26.08.2012 – 26.08.2012  28 °C

A nice early start for D and I this morning as we went for a swim back down at Folly’s Beach outside of Charleston. Current was bit sweepy (reminiscent of Greenmount on a bad afternoon) but waves were a good size. We were the only swimmers out in the ocean, sharing the waves with board riders. The riders were getting a little too close for comfort so we decided to grab our towels and go up the beach a bit and find a different spot to swim. No sooner had we gotten in a likely spot and poor old D got stung by a friendly jellyfish!! Fortunately, not the man killing kind, but stingy enough to cause a welt on D’s arm!

We returned back to the hotel, picked up M and headed out of Charleston for Savannah, Georgia. Our drive this morning was really quite leisurely and allowed us a good chance to view some of the marsh area offshore of Sth Carolina. This marshy coast line runs all the way from northern USA right down to the panhandle in Florida.. I find it pretty amazing, that nearly all of the eastern coast is (or was) one big marsh.

Our morning tea stop today was in the town of Beaufort which is my vision of Sth Carolina, gorgeous Antebellum homes set right on the marsh lands of Sth Carolina. We stopped at this café which overlooks the marsh, surrounded by huge old oak trees covered in draped Spanish moss… Totally my ideal place for smoko! We splashed out on morning tea and ordered Key Lime Pie, Pecan Pie and a Berry Pie with Lattes.. Holy dooley… Super Duper good pies and way too much of it!! We probably should have gone for a walk (to get rid of some of the calories) but instead we jumped in the car and drove the remaining 30mins into Savannah Georgia.

Our hotel stop for the night is something straight out of the 1950s, the Thunderbird Motel. It is a quintessential motor hotel that has been lovingly restored to resemble a new “motor hotel” from the 50s. The whole motel is completed with continuing 50s music blaring all day from outdoor speakers. Think a 50s diner then think somewhere to sleep and you’ve pictured the Thunderbird Motel. I’m kind of glad that D booked us into this place because it is nice to be able to say that we stayed in an old fashioned 50s place whilst we are in the home of ‘road trippin’’!

After checking out the motel (we also got free freshly buttered popcorn when we checked in) we left the car in the parking lot and wandered downtown to check out all that Savannah has to offer. I want to share the LP’s description of Savannah as I think it is a very appropriate description. It describes Savannah as a beautiful Southern Belle but with a very dirty face. The town must have once been as beautiful as Charleston but the years haven’t been kind to the town!

Our first stop on our walk around town was down at the old marketplace. Here we found ourselves a cold drink and an outdoor spot so that we could hear some music from some local musicians. The two guys were playing plenty of music from the seventies inclu some classic Eagles so most people were bopping/ singing along to the duo. They were actually pretty good for a free outdoor concert! Once we’d had our fill of both music and sunshine (it’s still pretty warm here today) we continued our wander, heading down to the old dock area. This area used to be the place where the cotton merchants stored the cotton ready for export. The warehouses have all now been converted into restaurants, pubs and hotels so it was quite a pleasant wander along the boardwalk. We were wandering along the boardwalk with a plan to find ourselves some lunch/ dinner. Nearly everywhere we tried was either not quite open for business (its not lunch and it isn’t dinner time) or wasn’t selling what we were looking for, seafood again of course!

Eventually we found a pub at the end of the wharf that sold not only seafood but also beer, so ticked a couple of boxes for the family! Whilst we were waiting for the food side of it to open up, M and I went shopping at the nearby marketplace. Here I found some new head bands (yippee cause the other ones had died) and M got to have an in depth conversation about the cosmos with some random student selling old photographs! J D’s and my seafood pastas were pretty alright and M’s fish and chips lived up to expectations so all in all a good night’s meal!

We ended our day with a wander around some of the famous Savannah squares. Each block (or so) has a big garden placed in the middle, filled with statues and my favourite, oak trees with Spanish moss! About thirty photos later and I had sated my need for Spanish moss shots and D and M had found the location where Forest Gump’s bus stop scenes were filmed… Great ending to a great day!

Song of the Day– Eagles, Take it to the limit