October 7th – 9th, 2023

My favorite thing about visiting Savannah has gotta be learning its history. Downtown Savannah is a compact grid of history built right into its architecture, town layout, houses, restaurants, waterfront… that’s also why it was well worth it to book tours and uncover the origins and stories of the past that this city takes such great care to preserve.

One such museum and tour was of the Owens-Thomas House that we visited on day one. It was a perfect way to start our visit to the city since it introduced us to the city’s origins. The Owens-Thomsen house is one that was owned by very wealthy families who used enslaved people to take care of their family and the house. We got to imagine life for its inhabitants as we walked through room by room, which were all restored to what it may have looked like during that time. With our tour guide painting a picture for us, I’d be standing in the fancy dining room imagining these hosts entertaining society’s elite, not just the elites of Savannah but of the country. The guide pointed out all the elements of architecture like the faux-wood/marble that were so fashionable at the time and how these well-educated guests would know enough to admire and pay compliments. But the stories of the enslaved people here were more compelling to me and I respect this place for sharing the ugly details, spending just as much time on those realities as they discussed the lives of the wealthy white people who lived here. When I asked what the enslaved people did while the family was out of town for the hot summers, our guide answered that the enslaved were either taken with them, put to work in other houses, or even jailed, as a way to hold them. What a dark past. Our tour guide Colin just knew everything. When I made a miscellaneous comment that the bed looked small, he easily responded “it’s an inch and a half smaller than today’s modern queen beds”. What an obscure fact to pull out of one’s pocket. I later learned from another tour guide that Colin had been doing this a long time, since this other tour guide had been in school!

While I’m talking about tours, another great tour (that I had to take own my own because someone was too sleepy to get up for) was the Architectural Tour or Savannah. To add some context to the mindset I’m in while on this tour, we had been house hunting on the west coast in recent months. We hear horror stories of maintenance issues for houses built in say, the 1960’s— the asbestos! The lead paint! And here I am in Savannah seeing houses built in the 1700s, 1800s, and I’m completely flabbergasted. My lasting impression of this tour was how much architecture reflects what’s going on at the time, the politics, ideals and what styles people considered fashionable. Whether Georgian a.k.a. Colonial period, basically the times of King George, or Federal, now that we’re all revolutionaries and anti-King George now, the architecture, the street names, it was all a reflection of the past few hundred years of history. It’s all right there in front of you to appreciate once someone reveals it to you. I thought maybe I could take some of this knowledge and apply it to our house hunt, but I gotta laugh, there’s not that kind of history on the west coast. Nothing I learned was applicable.

And then there’s more history, now in the form of Fort Pulaski. Bring a National Park pass; smart me saved us $20! We watched the 20min video which made the visit more meaningful. What happened here? Skipping some of the earlier history, after 13 months the Confederate side restoring the fort, Union soldiers basically set up this new rifle cannon technology on nearby Tybee Island and wrecked this fort in 3 days. Mostly, this reminded us of a similar fort experience in Pearl Harbor. The fort looked the same, there are cannons and exhibits. It’s cool there’s some damage still left on the fort.

Let’s finally talk about something non-history related, something totally different— the beach, we visited a beach while here. Tybee Island is a beach vibes chill vacation getaway for folks in the surrounding areas; it’s awesome because it’s only a half hour from Savannah. We did see Tybee lighthouse but we arrived after it closed; so after snapping a pic, the first real thing we did on Tybee was look at our notes and see that the executive chef of Common Thread often took drives out here to unwind and clear his head. We noted he said “Don’t forget to hit Sea Wolf for strong drinks and tasty hot dogs” and we uncharacteristically spontaneously hit it up. Yes, hot dog in a buttery brioche bun was real satisfying. Drink was strong and tasty. Good prices! We were actually going to Common Thread for dinner that night so I said this bodes well for the restaurant when its chef made a recommendation that turned out to be good. We hit the beach in a good mood.

Folks and families can spend a whole day on a beach but alas, we are not beach people. We don’t know what to do sitting on a beach all day, or so we claim. But honestly I used to go with my family every year down to Outer Banks and I remember these trips with great fondness and clarity. So I tell Victor that I’m probably so-called not a beach person now only because he isn’t. *Anyway*, Tybee Island gave me strong Outer Banks vibes and it’s nostalgic. We saw people fishing on the pier, I stepped into the warm ocean water and I explained to him what kids do all day on the beach. I find it endearing and am mildly amused that this beach-deprived soul needs some explaining how a beach works.

On the drive back, the sunset was lighting the horizon of low-country in a warm orange glow. Victor spotted a turn out which turned out to be Lazaretto Creek. We watched the last few minutes of a calm sunset over the marsh, a beautiful and peaceful experience though short since we hadn’t planned to catch sunset here.

But I haven’t spent any time talking about sights downtown yet. It’s totally walkable and there is a lot of stuff packed just a few minutes from one thing to the next. We checked out Leopold’s Ice Cream, where the line went down the block. At Chippewa Square where Forrest Gump filmed the famous bench scene, the bench was not there. It was moved hah— but still, this was a pretty square like the multitudes of other squares throughout downtown. We took a quick walk into Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, walked down East Jones Street which is a picturesque tree-lined street, and ended at Forsyth Park, where we people watched this giant wedding party (9 groomsmen!) take photos at the nice fountain. Having just been a groomsman at two weddings the previous weekend, Victor I guess knew a lot more about weddings now lol and we were kept entertained just sitting on a bench watching this wedding party. City Market is another thing to do, with 4 blocks of shopping, art galleries, and a generally lively atmosphere. At Savannah Bee Company, we did a mead tasting. On River St, we walked on the waterfront in comfortable breezy weather. The last thing to mention, which is not downtown but something we also checked out was Bonaventure Cemetery. The live oaks there were a nice vibe but we didn’t recognize a single person, making the visit not all that interesting.

Lastly, the food. I don’t need to go into it here because Victor’s covered the places we’ve eaten in depth in his Yelp reviews. But I will say that Common Thread was definitely our favorite restaurant in Savannah. Honestly, Savannah’s restaurants started off rather poorly and got better with each restaurant. We were rather disappointed by the food until Common Thread, which redeemed Savannah’s food scene for us. You can read all about The Olde Pink House, The Grey, Husk, Common Thread, and Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room by going to his Yelp reviews. Common Thread and Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room we would recommend and the rest we would not.

We only spent 2 days plus a morning in Savannah and that was enough time for us to see everything we wanted to. After that third morning, we began driving to Charleston with a day trip in Beaufort along the way.

Now Beaufort is a funny memory. It’s kind of like Sausalito, older, probably rich, mostly white folk looking like they’re there to relax. It’s a funny memory because my strongest impression of it was the heated debate we got into about the principles behind amateur artists charging their friends for art. Walking down the Spanish Moss Trail which I had previously looked forward to, I could see nothing but his sheer ignorance and hear nothing but his high horse arguments. Yeah we got this sherbet ice tea float that was good, yeah we checked out the waterfront and the wetlands, none of which was memorable. Don’t even get me started on the Fishcamp restaurant where we had such a memorably off-putting experience that we couldn’t shake it off half an hour into our drive onwards. Admittedly, the Beaufort National Cemetery was beautiful, peaceful, and this place we absolutely recommend. But what I’ll remember most about Beaufort is our passionate debate and the irking restaurant experience lol.

After the stop in Beaufort, onwards to Charleston we went. Continue on our journey in part 2 of this blog post at https://exploringduo.com/south-2!