Day 8. Savannah, GA.

After packing everything up and stopping for a quick breakfast at Panera, we were on the road again...heading south for Savannah! We arrived at the Welcome Center, where we planned to catch a trolley tour, around noon. We decided to go with "Old Savannah Tours" (the white trolleys), and by the end of our "hop on, hop off" tour, had both positive and negative reviews. On the positive side, our tour guide, Big Scott, was informative, entertaining and a good driver. We were able to learn much about the history of Savannah: its military history, its ghosts, its parties, and its strong-willed ladies. We had special guests visit with us at some of our stops, including none other than Forrest Gump! On the negative side, we had to wait about a 1/2 hour to get started, and later in the afternoon waited about 45 minutes for our trolley which was supposed to be running every 20-25 minutes. While we waited, we saw 3 or 4 "Old Town Trolleys" (the orange and green ones) pass by.

Still, we were able to get a great overview of Savannah. Jared spent some time working in a coffee shop, while Tom, Chloe and I walked around the beautiful Forsyth Park, with its Live Oaks hanging with Spanish moss. Many of the trees were also covered with Resurrection Fern, something that only appears for a couple days after it rains, before drying up and disappearing again. We walked from the park down Jones Street past many beautiful old homes with lovely porticoes (front porches), and eventually ended up at St. John the Baptist Cathedral, a beautiful, ornate Catholic church.

From the cathedral we headed down (via our late trolley) to the City Market where we browsed through the shops, sampled pralines, listened to the live street musicians, and eventually met Jared at Vinnie VanGoGo's for giant slices of pizza. Our after-supper stroll brought us down Broughton Street. Chloe was thrilled to see so many great stores and boutiques, and Tom and Jared were thrilled to see that most of them were closed. We thought about going to the famous "Leopold's" for ice cream, but the line was out the door and the length of a couple of store-fronts. As we were walking away a little place called "Below Zero" caught our eye, and we stood watching for a moment before we realized they were making "rolled ice cream," something new to these Midwesterners. We decided we had to try it, and found the process and its result very satisfying!

We walked back to our car at the Welcome center, and drove to our hotel in Mid-town, arriving there shortly before 10:00. After much debate and discussion, we all agreed on watching "The Jungle Book" movie on Netflix before turning in for the night.

Sweet Savannah!