THE CITY OF SAVANNAH

I arrived in Savannah on Wednesday, July 2nd.  Every time I mentioned to someone that I was visiting Savannah, their immediate response was always, "You have to do the city tour." So, on July 3rd, I took one of the city tours!  Mr. W told me that he found out Old Town Trolley Tours will pick you up at the state park and deliver you back to the state park when he checked us in at the state park.  We could also buy our tickets ahead of time at the state park.  What a deal! We go to the office later in the day after we had set up to buy our tickets. We walk in and there is a sign that says that the trolley tour picks up at the state park on Fridays and Saturdays ONLY.  SOMEONE failed to see this sign when HE checked in. But, we were not deterred.  The trolley company has free parking and 2 parking lots so off we went to do the city tour on a Thursday.

With your ticket, you hop on the trolley (which is open air) and you start on the route through the downtown historic area.  I loved it.  Savannah was a town that was planned around 24 squares.  By squares, I mean areas that look like a park.  Edward Oglethorpe was sent from England to establish and rule the town.  He actually drew up the plans in England and then started building once he got here.  He had 4 prohibitions for this town.  There was to be (1.) no rum.  You could have wine, beer, or ale, but no rum.  There was to be (2.) no blacks.  It wasn't that he cared about the blacks or slavery.  He felt that any man that had slaves was a lazy man and he did not want any lazy men in the town.  There was to be (3.) no Catholics.  The church of England was Episcopal and the rulers of England did not want anything to threaten that.  There was to be (4.) no lawyers.  He did not want the bickering of lawyers and felt that a judge knew the law and the judge could make a decision and rule on anything brought to court.  So, if you wanted to drink anything besides wine or beer or if you were black or if you were Catholic or if you were a lawyer.  You could not live in Savannah.

Savannah is also the birthplace of Girl Scouts.  On any day, you can see little girls walking around downtown in their girl scout uniforms.  Actually, a lot of stores give discounts to girl scouts.  This is also where the films Forest Gump and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil were filmed.  Another fact which is very different than most cities I have visited, you can buy adult drinks "to go" in this downtown district.  There are signs at all the restaurants advertising the to go drinks and there are shops that only sell to go drinks.  However, you can only drink from Styrofoam or plastic cups outside.  You cannot drink adult drinks out of a can or bottle.  They want everyone everywhere looking very proper.  After all y'all, this is the south.

You can hop on and off all day long on the trolley tour.  The historic information tour has 16 stops and lasts about 90 minutes.  We decided before we went that we would ride all the way through and decide what stops we wanted to go back to.  However, at stop 15 we decided to get off and have lunch.  After lunch, we walked around to different areas we had passed on the tour.  We went to Paula Deen's store, walked through several of the squares, went into lots of stores, and walked by several of the old houses.  I just want you to know that July is probably not the best time to visit Savannah.  It was stinking hot!  I know, I'm from Texas and I should be use to this.  However, since I am now an old girl, I don't do heat very well.  My face will turn beat red and then my ears start ringing and I start feeling sort of nauseous and light headed.  Can you say heat stroke? Yeah, I can too.  So, I finally had to sit down and try to cool off for awhile. 

We did catch the trolley back at stop number 15 where we got off, went by stop number 16 and then back to the start.  We spent some time at the visitors center and then went by the cemetery that we had not stopped at on the tour.  I love old cemeteries. 

OK, so from now on when someone tells me that they are going to visit Savannah, my first comment to them is going to be, "You need to do the city tour."  It was great.  It was very informative.  You got to see sections that you could either go to that day or maybe revisit on your own on another day.  You could hop on and off and not have to worry about finding parking.  It is definitely a great thing to do to get yourself oriented with the city.

One of the 24 squares

The mounted police.  You see them all around the downtown area.

This is an esplanade down the middle of the street.

Another of the squares.  This is a statue of the Oglethorpe.  There is an Oglethorpe Square but his statue is in a different square.  That's how all of the squares are.  Whoever the square is named for, they either don't have a statue or their statue is in a different square.  Not sure why.

One of the old houses.  Their historic society is very strict about the exteriors of all the old houses.  If you buy one or if you already own one and want to add on, you have to get their approval.  You cannot do anything that is not the same as the original structure.  Example: No dual pane windows, nothing but wooden shutters

This house is made with 3 different color brick.  That was a sign of influence. When the Union army was advancing on Savannah, there were 7,000 Union soldiers.  There were 1,900 Confederate soldiers in Savannah at the time.  When they heard how many Union soldiers were getting ready to invade, they all left the city.  Therefore, there was no reason to burn the city because there was no resistance.  So, all the beautiful homes and architecture were spared.

This is the Waving Girl Statue.  There was an actual girl who fell in love with a sailor.  When the sailor left, he told her that he would return one day and they would get married.  He told her to wave when his ship came into port so he could find her.  The girl waved at every ship that came into port so as not to miss his ship.  She died 40 years later, single. Dang sailor.

City Market area of town.  It is a revitalized area of town.

The dome on the top of this building is made of 23 carat gold leaf.

Gorgeous

Does this steeple look familiar?  Do you remember a film opening with a feather swirling around a steeple and the feather floating down to where a guy was sitting on a bench at a bus stop? If I say, "Run Forest Run", would that help?  Yep, this is the steeple from Forest Gump.  It is having some work done right now.

This roped off area is where the bench and the bus stop were set up for Forest Gump.  There was no bus stop ever there.  Hollywood had put one there.  The bench remained there for a short period of time but it caused too many traffic problems.  It is right on the edge of the road and people were wanting their picture made sitting on the bench.  You get the "picture".  So, the original bench is now in the Smithsonian and a replica is in the Savannah History Museum.

This is a courtyard of someone's house.  It is walled in but has an iron gate so you can see it.

The dolphin is a sign of good luck in a port city.  So, many people put dolphins on their downspouts for good luck.

An old phone booth outside of a café.  You know who worked for AT&T for many years, so there is a certain fascination with phone booths.

These are family tombs.  Don't they look like a bed?  I guess it is someone's final "resting place." (I can't believe I just said that!  That's Mr. W's humor........how did I end up saying it??)

Sign of the times.

When this epidemic happened, they dug one big grave and buried everyone in together in the big grave.  Another interesting fact, with hurricanes and some rebuilding, some gravestones were moved to other cemeteries but the bodies were left in the original place.

Use Old Town Trolley or Old Savannah Trolley if you do the city tour.  There is a third company, Oglethorpe Trolley Tours.  They offer a groupon so I really considered using them.  However, after reading the reviews and recommendations from friends plus a $2 off coupon, I went with Old Town Trolley. With some other things I noticed and read about Oglethorpe, I would not use them.  That's just my opinion.  There are other tours that the trolley companies offer.  You can do a "Haunted" tour, a Paula Deen tour that includes lunch at her restaurant, a Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil tour, and several others.  Have fun!