Map of Savannah |
We ventured into Savannah to see the sights and discovered the pleasant river walk and a series of placards about the city's history. We saw a crowd listening to a street-performing trumpeter, who was briefly and amusingly distracted with a bridal party walking by and so broke into 'Here Comes the Bride'. He followed it up with a burlesque theme as the last two bridesmaids walked by...they didn't seem nearly as amused as the crowd was. Very funny.
We also found The Peacemaker, an old wooden schooner (tall ship), docked in the Savannah River offering free tours of its decks and planks. It was fascinating to walk all over the ship and see the city from the pretty boat.
We walked to two of the historic squares, Oglethorpe and Wright. The city's founder, James Oglethorpe, laid out a plan for the city in 1733 for neighborhoods to surround each of 24 squares. Today, 22 of the original 24 squares remain and each is a little park with houses, businesses and churches around them. Very quaint.
We headed back to East River Street for some brews at The Warehouse, a little dive bar filled with locals and tourists alike. Then we grabbed a burger at Five Guys, yummy and greasy.
USS Yorktown |
Heading back to Charleston |
The tour of Fort Sumter was fantastic. The ferry boat ride through Charleston Harbor took us past Castle Pinckney, a little wart of land sticking up out of the middle of the harbor with a "castle" (now just large weeds encircled by a short block wall).
At Fort Sumter |
Fort Sumter |
Fort Sumter is an impressive structure whose walls were once over 50 feet high, but after all the shelling by Union forces over the 4 years of the Civil War, the structure is now barely half its original height. In 1898, at the start of the Spanish-American war, the Battery Huger (a large concrete structure) was built in the center of the Fort's walls though it never saw any action.
While at the fort, we saw a bunch of dolphins playing in the surf off the left face of the fort. There were at least four of them horsing around, jumping in the water...so cute!