Savannah 2008

This last weekend 4 best friends loaded up and left Texas to visit Savannah, Georgia! We had been planning since last May and it seemed like this weekend would never come! Our sweet husbands let us leave a total of 7 kids behind for 4 days of giggles, prayers, eating, chatting and good old fashioned girl time!

We arrived in Jacksonville, FL and headed north to Georgia. I became the official map person, just call me Mappy Maperson! This is us stopped at the Georgia welcome center.

Thursday night we ate our fancy meal at The Olde Pink House in Savannah. The story of the house goes something like this... the original builder in the late 1700's had the house made of red brick. Once the house was finished, he did not like the red color, so he had the house painted white. The red bricks had not fully dried so they bled into the white paint turning the house pink.

Not only was it a good story, but the food was fabulous! Holly had a whole flounder that was huge and delicious. Heather got tilapia, Lacie had pecan chicken and I had redfish. I did not think about Savannah being such a "fishy" town, but it was delicious!

Friday started with a trolley ride to hear the history of the town. We ended up having 3 different guides. The first was good, the second was HILARIOUS and the third was a cute grandpa. We all loved, loved, loved the trolley and not only got a feel for the city, but learned a lot of history. After the trolley ride we ate lunch at our absolute, hands-down favorite place - the Wilkes House. We waited in line for a little over an hour, but it was well worth the wait. You sit at oval tables for 10 and the food is served family style. There were about 15 bowls of different vegetables - collard greens, black-eyed peas, creamed corn, squash, fried chicken, pork BBQ, melt-in-your-mouth biscuits, sweet potatoes, etc. And I tried a bite of everything, even the tomato okra relish. Surprisingly enough, I liked the okra relish and the collard greens! Who knew?!?!? Jason says that food pics always look gross, so skip the next pic if you agree with him! :)
Besides the food being FABULOUS, we also made a personal connection with the Wilkes House. We wore our boas all around town and that brought a lot of attention and questions. At the beginning of our meal, a distinguished lady came to our table asking if we needed anything and of course we needed more sweet tea. As we were eating, we looked around the restaurant and noticed that the distinguished lady was in a lot of the photos. So we put two and two together and realized that she was the owner...none other than Mrs. Wilkes grand-daughter. After the rest of our table took their plates to the kitchen, she came over to our table and chatted with us for about 15 minutes. Of course, we feel like we are BFF's with her. This is us with Marcia and our new cookbooks!
If you don't know Holly, you would love her brain! She is one who thinks outside the box. At her suggestion, we did not take a smile-y posed photo at every stop...we took pics of our feet! This is the famous Forysth Park fountain. We had so much fun figuring out how to pose our toes around town. In this pic our legs were resting on the banister. I'm sure we looked silly, but it's a cool photo, huh?
That night we ate at Paula Deen's restaurant. Getting those reservations is a whole other post though. We had the last 8:45pm reservation. We were still practically stuffed from lunch at Mrs. Wilkes. So we got some appetizers and the biggest chicken pot pie known to man and the BEST Key Lime Pie in the world. Overall, Paula's was yummy, just not what we expected. You know me, I thought she was going to come sit at our table and become our new BFF (just like at Mrs. Wilkes House). But it turns out that she rarely goes to the restaurant...and most of the food is on the buffet. So if you are too full for the buffet, your choices are limited. My crab cakes were divine though and did I mention that the Key Lime Pie was to die for?!?!?

Saturday began with us driving to the South Carolina state line - just about 20 minutes away. Then we headed to Tybee Island. We WALKED up this 113 foot tall lighthouse. We WALKED up this tiny spiral, ultra steep iron staircase. There were muscles burning that I did not know that I had!!! But it was beautiful. I got a little woozie, up at the top, but am still glad that I experienced it. Looking out onto the Atlantic was breath-taking.

Kim and Holly at the top of Tybee Lighthouse.

Once we made it back down to flat ground, we walked over to the beach. It was SO pretty!!! The sand was white and the water was blue. There was no seaweed! We collected shells, let the freezing water roll over our barking dogs and took a lot of pics. This shadow pic was another Holly inspiration.

The girls at the beach!

Saturday night we rode a trolley ghost tour after touring Juilette Gordon Low's house. She was the founder of the Girl Scouts. If you were a Girl Scout, I highly recommend going to Savannah and touring the house. It was the perfect example of a well-preserved historical home.

Sunday morning we got up way to early to head back home. We had to leave Lacie on the plane to head north, which was very sad. But to our surprise, we had LOTS of happy faces, and happy feet, waiting for us at baggage claim. Welcome back to Texas!

We had the perfect four day retreat! To me Savannah means sweet tea, moss covered trees, laughter, lots of yummy food, pecan praline samples, historic houses, 2 wars, the beach, and my friends. Thank you to our families for letting us go and taking such care of all the kids. It was a wonderful reminder of good friends and that girls will always be girls - even when they are 30! Thank you Holly, Heather and Lacie for being my friend. I love you all! Can't wait for next year...