to do some shopping.  This is considered "downtown" and has many tourist shops, restaurants, etc.  We didn't dress for going to the beach, but wanted to go check out the ocean anyway.  

The tide was low and so the beach was pretty expansive.

I got my feet wet, but Camden wanted to experience the waves.  She and Kevin got a little wet!

Of course, we had to break out the beach toys and build a castle or two.

This end also had lots of tidal pools with easy to see sea creatures, so Daddy and Camden also explored them for a while.

This gave Camden the "beach bug" and she was ready to come back in a swimsuit and really test out the waters.  

Savannah River

Our condo (The Savannah Beach and Raquet Club) was on the north tip of the island where the Savannah River and the Atlantic Ocean meet.  We actually faced and our official beach was the River.  We spent many hours walking along the shore, picking up shells, and playing in the water.   

Our first excursion was at sunset.

One of the nice things about the River was that the waves weren't as big or forceful.  We had several ocean beach days, too, but it was so easy to play and walk on this beach for our little girl.

The Crab Shack

On the marsh side of the island, was this place voted "best seafood" for a gazillion years.  Everything was steamed and the atmosphere was funky.  It was also a little dirty, run-down, and not as tasty as we were hoping.

Kevin got a huge platter of shell fish (almost like a low-boil or shrimp boil that we do), but with several kinds of crab.  I got a shrimp salad sandwich and their crab stew.  Everything was fine, just not "the best."

The patio was very cool overlooking the marsh.  It has trees and all kinds of coastal items decorating the place.  It also had cats.  This whole island has cats.  Our condo had about 10-15 of them.  They eat fish from the water and, supposedly, take care of the rats.  I guess it's a fair trade!  They don't really bother anyone, plus Camden liked to watch them and talk to them.  Just took a little getting used to.

The other attraction of this place is the alligators.  In front of the shack is a huge pit.  I had expected 2 to 3 of them, not 50+!  Quite the visual when you walk up to the cage.

Camden got to feed them, too.  You can get little pieces of alligator snack (kinda like doggie treats), attach them to a fishing pole, and swing it down to the gators.  They are completely still until a bite comes near them.  Then they pounce and attack.  Pretty impressive!

The alligators were a huge hit and highlight for Camden.

Vacation = Food

We love going to a new area and trying different restaurants.  Since we were going to be on the coast, we knew we would eat lots of seafood...like everyday!  I didn't take pictures everywhere, and some spots will get their own post, but a few of our choices on the island included:

On our first night, we ate at Sting Rays, on the outdoor patio.  It was Saturday night and there was live music.  A thunderstorm was rolling in, so there was a nice breeze and we split a big platter of scallops, shrimp, crab cakes, fish (don't remember what kind).  

Can you tell (in the picture below) that we had driven through the night and haven't had any real sleep for more than 24 hours?  Despite the cheesy smile, even the little one was tired!

As previously posted, we ate at Uncle Bubba's on Sunday (which is on Wilmington Island, on island over between Savannah and Tybee). 

The serve a basket of cornbread muffins and honey butter when you sit down.  Little Blue Eyes liked the muffins, but she LOVED her butter!  We actually ate here twice, because we loved it so much (and got a great coupon).

We usually ate breakfast at the condo.  We did find a great bakery in Savannah (Baker's Pride) that had the most amazing donuts (fresh blueberry fritters that almost exceed MaryLou's apple ones), so we had one sweet treat morning (versus eggs or cereal). 

In general, we ate one main meal "out" every day.  Usually that was a late lunch/early dinner and then we'd snack in the evening. Other places of note, include:  a nice platter of seafood to-go from MacElwee's (the oldest restaurant on the island) after one long day, an amazing white pizza called, "The Honkey" from Huck-a-Poo's, and a cuban sandwich from Burton's By the Beach. 

Of course, we also had to "snicky-snack" throughout our vacation.  In Savannah, we bought pralines (oh my!) and bear claws (think big turtle candies), as well as a few pastries.  Camden's go-to snack was ice cream, so we made that stop several times throughout the week.  Since we were just on the outside of prime season, alot of ice cream shops didn't open until afternoon or even just on the weekend, so we often had to search for her treats.  Yes, we spoiled ourselves on food and treats...but it's vacation!

From the Beginning

We had a 13-14 hour drive to Savannah/Tybee Island, GA.  Friday would typically begin Kevin's nights off, but we decided to stay on normal night schedule and drive through the night.  This would allow Camden (and me) to sleep through most of it.  We left around 9pm and made it into Savannah around 10am...Kevin made pretty good time!  We weren't scheduled to be in our condo until 3pm, so we had to kill a few hours.  Unlike my normal planning, we left our schedule wide open, allowing us to go with the flow and choose what we wanted to do (or not do) every day.  We stopped at the visitor's center in Savannah to pick up some brochures so we had tools at hand.  Next door was the Railroad Museum.  I did do so research ahead of time and knew a few places that would be options and this was one of them.  So we decided to stop there first.  It is a round-house rail yard, which is much different from the yard Kevin works at.

We enjoyed looking at the various old, restored cars.

We also got to take a brief train ride around the yard, including a few turns on the thingy that moves/sorts cars.  Can you tell I'm not the one who works at the railroad...I have no clue what the turntable thing is really called (Kevin will correct me tonight). 

We probably would have enjoyed this a little more if we weren't so tired, but all in all it was a nice little museum and ride.  The best part was that we called the rental company after this stop and they said we could come on over and get our condo keys - gotta love an early check-in!  We were so excited to only have 15 more minutes of driving to be "home" for the week!