This morning we went down to the river in Savannah, since our hotel was right by it, and we had a fabulous breakfast at a place called Huey's overlooking the river that had a New Orleans theme. We got an order of beignets to split, two each, and then I was only able to eat my catfish and eggs, not my grits or my toast. We asked our waitress if there was a big Mardi Gras party in Savannah, and she replied that the big party day was St. Patrick's Day, which our carriage driver last night also mentioned. This seems kind of funny when Savannah was founded by some guy named James Oglethorpe on four principles: no slaves, no drinking, no lawyers, and no Catholics. You'd think the drinking and Catholic prohibitions would have kept the Irish away, but it seems that all those rules were done away with, sadly the no slaves one first. I am happy to report that today there are no slaves in Savannah, but there are drinkers, lawyers, and Catholics. In fact, after breakfast we took a walk to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, which is a minor basilica. Here are some photos.
We went to a Cuban coffee shop, and it was even more than I could have hoped. This coffee made me feel half my age. When I thought about it, all the Cuban musicians lived into their nineties, and even the Cubans I knew in this country, so maybe it's the coffee. Here is a photo of a Pabst sign we saw nearby (made us think of Wisconsin) and one of the inside of the Cuban coffee shop.
Then we caught a very cute green and purple trolley (sorry, no photo) called the Dot that goes in a loop around the historic area of Savannah, and it's totally free. Here are more photos of Savannah.
Then we headed out of town and drove to Amelia Island in Florida, a quiet place with a slow pace of life. We went to Summer Beach, which was absolutely gorgeous, with white sand dunes and big waves. Here are some photos.
Big balls of foam kept rolling by us, getting smaller and smaller. Here is one that had become tiny.
We had a late lunch at a sort of French bistro on Amelia Island; I had a turkey, brie, and apple sandwich that was surprisingly cinnamon-flavored, while Travalon had a mozzarella and tomato pesto sandwich. We are trying to eat somewhat healthy food on this trip. Behind the restaurant was a little pond with a boardwalk and a fountain.
After that, we drove to St. Augustine. On the way there I needed to use the restroom, so we stopped at a gas station, but they didn't have one. They said go to the Dollar Store, so we did, but that didn't have one either. We begged a cashier to tell us where we could find one, and she let us use the employee one in the back. It was a good stop, because we found some small items we needed. Another shop in this strip mall was Virgo Tattoo Parlor, which made me wonder: can only Virgos go there to get a tattoo? We saw a sundog from the parking lot. This is the best photo Travalon got of it. It's like a little rainbow caused by the setting sun.
We passed a spot with water to the east and to the west just as the sun was setting, and it was a gorgeous view, but there was nowhere to stop. Then we saw a sign for beach parking just down the road. We got there, but a sign said the parking lot gate would be locked after sunset, and sunset would be at 6:10 tonight. Since it was twenty after, we thought we'd better get out of there... and then an official-looking truck followed us in, but he didn't stop us. We figured he locked up after we left. Anyway, we didn't get a photo of the beautiful sunset over water.
When we got to our hotel, it was really early, and I desperately needed to do laundry. The woman at the front desk said they didn't have a guest laundry room, which seemed odd, but we figured we could find a nearby laundromat after we unpacked. We got up to our room, and guess what was right across from it? A guest laundry room! So right now our clothes are drying as I am blogging. We are also eating really unhealthy sandwiches (a burger for Travalon and a chicken sandwich for me) from the convenience store across the street, which we picked up when we ran over there to get some laundry detergent. So much for eating healthy, but we just wanted to hang out in our room and not go anywhere tonight. Tomorrow we will explore St. Augustine and see things we didn't see the first time.
Here are some things we have acquired on this trip. First, my jewelry. The corn bead necklace is from a shop on the Cherokee reservation. The teardrop-shaped glass pendant is from the Public Market in Charleston. You can see me wearing them in the beach photo.
This cute little stuffed turkey vulture is from the gift shop at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Travalon wanted to name it Vinny, but I feel it's a girl, so we haven't settled on a name yet.
This is a video of how cool the road is on Amelia Island.
Two things I forgot to mention about Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge: there was a "Welcome" Welcome Center, and there were at least two Trump shops. That really struck me as weird. Can you imagine what right-wingers would say about an Obama shop or a Biden shop? And there weren't Bush shops either, so this weirdness is something new. I detest cults of personality.
Famous Hat
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