I had a fabulous weekend, and by “fabulous” I mean food-intensive as well as “filled with learning and history.” Savannah, I found, is incredibly quaint, beautiful and captivating. If I could, I would move there, although considering houses in the cute historic district are well out of my price range, it’s not happening. A girl can dream, though, right?

Friday we stopped at cheese dip for lunch before hitting the road to Savannah. The drive is not too bad at all, I don’t know why I was expecting it to be 5 hours, but it’s really only 3-3.5 hours. Dice went a little slower since the parents were in the car. Which means we made it there in time to freshen up at the very nice hotel, and then walk ad nauseum along River Street looking for a somewhat-non-touristy place to eat dinner. After walking up River Street and halfway down Bay Street we finally ended up at the better of the two restaurants located inside our hotel. It turned out to be a cajun-inspired restaurant. We ordered the cajun popcorn (not that they called it that) and they weren’t nearly as good as those at Maxie’s. I had the crab cake po’ boy, and the others had fried shrimp or oyster po’ boys. All fine, nothing exciting but palatable. After dinner we strolled along the water for a little while before giving in to exhaustion and going to bed.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early, ready to sightsee the heck out of Savannah. We walked to a breakfast place called Clary’s which served up your regular diner breakfast fare. I had pancakes, bacon and a biscuit. Dice had the Supreme Malted Waffle, which he of course did not finish. After breakfast we took a walking tour of the historic area that took us through several of the picturesque squares and told us quite a bit about the history of the area. We briefly walked through Oglethorpe Cemetery so that I could get my picture at Button Gwinnett’s grave, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Then we took a trolley tour, some of which was redundant after our walking tour, but still it took us to more areas of the city and had some interesting history. After that we had a very light lunch of salads in the coldest cafe on the planet. I didn’t bring a sweater with me because it was 83 degrees out, unfortunately that got me into trouble whenever we went inside any building. In the afternoon we took a tour of one of the preserved historic homes, the Owens-Thomas House. This house tour was definitely the highlight of the day’s activities, not only was it entertaining but since it was so well preserved we got to see the slaves’ work areas as well as some beautiful old china and furniture. At that point we were exhausted so we went back to our hotel where they do free wine and hors d’oeuvres in the evening, and people-watched on River Street for an hour or so. Dinner was at The Pirate’s Place, which was an excellent study in American kitsch, with a guy dressed up like a pirate and decorations galore. The building was more interesting to me, however, since it was a well-restored 18th century structure.

Sunday morning we were up early again, and went to Clary’s for breakfast again. This time I had a bagel and a side of sausage, while Dice got the Elvis, which was French toast stuffed with bananas, peanut butter and whipped cream. Since he only ate half of it I had a couple slices of that, too. Then we drove out to Tybee Island. Our first stop there was the beach. We parked the car and ran out to experience the beach, and just at that moment it started raining. We were so disappointed that we stood there for as long as we could until it just got too wet and we went back to the car. Then we drove to the historic lighthouse. By the time we got to the lighthouse, which was an approximately 5 minute drive, it had stopped raining and the sun was out! Damnation! Since I adore lighthouses I was still happy. It was 176 stairs to the top, so the aged ones declined to accompany us. Their loss, because the view from the top was spectacular! I could have stayed up there for hours, just staring at the ocean, if it were possible. While we were up there the parents walked out to the beach, and had better luck since it was now warm and breezy and sunny. We came down from the lighthouse and joined them for a few minutes. Then we drove over to Ft Pulaski and walked around there for an hour or so. Ft Pulaski was easily my most favorite activity of the whole trip. It was beautiful and serene and isolated, and had such a bloody history. I found it to be emotionally wrenching and yet peaceful at the same time. If I lived near it I’d buy a yearly pass, visit often and bring a sandwich.

We drove back to Savannah and had lunch at B. Matthews, a bakery-cafe on Bay Street that is known for it’s black-eyed pea cake sandwiches. They are like crabcakes, only made with black-eyed peas instead, and add a slice of cheese, red onion and a little cajun mayo to make it a sandwich. So delicious! Still savoring that sandwich, we hit the road back to Atlanta. Before going home, we went to Kroger for some last minute items we needed at the house, and to allow the parents to experience an American grocery store. We went to the Kroger at Edgewood so as to make it as pleasant and non-ghetto as possible. For dinner we had the rest of the lasagna I had made last week(I must save that recipe, it was a big hit!) and watched some TV before going to bed. The days were so filled with activity, every night my eyes wanted to close by 9:00 pm! Yes, I’m old.

And Monday dawns. It’s been quite relaxing to only sit at my desk and work today. I didn’t run Friday through Sunday, so will have to get back on that bandwagon this afternoon, especially if we continue to go out to eat as we have. While I adore going out to eat, it becomes rough to do it for every meal. If my in-laws didn’t live in such a remote area of Scotland, they might not be so keen on going out to eat. As it is they don’t have more than 4 choices of restaurants, each one further than the next, so it’s easy to see why they enjoy it. I’ll be sad to see them leave, mostly because we won’t go out to eat for, like, weeks in order to recover. Heh.