Bike tour, roaming and a haunted pub crawl

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As in the last blog, I a not a historian so if I misstated anything just let me live in the ignorant bliss...here goes

When you go away from the kids for the weekend you have these ideas that you will sleep in and get tons of rest. WRONG! We got things to do and places to go.

FYI - It was sooo cold this morning!

The first order of business was looking for coffee. Since we woke up around 7 am it was kind of hard to find a place that was open. I think Heather and Laura finally found a coffee shop around 9 am.

We ate a little breakfast and headed out the door.



Savannah Bike Tours

Since we are staying in the historic district everything is in walking distance. Our guide's name was Dee. When we got to the shop we signed a waiver and he assigned us a bike. I got the yellow bike. Del and Heather both got blue bikes. Cheryl was assigned the powder blue and Laura had the purple bike. Once the other parties arrived we were off on the tour. There were a total of 10 people in this tour.

Well, Dee never gave us the rundown of the bikes or the road rules of Savannah. He just said, 'Let's go' and zips onto the street and heads down the road. Uh oh, my body didn't understand what in the world was going on! Dee just took off and we were expected to follow. Hold on buddy, it's gonna take me a minute to get used to this unusual activity of bike riding.

Our first stop was just around the corner. We all gathered together and introduced ourselves. There was a couple from somewhere, a guy that left his sleeping wife at the hotel and two other girls from Miami.

Dee explained to us that each house in the historic district has a marker that states the year that the house was built. We were standing in front of one of the oldest houses (if not the oldest house) which was built in 1797.

Savannah was established in 1773 by James Edward Oglethorpe. Since we all know a history story or two we know stuff happens and things do not always go as planned. Well, stuff happened. Houses burned down and people moved out to the suburbs so houses got neglected. According to a book I bought this afternoon the historic district began to preserve the structures in downtown Savannah in 1954. Since then the downtown area has taken on a new revitalization. Then there was this book called 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' that brought on a new resurgence of interest in Savannah.

Savannah has a chain of green spaces that I call parks. They call them 'squares'. When the city was first designed these squares were used as common gardens or communal cattle, chickens, etc for that ward. Today they remain as the original square but are used more as a green space. They did not have the trees that we see today at least that is what we were told. They probably had pine trees and other types of shrubs. There were 24 squares in the original design of Savannah. Today there are 22 that remain. A few have monuments and others have live oak trees, palm trees and magnolia trees and bushes along with other native plants. They are all very quaint little squares with benches. You could totally spend time hanging out in any of these squares watching people mull around all day.

Emmett Park

Our second stop on the tour was to Emmett Park. According to another book I purchased this afternoon this park is named after Robert Emmet who was hanged by the British after leading an uprising in Dublin intended to gain Irish Independence. Our tour guide explained to us that many Irish families came to Savannah and worked in the port and the cotton factories. Instead of just celebrating St. Patrick's Day they have an entire Irish month because of all the Irish influence.

In Emmet park he pointed out the Waving Girl Monument. This monument sits at the East End of River Street. The monument is a statue of Florence Martus (1868 - 1943). She waved to every ship arriving and departing from the port for 40 years. Since we were standing in Emmet Park we were not able to clearly see the statue but you could see enough to get an idea of what the statue looked like.

In the park there is also the Beacon Range Light. This light guided the boats into the river. The light was erected in 1858. The guide explained that the anchors that surrounded the light were found in the river from boats that had sunk over the years.

The roads that we were riding on were active roads so we did have to wait for cars that were trying to park or move along the roads. Dee on the other hand was not concerned about the cars. He just hopped on his bike and peddled along. We caught up with him at Factor's Walk.



Factor's Walk

I know that I am not going to explain this exactly but I will give it a try. When we were at Emmet Park you had to look down at the river. In order to get to the river you have to walk down some very steep stairs. Almost all (if not all) of the stairs have historic markers on them. So, the city is up high (Bay Street) and River Street (where the boats used to port) is down below. There are a series of walkways that go from the street to what appears to be the second story of the buildings that we are looking at.

The guide began to explain that the cotton brokers back then were called 'factors' and that is why this street is called Factors Walk.

The buildings that lined this street looked like they were 2 to 3 stories but they were actually 4 to 5 stories. The bottom floors were occupied by the factory workers, the middle floors were offices and the highest floor was for the cotton factors. When you look at the buildings you can see that not much attention to detail was put into the lower floors but the higher floors were more presentable.

When the ships came into port the ships would be empty or they did not have enough weight so they would use cobblestone as their ballast in the ships. When the ships loaded the cotton they would discard of the cobblestone at the port. It was basically free building material. They used these cobblestones for retaining walls, streets and repairing buildings. It's kind of cool to think that each stone on the road had it's own little journey.

Our guide explained that the trucks full of cotton would come down these ramps and they would take a left or a right. The factors would then walk out on the walkways to inspect and grade the cotton and then the would begin to bid on the cotton. It was like Wall Street in Georgia.

He then tried to paint a picture for us by telling us to imagine the sights and sounds of the area way back when. There would be trucks entering the Factor's Row, people bidding, cotton being unloaded from the trucks and moved to the factories, ships coming into port, cargo from the ships being unloaded and ships being loaded. It was a busy, busy place back then.

It was very interesting to hear about the structure of the buildings and how the material from the incoming ships were used to build the street we walked on today and yesterday.

Dee hopped on his bike and we headed to he next point of the tour.



Johnson Square

You are not allowed to ride your bikes in the squares so we had to park our bikes every once and a while.

Ok, I didn't get all the details of how Savannah was really established but when it was they had to submit plans for the city or something like that. I think it was the founder Oglethorpe that submitted the plans but I could be wrong. Anyway, someone submitted the plans. The plan for the city was for the to have the city 'squares' and that the streets run North, South, East and West like a grid. The first square is Johnson's square.

I kind of laughed to myself because as you look around Johnson Square you could see a couple of other tour groups. I guess this was the starting point for most of the tours. There was a walking tour and a Segway tour that we kept crossing paths with. We also saw a few of the pedal bus tours and a couple of other bus tours. I like being a tourist amongst a lot of other tourists. It's fun.

The street that runs North and South of Johnson's square is called Bull Street. Dee described it at New York's 5th Avenue. It's a pretty prominent address to have. There are several mansions, churches and banks that line Bull Street. Bull Street is also the marker for East and West.

We stayed in Johnson's Square and our guide explained a bunch of history that I will not be able to repeat. He pointed out the monument, a sundial and the different types of trees and shrubbery in the park. Me, Cheryl, Del, Heather and Laura all kind of looked at each other funny when he pointed out a Live Oak, Magnolia Tree and a palm tree. Uh, yeah, we know what those are. Thanks.

After the lecture was over we got back on our bikes and headed to the next destination.



Ellis Square

We didn't spend much time here it was really just a bathroom break.

Ellis Square was one of the original four squares. The market existed just outside or as part of Ellis square until 1954 when the square was demolished and a parking lot of developed. This has been a bone of contention for many folks in Savannah.

Beside Ellis square is the City Market. City Market has a few shops, restaurants and bars. We had walked around City Market the night before so we were familiar with the place.



Forsyth Park

On our way to Forsythe Park we stopped by Chippewa Square. In the front of the square there is a little barren spot that we parked our bike in front of. Dee explained that this is where Forrest Gump sat when the movie was filmed. A replica of the bench exists in the Savannah History Museum.

The weather was very nice. At this time is wasn't too cold and it wasn't too hot. The bike ride wasn't hard either because Savannah is very flat.

We peddled along to Forsythe Park. I relate this to our Tom Brown Park. There are soccer fields, tennis courts, basketball courts and I thought saw a football field. There is lots of hustle and bustle in Forsyth Park. Dee explained that normally you get to ride bikes through Forsythe Park but since there was a Children's Book Fair we would not be able to today. Bummer! I wanted to take a picture in front of the fountain. Guess we will save that for the next trip to Sav.

So we rode the perimeter of the park and headed to the next stop.

I think this is where he showed us a building where the word SCAD appeared on the outside of the building. It stands for something Savannah College of Arts and Design (I think). Dee said it is called the Harvard design school because it costs just as much as Harvard. The schools campus is scattered throughout downtown. The school taken a lot of the downtown buildings that had been neglected and turned them into classrooms. They even refurbished the old jail into dorm rooms. Dee did confirm that they did remove the actual jail cell doors. HA!

You SCAD everywhere. I am glad he finally explained that to us.

On to the next stop...



Troup Square (or Jingle Bell Square)

On our way to Jingle Bell Square we stopped by Juliette Gordan Low's birth place. A couple of us were involved in Girl Scouts growing up so I'm glad we got a chance to see it.

Beside Troupe Square is the Unitarian Universialist Church. According to the book I bought the church was 'Built as Saint Stephen's, with an African American Episcopal congregation. In 1892, in this church, Robert Bright was the first African Ameican Episcopal priest to be ordained in America. In1850, James Lord Pierport (1822-1893), director of music here, composed the popular Christmas carol 'Jingle Bells.' Born in Boston, he longed for snow and traditional New England customs.

It finally dawned on me that is why the house we were renting was called the Jingle Bell House. Duh, our house was right down the street.

Well, that was the last stop on the tour and we headed back to Dee's shop. We asked if he could recommend a place for lunch and pointed us in the direction of The District Café and Eatery



Little Lunch, roaming around and down time

One word -- Chamoozies. What is that you ask? That would be a Champagne Smoothie! Total Awesomeness!!! I had a Strawberry. The other girls had a peach/pear and mango. No one was disappointed.

Our lunch was amazing! I had the potato soup and a hot ham and cheese sandwich. I could have eaten three bowls of that soup. I have already decided that I am making it next week for me and Jeff. I hope it is half as good.

This café was cool. You could write on the table with chalk and they had some table games to play. It was a place where they seemed to invite you to stay for a little while.

After lunch we headed down Broughton Street and peeked in a couple of shops and then headed to River Street to see what all they had to offer.

I am pretty sure we hit every shop on River Street and in the Factor's Cottages. I didn't see anything really exciting but I was able to find a little gift for the boys and some praline's for me and Jeff.

I keep saying 'in the book I bought'. On River Street I bought two books. One is called Savannah Guidebook by Polly Wylly Cooper and Laura Connerat Lawton. The other book is The Savannah Walking Tour & Guidebook by Paul C. Bland. When I did my last blog I found out that it would help me remember what we experienced during the tours if I had a book to reference. I have learned a lot from these books and I think that with the help of this visit and these two books we will be able to see just a little bit more the next time we visit.

We headed back to the house for a little down time. After we relaxed for a little bit and then we headed back out. Del had found the 'big church' Cheryl had been looking for and Heather wanted to look at a few more shops.



Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

Random - earlier in the day I checked Facebook and saw that one on my friends had posted a picture from River Street. Before we walked into the church we saw them pass the church on a carriage ride. Well hello Martha, good to see ya! What a small world we live in. I thought that was cool.



We called this the 'big church'. Wouldn't you know it was just a couple of streets away from where we were staying. I do not know why the bike tour did not take us past this church just to point it out. Looking back now he obviously avoided it. I do not understand why but oh well.

This is the oldest Roman Catholic Church in Georgia built in was built in 1873.

We saw a few people walking in and out of the church so we decided to go in.

WOW!! I was not expecting what I saw. The church was beautiful! The columns looked like marble but I do not think they were. The stained glass windows were very beautiful. The detail in the art work on the wall and in the front of the church was a sight to see.

I wanted to buy the souvenir book but it was $20. I understand the money goes to preserve the church but I thought that was a little expensive. I will do a little research before the next trip so that I can get more out of walking around the cathedral.

If you get a chance to go to Savannah I think you should put this on the top 5 'to visit' list.

We wandered around a little more then headed back to the house to get ready for the Haunted Pub Crawl.



Haunted Pub Crawl

I am not sure what I was expecting on the Hunted Pub Crawl but I was up for going and so was everyone else.

We met at the bar called Six Pence that was on Bull Street. Our guide Greg gave us a cup and told us we could get a beer and meet outside.

Greg is very engaging. He really know how to tell a story. He is also very brave! Why in the world would he sign up to walking people drinking beer around the city?! Whatevs, let get this party started.

The crowd we are 'crawling' with was an interesting bunch. There was a girl that was turning 21 that was celebrating with her mom, cousins and aunts. There was a couple celebrating their 3rd wedding anniversary, there was another group that was celebrating their friends 40th. She turned 40 back in June but this is the first opportunity they could get together. There was a couple from Jersey and another couple that started making out before we even left the first bar. Interesting group, this should be fun!

The first bar we head to is McDonough's. This bar had a front and a back bar and lots of space to move around. Greg instructed us to go to the back bar because we would be exiting out the back door. The bar was a little quiet so that was nice. We took the opportunity to take a group picture. The anniversary couple took our picture so we returned the favor.

The next stop was the parking lot. Okay. Apparently this was the place to stop because there was another haunted tour that stopped in the same parking lot to tell, I am assuming, the same tale. I lost interest and decided to sit down on the curb. The rest of the group seemed to be captivated. He really is a great story teller.

We exited the parking lot and walked toward Colonial Park Cemetery. Greg explained that we were not able to walk through the cemetery at night because there was someone that burned a goat head in the cemetery so they close it at night now. Good to know. I am the worst haunted tour guest because I am not a believer. So I do what I do and hang out in the back of the crowd and cut up with my girls and get to know the other members of the tour group.

Greg gets done with his cemetery story's and we move along to Abe's on Lincoln. Small bar with one bathroom for a lot of girls on the tour. At this bar we spent most of our time waiting for the bathroom (you are welcome for that detail). I am not sure if it was the 21 party or the 40 year old party but there was a big group of girls that decided to turn the tour up a notch. They start doing shots, putting money in the juke box and start up their own karaoke session. You go girls! It appears the patrons that were there prior to us invading their space were expecting this type of behavior. They didn't seemed phased and just stayed focused the game that was on the tv.

We go outside and wait for Greg to direct us to the next story telling place. He takes us around the corner. Well, keeping with the theme of the 'Olivia Haunted Pub Crawl' I continue to not pay attention and stand off to the side. I've now gotten to know the anniversary couple and we share kid pictures. I roped Cheryl into my shenanigan's and we proceed to exist in our own world for this tale.

Greg then takes us to Z2's. Again, lots of people, one bathroom. This time it wasn't just that there was one bathroom. There was on Unisex bathroom. That means everyone from the tour was waiting in line. Happy day! What is the kicker to the bathroom experience is that people have written all over the walls of the bathrooms so there were a few people that got distracted and took longer than necessary because they were reading the colorful stories on the stalls. The writings on the wall were not 'Olivia was here'. There were paragrpahs. I will say they I was one that got distracted.

Since we were all hanging out in the bar we got the opportunity to have a convo with Greg. He really is an interesting guide. He was unaware of the writings on the bathroom walls because he always uses the upstairs bathroom. Greg seemed interested in the new knowledge of the bathroom stalls. You are welcome Greg. I return for our story he let Cheryl borrow his hat for a quick pic.

Guess what, karaoke started as Greg shuffled us outside. Greg took us around the corner for the next tale. Before he began the story he asked the Jersey boy where his girlfriend was. Well, she couldn't pass up the chance to sing karaoke so she was currently up on stage. He told Greg that she'd be right with us. She was singing a Amy Winehouse. Do your thang girlie! Greg then makes the comment that he thinks we have lost a few other people. Yeah, the group has shrunk. Guess that's the hazard of a pub crawl.

We move along to the last bar which is O'Connell's. Our poor little Jersey girl was having a boot issue but she seemed to press through. I thought her chunky heel was going to pop off at any second but it never did. Maybe a little ghost was following her and holding her shoe together. Who knows but I was glad she didn't break an ankle on the tour.

O'Connell's is a cute little Irish dive. We didn't stay and get familiar with the place. We took a group pic with Greg and moved along.

We were just off Broughton so we knew how to get to where we wanted to go next. We headed to City Market to see what was going on there.

On the way home we headed to a pizza place that is called Sweet Melissa's. We ate there on the way home Friday night. It is a tiny little pizza place that is on the way to our house. I think the pizza is good and so do the other girls. This night was were able to find a table so that we could eat and people watch. Oh, that was fun! I really need keep my phone handy and learn how to take sneaky pictures. There are just things you just need to share with the world.

Ok, pizza done, legs going to fall off and eyes about to blink shut. We head to the house and retire for the evening.



It was a big big day in Savannah. It was actually the exact day I imagined it to be. I was so happy I got to experience all the sites we saw today with these girls.



Later y'all,

O.

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