You can tell we are out of the Louisiana influence because the decorations on the houses are for Valentine’s Day and not Mardi Gras. And, I have to report that I have NOT found any hush puppies yet. My spouse is continuing on her quest for the best lemonade or limeade -- she found a very good, freshly made lemonade today but she reports that it is not as good as the lemonade she found in Birmingham, which apparently was the best ever. We ran across a praline store where they were handing out “free” samples. I say “free” in quotes because the stuff was so incredibly good that we ended up buying a bunch. These were definitely better than the pralines I’ve tasted in New Orleans or from the Praline store in the Atlanta airport (which are supposed to be really good). I think one of the differences in these Savannah pralines is the quality of the pecans (and yes, there is an ongoing discussion of the pronunciation of pecan -- pee-CAHN or PEE-can). Personally, I tend to come down on whichever side is the most irritating to whomever I am conversing with.
We’re staying at a DoubleTree Hotel, right on the edge of the Savannah River. It is a wonderful hotel and I highly recommend it. One cute thing is that they play the sounds of a babbling brook in the ladies restroom in the lobby area. I must say that it is a bit odd to hear it when I walk in -- the first time I used the restroom I ended up checking everywhere for a leaking faucet or a toilet that was running. I finally realized that the sound was coming from the ceiling.
We took a three-hour tour of the city with Old Savannah Tours. Wow, one of the best tours I’ve ever been on. The tour operator talked almost nonstop the whole time and packed in more history and odd bits and stories than I could possibly remember, but it was fascinating. The old, historic part of the city, which is where we are staying, is laid out in wards. Each ward consists of a city block-sized central square (a park with gorgeous, big, old oak trees, lots of landscaping bushes, other trees dripping with Spanish moss, usually a monument of some kind, often some interesting iron fencing, and some benches) and the houses that surround it. So the historic district is full of these central squares. The tour went around almost every one, describing interesting bits about the history of the square and some of the surrounding houses. This part of the city is absolutely lovely -- I already want to come back again for a more leisurely look. And yes, we saw the house that was written about in the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and also the house where the founder of the Girl Scouts grew up.. One interesting tidbit we learned is that when the Georgia colony was formed (it was the last of the original 13 colonies), it was almost located in northern Maine but it was decided to locate it much further south, and one of the original rules was to ban slavery. That rule only lasted for 17 years but at least they tried. After the tour, we had a bite of lunch and then got the car and drove back to some of the squares to walk around and take photos. The weather was a perfect 70F and sunny -- couldn’t have ordered up anything more perfect.
We’re doing our best to keep Savannah green, if you know what I mean. I walked by a small shop that sold paintings by a Haitian artist -- the artist was sitting in the shop painting. His work is in a traditional folk-art style -- vibrantly colorful and detailed depictions of village life. I’ve always liked that style of painting but haven’t fallen in love with a particular work that I can afford. But I really like this guy’s work. So I hemmed and I hawed and then I asked the price of my favorite piece (which was way more than I was willing to pay) and then I started negotiating the price down, trying to carefully walk that line between getting the price down but not being disrespectful to his work. We reached an agreement and so by the time I get home, I’ll have a delightful new piece to hang on my wall. After I left the shop, my spouse wandered into the same shop and ended up going through the same negotiation process to buy a Gullah-style painting, which I had seen and also liked. The Gullah people live on isolated islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina and have their own language and culture. Their art style usually depicts people in silhouette, never showing facial or other detail, and is almost art deco in style. I think we have to stop shopping now.
Dinner was at a rather touristy place called The Pirate House. Ordinarily, my expectation is that food in touristy, gimmick restaurants is never very good. But Savannah seems to have a magic touch when it comes to food. Dinner last night was fabulous. Dinner tonight was amazingly fabulous. First of all, they brought a basket of buttermilk biscuits and cornbread muffins. I’ve never had biscuits that were so light and fluffy and flavorful, and the cornbread was also out of this world. I ordered fried chicken with a pecan crust that was definitely in the oh-my-gawd category, not to mention the onion rings (best ever), and even the spinach. Everything was pretty salty but otherwise it was cooked perfectly with amazing flavor. My friends ordered grilled shrimp, tilapia, and crab and they were bowled over by the food. Oh, and we had deep fried pickles again -- what a hoot and oh, so good. I hope I still fit in the seat on the plane when we fly home.
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