April 4 - 7, 2000: Savannah, Georgia

Day 2: The Historic District

8:30 AM: Continental Breakfast

At about 8:30 we went down to the lobby to partake of the promised free Continental Breakfast that the Fairfield Inn provides between 6:00 and 9:00 AM. Now, I don't know exactly to which continent they refer, but that's the continent I want to live on--cream cheese danishes, English muffins with grape jelly, little-bitty boxes of Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops, all the coffee you can drink, styrofoam plates and plastic utensils--that to me is breakfast heaven!

12:00 PM: Lunch at Telfair Square Cafe; the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences

After a short post-breakfast rest back in the hotel, we ventured out to the Historic District. Our first order of business was lunch, and since our second order of business was going to the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, having lunch at Telfair Square Cafe seemed a logical choice. It was very good; I recommend it.

As I stood outside the Telfair Academy reading the sign detailing the history of the place, a small bird landed on the sign and looked at me, ruffling his feathers a couple of times and--perhaps I imagined this--chirping encouragingly. We had already decided that we were going to go in, but if we hadn't, this little bird's sales pitch would have convinced us. As the little bird--Anna thinks it might have been a brown thrasher, the state bird of Georgia (as a fourth grade teacher she has to know this kind of thing)--looked at me, he rotated his head and I saw that the poor little guy was missing his right eye! He seemed to be getting along just fine, though, so I'm trying not to worry about him.

The current exhibit at the Telfair is called Robert Gwathney, Master Painter. "Robert Gwathney's life and career are a testament to the concept that art can be a powerful force for social change," the exhibit booklet tells us. It's a very good exhibit; if you're in Savannah before May 28th, I recommend it. (I "borrowed" the image to the right from the Telfair Web site--www.telfair.org.

This bird greeted us at the Telfair Academy

The Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences

One of the works in the current Telfair exhibit

2:45 PM: Walking Around Town

After we left the Telfair, we walked around Savannah for a while, going in a few shops, getting ice cream, reading signs, visiting the squares. I was amazed at Anna's sense of direction; I get lost easily, but she seemed to always know where we were, even without the help of a map. ("We need to go down three blocks and then up two, and that's where your car is." How did she know that?)

Savannah is just filled with cool houses like these

4:00 PM: Colonial Park Cemetery

Our final stop before we left the Historic District was Colonial Park Cemetery, a cemetery and park with graves dating back as far as two centuries ago (and none more recent than 147 years ago--it was retired as an active cemetery in 1853). It's a neat place to walk around, but Savannah natives have a habit of bringing their dogs there and letting them run loose, playing with their masters and each other as only dogs can. It was kind of fun to watch the five or six that were there, but I was afraid that one of them would get the urge to dig, and before you know it there would be a Jack Russell terrier zipping by with Button Gwinnett's shin bone in his mouth.

We returned to the hotel room a little after 5:00, rested for a while, and ventured out for dinner. We couldn't get a table at the Pirate House tonight but we did get reservations for tomorrow night at 7:30; I think our dinner at IHOP tonight was plenty good though.

Tomorrow: Tybee Island!

The entrance to Colonial Park Cemetery

The entrance to Colonial Park Cemetery

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