Georgia, Old Savannah Tour

 

With what I consider a limited time to explore Savannah, I set out from the Mulberry Inn with a definite plan to accomplish this.

 

Crossing Bay Street which use to be the longest interstate highway in the country, running from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, I descend a set of steep stairs and I am along a part of the Savannah Riverfront.

Here, I board a trolley and for US$20 I will get a 90 minute narrated tour of this beautiful and historic city.

 

 

 

 

 

Moon River Brewing Company

 

 

 

From learning about a local resident, Johnny Mercer, famous song writer of “Moon River” fame to seeing the locations where many famous movies like Forrest Gump were shot, this turns out to be a very interesting and entertaining tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you know that the windows of the Methodist Church here are from Tiffany's and that Lewis Tiffany came here himself from New York to help install them? Of course, it was right after he had breakfast.

 

 

Also as a part of your tour you can get reasonably priced dental work done by “Smiling Sam”, the pirate dentist. Today, we are told that extractions are half-off.

 

 

 

 

 

If your dental work is fine then you just might want to find yourself in the company of one fine and entertaining “Georgia Peach”, Mrs. Catharine Greene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Georgia, Like A Big A Pizza Pie, That's Amore!

 

 

There's no more complete and versatile meal like pizza, especially when traveling. For the longest time my favorite pie was (and probably still is) from Ray's (Now Amadeus) on 8^th Ave in New York near W 51^st Street.

 

 

 

 

No trip to The Big Apple would be complete without a trip or two to Ray's and this goes back to the mid 1990's.

Nowadays, I don't get to visit New York as much as I would like or use to. However, like the moon hitting my eye, whenever I travel I am always on the lookout for a slice of heaven.

 

 

 

 

Recently, while visiting Savannah, Georgia I get a chance to refresh my memory of a good New York pizza at VinnieVan GoGo located at City Market. Touted as “The Best Pizza” in the city by one tour bus driver, I am not disappointed with a slice topped with fresh sliced tomatoes, spicy Italian sausage and a generous sprinkling of self added oregano.

 

 

A VinnieVan GoGo Slice Of Heaven

 

If I cannot make it back to The Big Apple anytime soon then I would be glad to be hit anytime in the eye in Savannah at Vinnie Van GoGo. Now that's Amore!

 

 

 

Georgia, A Savannah Peach

It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman and I get to meet one of them during my tour of Savannah. As charming and as entertaining as she was over 200 years ago, Catharine Greene tells a lovely story about her life and that of her husband, Nathanael Greene, “The Fighting Quaker”.

 

 

From dancing with America's First President George Washington to working with Eli Whitney on the Mulberry Grove Plantation, Cathie Greene turns out not only to be a “Savannah Peach” but also one “Fine Southern Lady”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Georgia, A Pirate's Tale

 

For me, when thinking about pirates, Georgia is not one of the first places or things that come to mind. The Caribbean or Captain Morgan (spiced, over ice and mixed with sweet and sour) are more likely.

 

 

However, Savannah has been from the 1700's and still is today an important seaport and trading post. Although the “John Depp's” of the day have long vanished, their history is still being kept alive here in a very entertaining way.

So if you want to learn about how rum was imported (smuggled) here during prohibition or if you want to know how to get a free trip to China then this Pirate's Tale might be just right for you.

However, one word out of you bloke, an you gonna be walkin the plank, mate. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.

 

 

 

 

 

Georgia, Hanging With Forrest Gump

 

I don't know if you would believe me if I told ya but I am gonna tell you anyway and maybe you are gonna believe me.

 

I just came back from Viet .. Nam and I went straight back to Savannah. Well, not straight back cause I had to take a car, then a bus then an airplane. And I am sure the airplane did not go straight. It went up and down. It was a Del..ta airplane.

Anyway, I get home and low and bee..hold, who did I meet. I meet one Mr. Forrest Gump, the owner of The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company sitting right there on a park bench in Chippewa Square.

I think he liked my shoes, so although he was a gazillionaire, he showed me around Savannah.

 

 

 

I saw the oldest movie theater in America where him and Jenny went on there first date then we went to Colonial Park Cemetery.

Although he did not tell me this, I think his father and his father before his father and his father before his father is buried here.

 

 

 

 

 

There is also some other interesting people buried there like Button Gwinnett, one of the original signers of The Declaration Of Independence. I don't think he is signing anything, anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could sense a little sadness at our next stop, the restaurant where Jenny worked. Forrest, may not be a smart man but from standing there and having spent a little time with him, I think he knows what love is.