Trip Report! Thanksgiving in Savannah

Last year for Thanksgiving we went to Charleston and had such a nice time we immediately decided to plan on Savannah this year. After our whirlwind tour of southern Spain I was especially looking forward to staying in one place for more than 2 nights.

We stayed at the Catherine Ward House, a B&B right off Forsyth Park, which is the big park in the middle of the historic area.

It was beautiful, and true to our experiences in every B&B, the owners were so nice and friendly and helpful. The breakfasts each morning were also huge and delicious.

Our room was on the "garden level" (basement) but it did look out to the garden. My only complaint about this place is that it was a bit noisy. It felt kind of companionable and homey during the day to hear people wandering around and chatting upstairs, but on our last night there, the people next door were kind of noisy and that was annoying.

Look, though. This made up for the noise. FREE DIET COKE. They replenished it each morning.

Fresh flowers, too!

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at The Olde Pink House, one of Savannah's most famous historic restaurants. It was an absolute madhouse when we walked in - the entry was packed with people and we had to wait about 20 minutes past our reservation time. All was forgiven, though, when we actually sat down because everything about the restaurant was amazing. The food, decor and ambience, and especially the service was just perfect. On this trip I relented from embarrassing Benjamin and did not take pictures of our food.  But at The Olde Pink House I took a picture of the menu, at least. I got that BLT salad and I can vouch for it being as good as it sounds.

And someone took a picture of us! Well, sort of. When we got back to the B&B I was checking Instagram for other pictures posted of that location and someone had posted one while we were there! 

Too bad that giant vase is in the way.

On Friday we spent the day doing a couple of walking tours that were in a guidebook I had procured at the library. It was a great way to catch the highlights of the historic district without paying for someone to tell us about it. We did consider doing a guided tour on this trip but couldn't pull the trigger. We just are not joiners.

This fountain is in Forsyth Park and is "the most photographed fountain in the South." I don't know how they know that, but it was pretty.

Savannah is full of gorgeous, tree-filled squares and historic houses. Essentially those are the two things we spent the day looking at. 

This is the only picture of both of us from the trip. As you can see, I look a bit dazed. 

We went on a tour of the Owens Thomas House, which was really interesting. It was built in 1819 and was one of the first homes in the United States to have indoor plumbing. We have really gotten into this type of architectural tour in the last few years. Does this mean we're old now?

This was our favorite house. We are fans of the federal style.

The oldest house in Georgia, built in 1734. In general we were surprised at how much older Charleston felt than Savannah. They really aren't so far apart, but South Carolina was settled long before people moved into Georgia.

This is a gun that was used in the Revolutionary War.

For lunch we ate cheap Thai food. I figured it was fine to take a picture since our food cost $7 each. This is one thing I miss so much about Southern California - I cannot understand why Raleigh doesn't have cheap Thai food. 

One of the many squares we walked through.

This is the Mercer-Williams house, made famous by Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (which I barely remember). They do tours, but you aren't allowed to ask about anything that happened related to the book, which seems a little pointless.

Ben wasn't really mad. 

This is across the street from the B&B - we were just on the edge of the Victorian District.

We had dinner at 700 Drayton that night, right on Forsyth Park a few blocks down from our B&B. Once again, the food was great. After dinner we walked around the park for a little exercise. This building is an emergency animal hospital.

The next day we spent mostly shopping. It was fun going into all the little stores with antiques and art and local treasures - that is not something we normally do, but I had some Christmas shopping to work on and we had seen a lot of interesting little places the day before.

In the afternoon we went to Leopold's for ice cream.

On the way back to the B&B we stopped in to look at this church, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It looked pretty standard from the outside but was really unique and beautiful inside.

For dinner our last night we ate at Noble Fare, which was my absolute favorite of the trip. I am still dreaming of my grouper with lobster & corn risotto. 

Savannah is beautiful! We had such a nice, relaxing trip filled with great food. The drive home back up I-95 was a bit harrowing, and I don't think I will be doing any major interstate travel on the Sunday after Thanksgiving for a while, but we made it home safe & sound.