Savannah, GA for Valentine's Day Weekend

Since moving to this part of the country, I've had a list of places I want to see. On the top of that list was Savannah, Georgia. Russ, being the awesome hubby that he is, started planning a Valentine's weekend trip to Savannah back in November. We've never taken a big, extravagant vacation, so a weekend away is something we really loo forward to. Savannah did not disappoint!

We left Friday afternoon and arrived in Savannah around 5:30 p.m. Ichabod, our GPS, directed us to our hotel which was in a large field and apparently invisible. After driving around for a while, we finally came across a hotel that was not invisible. We checked in, took our overnight bags in and went to eat. Since this was a special occasion, we went to my favorite restaurant, Red Lobster. Yum! We've never taken Chloe Jo to Red Lobster (probably because we've only been once since she was born...) and she loved it! She helped me eat my Maple Glazed Shrimp and Salmon. Mmmm. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

We had passed a mall on the way to dinner, so after we finished our meals, we headed over to the mall to walk around for a while. We were there for about an hour and decided to go rest up for our big day on Saturday. Unfortunately, our hotel was in the area of the airport and the planes were sooooo loud! If it wasn't hard enough to sleep with planes flying overhead, there was a bar across the parking lot and several of the bar patrons decided to have a monster truck rally at 2:00 a.m. that lasted for an hour and a half. I hate loud, obnoxious trucks in the daytime. I despise them with the fire of 1,000 suns in the wee hours of the morning. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well at all. Russ slept like a baby.

After our awesome continental breakfast that consisted of frosted cornflakes, we headed to the historical district of Savannah. Russ bought tickets to take a tour on a trolley and it did not disappoint! There were 15 stops and we were able to get on and get off whenever we wanted. Plus, the drivers kept up a running commentary about the history so we were able to learn all about Savannah! Plus, it just so happened to be Georgia Day!

We ended up getting off the trolley several times to explore the area. We especially loved River St. which runs parallel to *you aren't going to believe this* the Savannah River. It was a beautiful day to take a walk down by the river! One of the first things we saw upon approaching the river was this tugboat.

There was a lady down by the river making these roses out of palmetto tree leaves.

She let us take this one for any donation, but if we wanted a larger rose with a cross then she required a $7.00 "donation." Seriously.

I loved the architecture of old town Savannah. It reminded me a lot of Europe. This is another view of River Street.

I loved this bridge. Have I ever mentioned that I am obsessed with taking pictures of bridges? The river acts as a border between Georgia and South Carolina. South Carolina is on the right. Georgia is on the left.

There were so many statues and memorials everywhere in this part of the city. I think we could have spent all day just reading the plaques and looking at them. This one is a World War II memorial that I found very interesting.

These are some of the flags that were at the memorial. I'm also obsessed with taking pictures of flags. I love them!

There were several transportation opportunities including horse and buggy, buses, trolleys and pedicabs. I would have loved to ride a buggy, but we couldn't do everything. Maybe next time.

This is Savannah City Hall. The dome is just gorgeous!

My favorite building was the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Amazing!

Of course, there were many very old homes everywhere. The character of these old parts of cities is just wonderful. I told Russ when we are chosen to be on House Hunters, we are going to buy a vacation home in Savannah!

Around lunch time we got off the trolley to find some grub. We ended up going to a trendy little place across the street from the Savannah School of Art and Design where people were on laptops while eating falafel.

We both ordered a breakfast wrap and it was yummy!

On our way to the restaurant, we had passed a posh little bakery called Kerry O'Connor Cake Design. We decided to go back there to get a cupcake for desert. It was divine.

After refueling, we got back on a trolley. While on River Street, we were able to see this enormous container ship! I was floored by how huge this thing was! The Savannah River is the 2nd largest U.S. port for the Atlantic Ocean. New York City is the first. Savannah is able to take in 98% of the world's container ships.

Sorry about the picture quality. I was taking them through the plastic window of the trolley.

One of the neatest memorials to me was this one of the Olympic Flame. Savannah hosted the Yachting Events during the 1996 Olympics that were held in Atlanta, GA. This is the site of the flame that was in Savannah.

The trolley took us by several famous sites including Paula Deen's restaurant. We didn't go in because I wasn't in the mood to eat a stick of butter. It also took us by the docks for these tugboats. Paula's husband works there.

Savannah is an amazing city. It is definitely one of our favorites right now. I can't wait to go back and be able to go to more of the museums. There are several museums dedicated to people like James Oglethorpe who was the founder of Georgia, Juliette Gordon Low who founded the Girl Scouts of America and John Wesley who founded the Methodist church. There is so much history in Savannah. I don't think we could ever learn everything.

On the way back home, we were lucky to be able to cross the bridge that I had taken a picture of earlier. We didn't cross it on the way there.

So neat. I love bridges and I love Savannah, GA.

We are hoping to go explore Charleston, South Carolina next!