Celebrating 5 Years! – Part Two…

**Extremely LONG post! Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!!**

Well, almost a week later and here I am finishing up our anniversary post. I sure am slacking these days.. or trying to get my life in order.. one of the two! :)

Where did I leave off? … Well, now that you have the history background of Savannah, I guess I’ll share what we actually did on our trip! :) Our first night in Savannah we walked up and down River Street, just checking things out. We ended up eating dinner at the River House Restaurant. We both got Lobster Bisque, which was to die for, and shared some Calamari. It was delicious!! Just thinking about that Bisque is making my mouth water! Has anyone ever tried to make their own Lobster Bisque before? It is something I DEFINITELY want to start making in our family. Now if only lobster was a little less expensive!! … Here we are our first night in Savannah. It was rather cold outside. I grabbed that jacket as a “just in case” right before I walked out the door on Monday morning. Thank goodness!! I would have frozen if I didn’t have it!

 

We booked a trolley tour of the historical district for Tuesday. This is where I learned about all the history I shared with you in my first post. Such an informative tour and a GREAT way to see the city! We took the Orange and Green tour which is supposed to be the best. The trolley makes 18 or so different stops around the city and you can hop on and off as many times as you like. There is always another trolley 15 minutes behind one another. We grabbed lunch at this little artsy diner. The diner was actually inside an art gallery. So cool! David ordered a crazy sandwich (I can’t remember the name) but it was roast beef, turkey, ham, bacon, and cheese on French toast with powdered sugar and some amazing syrup on top. It tasted like heaven in your mouth! I must admit, I was a little jealous of his choice over my grilled cheese and tomato soup! Here he is with his delicious sandwich!

 

A few pictures from the trolley ride…

Waiting in the cold with some yummy warm coffee!

Our feet – trying to be cool like Ryan and Missy on their anniversary trip! :)

On the trolley!

 

Like I was telling you in my last post, Savannah was built around 24 different squares. They are basically little “parks” of grass with some benches and something historic. One of the squares is where a scene in Forest Gump was filmed. It’s the scene when he’s sitting on the bench with his chocolates waiting for the bus to take him to Jenny’s house. The bench is no longer there as it was just placed there for the film. The bench was actually in the exact same spot at that sign in the picture. Oh, Forest! “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get!”

 

We also spent some time walking around Forsyth Park, which is the largest square. It’s one mile if you walk all the way around it. It’s beautifully lined with trees and there is a large fountain in the middle where they say lots of girls like to get married. I concur as it truly is a beautiful place!

 

While walking along Forsyth Park, we noticed one of the side streets was barricaded off. We asked a police man what was going on and he said they were filming a movie. I thought was was so cool and took as many pictures of the “set” as I could!! HA! .. Looks more like an old time movie, huh? Nobody drives around buggies like that anymore!!

 

Tuesday night we decided we’d pick a nice restaurant and splurge on ourselves a little. If you know us at all, you know our typical date nights include Moes (because it’s cheap) and Chilis (because we usually have a gift card). We were SO excited to expand our horizons and decided we’d do one dinner out in Savannah where we didn’t worry about how much money an entrée cost. Better yet, we’d BOTH get our own entrée, which NEVER happens in our family!! :) We went to Vic’s on the River. They sat us at a little romantic table for 2 by the window where we could overlook the river. It was beautiful. We started out with some delicious French Onion Soup – one of my favorites!! And had Vic’s famous crab cakes for dinner. Wow! Were they good!!

 

On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped in Savannah’s Candy Kitchen where we got to watch Salt Water Taffy being made. It was SO COOL! I’m typically not a fan of Salt Water Taffy, but he let us try some fresh off the twisty machine and it was SO GOOD! I think I liked it so much because it was still warm and gooey. Oh, and it was peppermint flavor. YUM! … One of the coolest things about this taffy making process was after the machine twisted it, it cut and wrapped each piece (where he is feeding it into the machine), then it slid down that metal looking slide onto a conveyer belt that traveled around the entire store, and eventually dropped into the taffy bin where it’s sold. That description does NOT do it justice! It was really neat to see!

 

Wednesday was the day I had planned to eat lunch at Paula Dean’s Restaurant. I had this glorious picture in my head of what it would be like to eat at Paula Deans … It’s buffet, ya’ll! Seriously, I’m not knocking Paula and her amazing food, but buffet?!?! Really?!?! All the food is lined up under warm lights that keep it “fresh” all day. Everyone we talked to about eating at Paula’s (mainly Savannah locals) said, “People eat at Paula’s to say they ate at Paula’s. .. People eat at Mrs. Wilkes House because they want some down home delicious southern cooking.” After much debate, we decided Mrs. Wilkes was the place to eat! I’m SO glad we ate at Mrs. Wilkes. OH MY GOODNESS! I would eat there everyday if I could! … So, Wednesday morning we got up and walked down to Mrs. Wilkes House. It’s actually IN HER HOUSE, ya’ll. So cool. They open for lunch at 11:00 so we arrived at 10:30 and there was already a line down the block. Here we are waiting in line…

 

We actually made it in in the first lunch wave. There are two rooms open for lunch with 4 tables of 10 in each room. We sat with a lovely group of people. When you get to your table, each place setting has a glass of sweet tea waiting for you and 20 side dishes already out on the table for “family style” eating. Yes, 20 side dishes! I kid you not, there was EVERY southern side you could think of on that table – all fresh and homemade! My favorites were the cheesy mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and sweet potatoes. YUM!! On top of all those side dishes, fresh fried chicken and meat loaf were served as well. Oh, and I can’t forget about the homemade biscuits with homemade jam!! Delicious!! One of my favorite things about lunch at Mrs. Wilkes was after we were all seated, our waitress said with her most southern voice, “Please dig in, the food has already been blessed.” Love it!!

Here’s our table

And my plate :)

Enjoying some southern food with my sweet husband!

Saying goodbye to the Wilkes House after lunch. Our tummies were feeling very satisfied with our choice to eat there over Paula’s.

Mrs. Wilkes has passed away, but her home and her food continue on to be one of the best things about Historic Savannah. They only take cash or check when you pay, so I wrote a check out to Mrs. Wilkes herself. So sweet. :)

I did take some pictures of Paula’s to have as memories sake…

 

After our lunch at Mrs. Wilkes, we spent some time walking around and enjoying the beautiful architect, trees, and squares of Historic Savannah.

 

Wednesday night was supposed to be our trolley ghost tour of the town, but unfortunately, it got rained out. I’m not much into all that stuff anyway so I can’t say that I complained that we didn’t get to take a ghost tour! We ended up eating dinner at Moon River on Bay Street. It’s a brewery and a restaurant. David was very excited about that! We actually stopped in our first night in Savannah and knew we wanted to make it back for dinner before we left. It was a great choice! We actually got a little bit of our rained out ghost tour in while we were there. They say the top floor of the restaurant is haunted. Our waiter took us up to the 2nd floor after we finished dinner. We didn’t dare go all the way to the top. You can’t even climb the stairs to go up there anyway. But it was creepy just being near anything that is supposedly haunted!! No thank you!

Thursday was our last day in Savannah and the weather was not cooperating! It was rainy and dreary so we decided to pack up earlier than expected. We did take a quick stop at this place called Pinch of the Past which houses old remnants of houses that have been renovated. They had TONS of neat stuff in there! One day, when we have a little extra cash and a bigger house, I’d like to get some things from there to decorate with.

After another quick stop at the Pirates House on the river for lunch we headed home. It was such a wonderful anniversary trip and I feel so blessed to have spent 5 years married to my amazing husband! David, you are my best friend and love of my life! I am looking forward to MANY more years devoted to you!! I LOVE you!