mini vacay

Stop reading now if you are looking for profound words.  I've had NO profound words lately (if I ever have). This post is picture overload from our mini vacation this summer.

Mark and I are normally beach vacation people but this year, we decided to do something totally different and all by ourselves (together - just not other friends or family). We are also not "sit still in the car" kind of people so we've never ventured too far from home in the car.

We drove to Savannah on a Wednesday - a brand new city to us.  We wanted to go to Charleston (Savannah was on the way) because our street is modeled after homes in Charleston.  We stayed at the East Bay Inn in Savannah and loved it! Our room was beautiful. The hotel staff was amazing. We felt like we had stepped back in time.

We took a riverboat cruise which I loved - Mark was pretty ho hum about it but was a good sport!

The bridge in Savannah is so cool.

We also took a riding tour in an open bus and saw lots of beautiful homes and parks and heard a lot of history.

We have a new favorite restaurant - The Ole Pink House Restaurant and Tavern. Really great food and cool old house. We highly recommend the restaurant to anyone going to Savannah. If you want to dine at night - make reservations early. We ate there twice - once for dinner (reservations) and once for lunch, you can walk in off the street - no reservation needed.

I loved standing where John Wesley stood.  Really. I'm not kidding.

Mark has been on a chicken liver kick for the last several months.  He has never liked them and all of a sudden, he eats them quite often (not at home - only at a restaurant - actually, normally only at Paw Paw Patch Restaurant). He decided to order them at the ole pink house and they were evidently delicious - I didn't taste them.

We walked up and down the riverfront. I could just imagine pirates and people of old walking on the cobblestones.

We attempted a selfie (which is hysterical . . . after this trip, I bought a selfie stick - just in case!!). We took about four and this was the best one so you can imagine how bad the others were!!

It was hot and humid so we ended up sitting at a table at Wet Willies. I wish we had a Wet Willies near our house. Actually, it would probably not be a good thing.  In a year, I could work through every flavor of frozen drink they offer. Yum!

Huge container ships use their harbor area - HUGE - those individual cars are like the back of an 18 wheeler truck and there a a whole lot of them on that ship. We tried to count how many!

I'm a sucker for atmosphere and this was where they served breakfast at the Bay Street Inn. This was  the basement of the old home.

Ah - here I am on the open air tour bus - we were on a bus with a ton of folks from Ohio and other northern states. Warning - scenery overload coming up - the next bajillion pictures are of pretty things. What can I say? No apologies.

This church was really cool!! (literally - air conditioning but also it was just a neat space)

Teeny tiny house nestled in among others.

Second trip to the Ole Pink House!! Lunch time! Our tour bus driver is the one who told us that we could eat there at lunch without a reservation and he even dropped us off in front of the restaurant!

This was one of the best hamburgers ever!! (I had two really great ones on this trip) I felt really special - my french fries were served in a silver cup!!

So we stayed in Savannah for one night and one a half days (could definitely spend more time there) and then we drove on over to Charleston. We had never visited either city. It was raining when we left Savannah and we had to cross over that pretty bridge.

I have no earthly idea about these elephants. We stopped at a gas station and Mark was in the little store portion and I was in the car. I looked over to the lot next door . . .and there were these huge elephant statues. Anyone know why??

So guess where we stayed in Charleston? Elliott House Inn. I couldn't resist!

It reminded me of an old Florida motor court hotel. It was a house at some point in history.

Our room was not as wonderful at this Inn as the room in Savannah but it was still fun to be in an old house. We stayed two nights in Savannah.

This is the pool - teeny tiny and bubbly.

Yummy margarita!

We grabbed a hamburger in this bar. Husk restaurant is very well known. You have to have a reservation, which we did not -- but you could get into the bar - which was a building built in the 1700's. I loved being in such old places.

The waterfront park area was lovely. We walked down there a couple of times.

That is Mark ahead of me - hurrying down to talk to any fisherman who might be lucky enough!

There he stands - questioning the guys fishing. What are you catching? What are you using for bait?

All of our tours were cancelled - water and land. The Charleston shootings had recently occurred and we were in town when President Obama was there for the funeral(s). They blocked off the historic district but we were already "inside" so we pretty much had the city and tourist attractions to ourselves.

Couldn't resist taking a picture of this street sign - they even spelled it correctly!!

Rainbow row - aren't the houses lovely?

We loved the architecture - made us realize why we love our house and our neighborhood so much.

This was in a store and I loved it!

another selfie - I look like I'm in pain - which I might be actually

We ate at Cru - after a young local couple whom we met on the street recommended it as their favorite restaurant -- (because you know that we talk to everyone)

It was divine.

Above - fried green tomatoes with a peach (some kind of fancy sauce name) and pork belly croutons (yes, you read that correctly) and feta cheese. Oh MY - that is all I know to say.

These are out of order but more photos from the East Bay Inn in Savannah - the lobby and waiting areas and bar.

These are some more pictures of Charleston - when we were out walking our ten miles (literally) because our tours were cancelled.

It was a great trip. We loved it. We didn't fight. We listened to a book on tape to make the long trip more bearable. We enjoyed it all! (those things are important when you've been married 31 years)