Police cab

Friday, June 1 - Definitely the most unique - and convincing - vehicle we've seen on the road trip so far.

Taxi cab: "This ride about $20"
Police car: "This ride = $1800.00+"

The epitome of business in the front; party in the back??

Girl Scout Mecca

Friday, June 1 – As a former girl scout, Sandy was pretty jazzed when she passed by the birthplace of the founder of the Girl Scouts in the Savannah historic district on her morning walk.  It must have been her inner Girl Scout that navigated her unknowingly down that street.  This year is the 100^th anniversary of the Girl Scouts, and if Sandy had known that scouts from all over were making the pilgrimage to Savannah this year, she’d have brought her sash.

Crossfit Hyperformance in Savannah

Friday, June 1 – My second Crossfit stop on the road trip.  Went to a 7:30am workout at Crossfit Hyperformance, and it was a killer…  (For those of you who are not Crossfitters, this may sound like a foreign language…) Clean & jerk 3-3-3-1-1-1, and then a partner workout, the “Ball Breaker:” 400m run with a medicine ball, then THREE ROUNDS of 30 tosses of the medball over the pull-up bar, 30 partner situps with the medball, 30 walking lunges with the medball overhead.   Then finish up with another 400m run.  Let's just say, the Southern humidity adds another fun element to the workout!  Thanks to Coach Drew who was my partner, Jennifer and everyone else in the class, including the dogs.  An additional shoutout to Tracee who was also visiting from Atlanta from Crossfit East Decatur.  Awesome workout!

SCAD Animation Graduation Show

Thursday, May 31 – The Savannah College of Arts and Design (SCAD), has a large presence throughout Savannah.  We saw SCAD buildings all over as we walked around town.  There is an old restored movie theater, the Lucas Theater, a block from our hotel, The Planters Inn.  We saw that they were doing a screening, plus an awards ceremony, there for the best animated short films from this year’s SCAD graduating class.  So, we stopped by and caught about 10 or so of them.  Really amazing work!  We loved them. 

Around the corner they also had their annual SCADemy Awards as part of graduation weekend.  These kids are ready for the big time.

Dinner at Local 11 Ten

Thursday, May 31 – We had a fantastic dinner at Local 11 Ten, a restaurant on the other side of Forsythe Park. It had great reviews and is a foodie favorite serving new Southern cuisine.  Because we were walking in without a reservation, we weren’t sure if we’d get a seat.  While they didn’t have any seats available in the dining room, because we got there early, we were able to get two prime seats at the bar – right on the corner.  Perfect!  I had the "daily boat catch," which was a pan seared grouper today.  Dessert = strawberry rhubarb pie.  Fantastic.  

We love sitting at the bar to talk to the bartenders and the other people at the bar to get more information about what’s going on in town.  We sat next to Rich, who was in town on business and works for a major hotel chain.  Thanks for the great conversation, Rich!

Around Savannah

Thursday, May 31 – We did a little self-guided walking tour of the Savannah Historic District.  We walked down to the riverfront and took a quick pass though, because we realized pretty quickly that it is very “tourist-heavy”.  We’d rather spend more time away from the typical tourist destinations in order to see the “real” neighborhoods where the locals live.  So we started walking back through the historic district passing through many of the numerous squares throughout the district.  Beautiful old homes and trees with Spanish moss hanging from them.

Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room

Thursday, May 31 – My friend Greg said that we absolutely MUST have lunch at Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room, a legendary restaurant in Savannah.   They are only open from 11am-2pm for lunch, and all guidebooks advise visitors to get in line EARLY in order to get a seat.  Well, we didn’t get into town until after 1pm, and thought we would just walk over and check it out, assuming that we probably wouldn’t get in.  We arrived exactly at 2pm, opened the door and asked “is it too late?”  The answer was no – just wait for 5 minutes and they were setting up one more table! 

There were seven other people waiting, and we looked around to see if there was a menu to take a peek at.  No luck.  A couple of minutes later, they called all nine of us over to a big family-style table – the picture says it all.  We just started passing dishes and filled up our plates with traditional southern cuisine.  The fried chicken was amazing, and so was the BBQ.  There were TWENTY-ONE side dishes passed around.  Sweet tea was pre-set at every seat, so if you wanted unsweetened, they’d swap it out.  We sat next to a German couple from Dusseldorf who are doing a 4-week road trip throughout the South, and Brian and his wife from Austin, who were in town on business.  The meal was finished off with the option of blueberry cobbler or banana pudding.  Then, they reminded everyone that as is Mrs. Wilkes tradition, all guests please bring your own plates to the kitchen to clean up.

Wow – what an amazing start to our Savannah visit!  Thanks for the suggestion, Greg!