Savannah, second stop part one

Savannah, in the state of Georgia, love it!

Lots to see, the place triggered off memories of Forrest Gump, the start of the film where he (Tom Hanks) sits on the bench waiting for the bus to take him to see Jenny his girlfriend.

There isn't a bus stop really

The cities tourism flourishes with so many things, books, films and so much history.
A film was made from the book "Midnight in the garden of good and evil", we must read it or watch it I'm told.
Savannah has been the location of so many movies, here is a list of a few.
Savannah with
The Great Santini with Robert Duval
Cape Fear
The Gingerbread Man
Gator
Roots
The Longest Yard Burt Renolds
The Generals Daughter with John Travolta
When the Circus Came to Town Christopher Plummer
Shadow Man

The English pub where Julia Roberts stood in her pyjamas in the film Something to Talk About

I could make a huge list of movies made here but this page would be way too big so thats just a few.

As for history the town plan dates back to 1773, some of the streets are still cobbled, the stones came across the ocean from England as ballast on ships which then returned with good from America.

Juliet Gordon Low the founder of the Girl Scouts of America was born and lived here.

City Market where we walked through a pedestrianised street lined with restaurants, souvenir shops and art galleries, if only we could have bought some of the wonderful paintings, oh well never mind.
The only drawback here I lost my glasses which was a real pain so reading was out for a while until a visit to find some reading glasses.

Horse carriages are everywhere

The Washington memorial

Even the drains are attractive

Again we did a tour on a trolley with commentary which took us around the city, we then returned on foot to see the places we liked the look of. This is the way we manage to take some exercise even if it is only walking, I'm so glad we have comfortable footwear, having said that I bought some peppermint and tea tree foot gel which is wonderful after walking for hours.

A bar at the top of the city market 

A tribute to "Johnny Mercer" he wrote Moon River

There is so much to see both old and new, we enjoyed a great fish lunch along the River street commonly known as River front and watched the tug boats.

Dons seafood platter

The atmosphere is lovely despite being a tourist attraction, local people are friendly and always very informative.

One of the drag shows, he/ she looks very attractive

Scarletts

Don at the world war 2 memorial along the River front

One of the tugs on the river

Gilded in 24 Carat gold

This lady takes people on a tour inside her house

One of the places we had heard about was the catholic cathedral which looked very impressive from the outside so at the end of the trolley tour we walked to it, wow its amazing inside. The stained glass windows show the "12 stages of the cross" the rest of the cathedral is beautifully restored.

The cathedral of St John the Baptist

The entrance

Stunning

Main alter

One of the stained glass windows showing one of the 12 the stages of the cross

There are so many historic buildings here within the centre with so many stories it would take weeks to see them all and hear them all we enjoyed our time there.

Showing at the cinema

Love these big trucks

Another place we walked to was he cemetery, weird I know but lots of history there.

Such a pity I didn't have the telephoto lens with me

Family ties?

We had dinner at the Crab Shack out of town, the wait for diner took ages so some went in search too close to the water.

Another little fact, in 1857 James Pierpont who was in Savannah at the time wrote Jingle Bells, originally called one  horse open sleigh.

Right off we go, next stop Charleston
BFN
Don and Glenys
Agua Therapy

USA road trip Florida and St Augustine

Ok its the hurricane season so what do we do to keep ourselves occupied?

We considered Peru and Cuba, however getting to these places by boat is a no no and its not possible to visit either without going via Canada or the UK so what shall we do?
As we have both spoken about a road trip in the USA Don booked us several flights throughout the country so we can have a break off the boat.
We flew with American Airlines, most of their planes have wingtips like this, I wondered if the pilots have misjudged the parking.

The flight most of the way was low enough to see most of the islands in the Bahamas so I took a few shots of the Islands we stopped at on the way up last season.

We are looking forward to returning to the Bahamas and spending more time there.

First stop Miami, collect a car then drive to Fort Lauderdale to stay and visit our friends there.

Geoff and Stroma let us stay in their Winnebago which is parked on their front lawn.
We managed to order and buy bits for the boat which are difficult to buy in Grenada so that was a bonus.
Met up and surprised our other friends who had no idea we were arriving we had a very nice meal at an Italian restaurant in town. Pete and Liz invited us to their home for a barbecue we had a great time.

So after breakfast on Sunday off we set for St Augustine Florida which is the oldest city in the United States. We were very lucky to checkin at a hotel right in the centre of the old town so we could walk to most places.

The Fort which had walls that been repaired, we didn't visit the Fort as we have been to so many.

We took advantage of the trolley ride which had a great commentary, you can hop on or off at any of the stops.

Spooky place

The Corn Exchange in days gone by

The Old look out tower, which had obviously been restored

All through St Augustine are so many old oak trees most of which are covered in Spanish moss

I wonder if he found a room

There is a distillery which is fairly new they are making vodka and gin at the moment and bourbon too, the bourbon wont be ready for a few years yet. We had a tour and commentary and of course tried a few samples.

The stills in the background

We visited the history museum which is next to the old jail.

An old settlers wagon, I bet it must have been a heck of a bumpy ride

Don waiting for customers at the gallows

This sherif was a huge guy

The old General Store

We spent hours inside, Ripleys Believe it or not museum,  the first one Mr Ripley ever had built. Some of the exhibits are pretty amazing but some you really have to think about and almost had me and Don believing they are true.

Clever?

Lizard man, yuk

A real shrunken head

I can think of so many things to say about him, it must have been very difficult for him 

Come on who believes in vampires?

Must have been one heck of a show 

Ok so how did it eat? must have been a very skinny bird when it died

All made with old car bumpers

Scary Don

They had to surround this fella with trees, he's a long way from home

Afterwards being suckers for these trips we did the Ghost tour, a trip on a "scary bus" first to a park reputed for seeing ghosts, what I found unnerving was the guide talking about being careful where you step as one of his last visitors found himself taking a "selfie" with a rattlesnake! During the trip we went to the old jail which had an actor that jumped out from the dark and did surprise a few folks. The real gallows stands outside which did look a little scary.

The whole place has some wonderful buildings throughout in fact there is lots of historic buildings to see.
The fort, the city gates the cemeteries hold so many tales I can't tell them here all I can say if you are interested Google St Augustine and its history you will enjoy it we did.

Next Stop Savannah, Georgia.