Over the weekend me and my husband went on a long awaited trip down to Savannah, Georgia. It has been on my bucket list for quite some time now, as a lover of history. The first hurdle for our trip was the drive, so we decided to stop over in Wilmington NC, a five hour drive from our home in Virginia. On the way, we couldn’t help but stop for lunch at Chapel Hill, NC where we shopped at one of my favorite book stores, flyleaf books. The used book selection is amazing and the books they recommend are pretty and modern. We stopped for lunch at this place called KoKyu which was a ghost kitchen type store, which had good food but unfortunately no indoor seating so sitting outside in the heat was rough.
Our first night in Wilmington, we stayed at the Graystone Inn, a beautiful lodging near to the river and the main street. We did have to park a few blocks down the street at their sister inn, which wasn’t too much of a hassle. It was either that or on the busy street which was already taken by other cars. The room was spacious but the TV didn’t have many options in terms of cable and the shower had this weird effect on the eyes. The main street of Wilmington, at sunset, was fun to walk around. We went to the museum of the bizarre, which was a cute quirky museum located on the riverfront. It was small and had a mirror maze which cost a bit extra. If you are interested in cryptids or have a morbid curiosity, this would be for you, taking up only ten minutes of our time.
The next day we stopped at Wrightsville beach before we got on the road to Savannah, stopping at a donut inn for a coffee and a donut. The donuts were decent but unremarkable. The beach was pleasant enough but we felt pretty rushed as it was pay to park, and we refused to do that for a brief amount of time. I always figure that beaches should also have taps to clean off sandy feet and this could have benefitted from that. The road to Savannah from Wilmington was a very boring drive taking the interstate and the highway. We did stop at a Bucc-ees in Florence, South Carolina, but were overwhelmed by the amount of people and the size. The lunch we got there, the wrap and the sandwiches were actually pretty good, my favorite being the chicken sandwich.
Our first place to visit in Savannah was Fort Pulaski, which was a old civil war fort with a moat. It was pretty similar to the other forts we have seen, but was still worth seeing with pretty views and is set up well. We didn’t spend too long here but could have spent more if we read all the placards. Afterwards, we headed to the legendary Bonnaventure cemetery. It was gorgeous and a lovely walk, but make sure to bring water as we struggled. There seemed to be a lot of tours, by walk or golf cart that was happening at the same time we got there. They did sound pretty interesting when we walked by. These tours seemed to be pretty common in Savannah as we would constantly see tour trolleys and walking tours throughout the city.
Next we headed to the Hyatt regency, Savannah which was on river street. We were going to initially park in the self parking garage they recommended if you didn’t want to park Valet, but unfortunately it was full at the time. It was much nicer than the other Hyatt Regency we stayed at which was located in Charleston, West Virginia, as it didn’t smell like smoke. However, returning later there was a weird smell in the hallway but that did not seep into our clean and nice room. Whilst not as nice a room as the Graystone, it was in a nice location and we could look directly over the river, which was not that clean or exciting of a view, but was super cool when late at night we saw two large container ships pass right by. The horn did freak us out a bit as we thought the AC was broken. The AC was loud, as they tend to be, which I don’t tend to like.
A walk down river street didn’t really impress me much, it was filled with a lot of drunk people and tacky souvenir shops and the city smelt awful. We dined at Vics River Grill where we had:
Crab beignets which were good
Fried green tomatoes which was also really good,
She crab soup which I’m always a sucker for, which was really good,
Catfish and Grits which we didn’t really like that much, however they nicely split it in two for us.
We walked down the mainstreet for a bit, where I stopped into a nice comic book shop, Odin and Sons, where I bought two comics. The guy at the counter was really nice and he commented that one of the comics I got, Monstress by Marjorie Liu and drawn by Sana Takeda, was really good. We were going to try Leopolds, but were shaken off by the line. When returning to the hotel, we found out that the hotel sells the ice cream in pints and smaller pottles, which was a lifesaver. I got the peanut butter chippy which was really really good. Savannah was really busy the whole time we were there.
In the morning we stopped by at Collins Quarter, where I got a chai latte and a salmon bagel. I enjoyed the bagel but wondered what the capers really added to the dish, and the chai latte was not as good as the mix you get at Trader Joe’s. It’s also described as Australian but I didn’t see much of Australia in the dishes, being from its smaller neighbour, myself. We headed to Forsyth park where they were setting up the Saturday morning farmers market which had music, and a few cute stalls of people selling food and art. We got a milk and honey popsicle from a cart there, and walked around. The popsicle was very good; it had a subdued taste.The Collin’s Quarter there had a very long line for so early in the morning. The park was fairly busy with people playing sports. It was a very pretty walk with a lot of old buildings and pretty parks. We stopped to take pictures of some churches and buildings, primarily the Basilica, which later was open and could go inside, which was absolutely recommended as it was gorgeous. After walking around Forsyth park we walked to Colonial Cemetery, which had placards to read of the people buried there which I think would have been a cool addition to the other cemetery we went to before, Bonnaventure. There was a few tours here and it seemed to be a popular stop on the tour trolleys. We did find a cute market near the cemetery which was mildly busy, where we could buy water, Parker’s market. The houses around here were pretty. Our first tour we would take would be at the Mercer Williams house which is famous for In the garden of good and evil, and the location for swamp thing and return of swamp thing. There’s a cute shop which sells jelly cat plushies, which are adorable, where you buy your ticket, be here quickly as apparently it sells out very quickly. If we had not gone there at ten we wouldn't have been able to do the first 10:30 tour. The tour guide was informative and funny but the house itself was very small. If it wasn’t used as a filming location or had its history I don’t know if it would have been worth it. Then we popped into E Shaver bookstore, where I bought a lot of books, there was some great modern books on display, but was really busy. We also popped into the book lady bookstore, which had a few used books and I saw a couple of books I really enjoyed, but none that jumped out to me. We also tried to go to books on bay but I think they were closed permanently or we couldn’t find the door.
We knew lunch would be hard to find with the amount of people and we found a spot at Treylor park which was decent. After lunch we headed to Owens thomas house and slave quarters, which gives self guided tours after 2, since this was before two we got a really nice tour guide who showed us through the house, which exterior was getting some work and had scaffolding up. The house inside itself was decent and played a big focus on symmetry. The ticket price was fifty dollars which gets you into their other two museums Telfair academy, which had gorgeous art, and their other art museum which was more contemporary and small, which I didn’t really think was worth it. There was an interactive art where you could touch this net and colours would show, and a family seemed to enjoy it. We walked through city market which by then was filled with drunk people and stopped by the dry museum which was totally worth it. Me and my husband do not drink but it was so cool to see the history of one of the most interesting time periods. At the end of it there is a active speakeasy which I thought was a cool addition, but smelt very heavily of beer.
We went down river street to pick up some candy from the candy company and stopped by the graveface museum, which focused on morbid curiosity. This was a dark museum, and was not busy when we went, making it quite awkward. They were adding another space as well, a glimpse into the space looked pretty cool. I don’t think I would recommend this one, unless you are super into Serial Killers. Afterwards we waited in line for Ghost and Gravestones, a trolley ghost tour at night. Our trolley we were going to use was broken which led to some confusion and delay but we were on holiday, so it didn’t really matter. This was a good way to see the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace house, as it goes through it and there is a doll room which I guess you could find creepy. Someone else on the tour did say they felt a ghost in the house. The trolley tour was pretty funny and had some interesting ghost stories. Then they lead you to some place in river street where you are told more ghost stories including a sad one about a child. This segment of the tour is really funny and had the whole group laughing. It didn’t last very long but me and my husband are not night owls. Whilst on the tour we did see another hearse tour which also looked pretty fun. Then we tried Leopold's ice cream again but no luck, as the line was just as long. Savannah felt pretty safe around 9pm with all the crowds.
The next morning was time to leave Savannah and I was pretty sad to leave. I had a really fun time just walking around the town. My husband was excited to take me to breakfast at the original pancake house, which he loved when we went to Charlotte, NC. The waitress did forget his toast but we both enjoyed our breakfasts. I had the pancake sampler of berry peach and banana. We made plans to stop in either Augusta, GA or Colombia SC on our way to our last stop, Greenville and we decided Augusta might have been the best choice. Since we didn’t go to Colombia I can’t say if this was the best choice or not, but I think we should have chosen Colombia instead as the town was empty. Keep in mind that this was a Sunday so a lot of people were in church and businesses were closed but I just didn’t really enjoy the feel of the main street. We stopped into the book tavern where I bought Eva evergreen by Julia Abe. This bookstore was cute and the cashiers were informative about the local coffee shops and what was open. They said that New Moon cafe was open and my husband got a sweet tea and a coffee and I got a raspberry milkshake. Now my milkshake was nice and creamy but didn’t really taste like raspberry, just like vanilla ice cream with an afterthought of berry, and my husband really liked his sweet tea but did not care for the coffee.
After a few more hours of driving we finally landed in Greenville, SC. It was also super busy. We ended up eating at Willy taco and though we didn’t really enjoy their fried green tomatoes we enjoyed the rest of the food. I liked their queso but it was really runny. The tacos were good but a bit forgettable. We decided to stop in at the local 2nd and Charles. I remember the first 2nd and Charles in Charlotte was nice but the more we went there the more disappointing it was. I did pick up You’ve reached Sam by Dustin Thao. The next stop was a mid size book store called Mr Ks used books. I did really enjoy this book store and bought quite a bit. They seem to have their best books at the front of the book store, as their shelved books were a bit older.
Downtown Greenville was busy when we arrived but it wasn’t too hard to navigate, until we ended up at the wrong hotel. The next hotel was Hyatt Place. I enjoyed this room more than I enjoyed the Hyatt regency. The room had a nice couch and had proper cups and glasses and was just nicer. It was in a really good location. We then went out and walked the main street stopping by M. Judson booksellers. This was in a really pretty location. I picked up two books. Some books were modern and some were released last year. The book selection was pretty but not much caught my eye. The main street was pretty but a lot of the stores we had already seen in Savannah including the candy company. We stopped by marble slab creamery for an ice cream, and I thought it was decent. Walking past, Jenni’s ice cream was much busier and had quite a line, and I wish we had gone there instead. The river area of Greenville was really pretty, and seemed like a great hangout spot.
On the way back home we made two stops, one to walk Blacksburg, a place we have wanted to do for a while. It felt very much like a very small college town with a very small bookstore on the main street, Blacksburg books, which had a few signed copies of some interesting books, and a very small used book section. For lunch we hopped on over to Roanoke, Crystal Spring grocery, which gave you a lot of fries. It was a decent meal.
Overall I’m sure I missed some of Savannah, I would definitely go back there, and to Willmington. I would love to do the battleship in Wilmington and the river boat tour in Savannah.
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