Savannah, Georgia
Our April Savannah trip was borne out of a mini-tantrum that I threw a couple of months prior, when NYC was still in the midst of peak wintertime. The tantrum was related to how stuck I felt being in NYC through the winter months and wishing for a quick getaway to a warm place - but not wanting to pay an arm and a leg to get there. For context, my husband and I are currently saving for a lengthy Europe trip that is happening at the back-half of the year, and we had just emotionally recovered from paying for our dream Brooklyn wedding last fall; all to say, we could manage a trip down the Atlantic Coast, but not across the Atlantic itself. We had heard great things about Savannah so on the night of my outburst, we booked our flights + hotel to the great state of Georgia.
We arrived unceremoniously and unproblematically to Savannah and promptly headed out to explore the city. I was expecting the nice weather, but had no idea how multi-level the city would be, a feature we would later learn was an important characteristic for the origins of Savannah itself. The steep stairs paired with the Civil War-era cobblestone (or rather, Civil War-era everything), was a challenge for my quads in a way I wasn’t expecting. After exploring and walking the riverfront, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our dinner at Common Thread, which was amazing.
Our table was set in what would have been a large stairwell landing in the original layout of the house - a nook, if you will. As you can see, the light was perfect.
After dinner, we had the infamous Leopold’s ice cream for dessert where I shared my first banana split with my husband (somehow not nearly as sweet as I thought it would be - the banana split, that is). We walked along the riverfront to get back to the hotel.
Stealing a moment from a Shrimp Factory employee on break
The following day, we had an early-ish lunch reservation at The Olde Pink House. The house was indeed pink, which other lunch-goers (mostly older women) had decided to coordinate their outfits with in the same manner. The AC was blasting in the dining rooms, which took a bit away from the ambiance, but it was cool to walk through the house after our lunch to see what was left of the historic property.
After our lunch, we headed to a secondhand shop where I picked up these amazing vintage brass candlestick holders, originally from India, and also stumbled into a massive furniture store that had to be seen to be believed.
Candlesticks, not included (not really missing them anyway). I’m currently realizing that those iridescent cocktail glasses on the bottom left are stunning - a miss!
This is just a truly small portion of the furniture store’s outright abundance.
After some afternoon shopping, we went back to the hotel to rest and get ready for the rest of the night. We stopped by a live music gig at a local bar / restaurant for some bites before our evening on a ghost tour. Apparently, most of Savannah was built on top of mass graves dating back to the Civil War. Our tour guide was a true delight and I wrote notes in my phone to research the various phenomenon at a later time.
After our tour, we took the familiar walk back up the riverfront to our abode. We drank some wine and ate some pie at a fire pit on the patio.
Some sort of indoor military gala, which I was able to covertly sneak a photo from the second floor.
The next day was our last full day in Savannah. We knew that we couldn’t leave without partaking in some BBQ and there was really no contest - we were going to Randy’s. The walk was a bit precarious, but we were encouraged by the sweet smell of BBQ smoke as we neared the unassuming spot. The line had already grown quite long for 11AM on a weekday, but that gave us time to figure out what the menu was, what we wanted from it, and if we should supplement with some sort of green salad on the way back to the hotel (we did).
Lucky patrons who had advanced into “shaded tent territory”
A box for you, a box for me, and a salad in between.
We needed to rest for at least a couple of hours following our feast, but after that we Ubered more inland to play mini golf at a true locals’ spot. I can find it a bit awkward to be at a locals’ spot where I’m not a local, especially when you can sense that they are not expecting for you to be there either (they were still very kind).
Regardless, we played our 18-holes. I got a hole-in-1 and still managed to lose to my skilled-golfer husband. We then hustled into the adjacent bar for house cocktails, a game of darts, and to have a free limoncello shot on the house, given to anyone who was at the bar at 5PM on a Friday.
Who doesn’t love a game of mini-golf. I think that this was taken after my hole-in-1.
Still remarkably full from lunch and a bit buzzed from our post-game drinks, we took a car back to Savannah proper. During the drive, I had proposed that we find a rooftop bar to watch the final sunset before we left the next day. We settled on a bar near our hotel and I swear to you that Senator Warnock left the elevator as we were entering. While I suppose that I’ll never know if that was truly him or not (confirmed via Instagram he was in Georgia!), I’m sticking to my story. The bar was the most upscale spot that we had gone to since our dinner at Common Thread. With standing room only, we stuck out the wait to watch the sun set on the riverfront.
The rooftop layout and vibe greatly reminded us of the Williamsburg rooftop bar, Westlight.
We had a few hours to kill on our travel day back from Savannah and in those few hours, we got brunch and headed to SCAD. It was a beautiful day albeit a bit hot, but nothing to complain about since our entire trip was blessed with good weather. The SCAD museum was a delightful surprise in a way - we had no idea what was being shown and also found the quirky outdoor grounds enjoyable. I highly recommend going.
The cabanas bring Miami, the brick brings Brooklyn, and the white chairs definitely bring Design. I think that this place was called the “Beach.”
The countdown to the end of our Savannah trip was further punctuated by an accidental stumble onto Savannah’s Sidewalk Arts Festival. As someone with a deep fondness for fairs and street markets, this was the cherry on top of an already memorable last day. Rococo costumes were worn, songs were sung, and sidewalk chalk art peppered the paths of Forsyth Park.
Chalk was truly everywhere.
Rococo fans dining in the park.
I couldn’t tell if the person second from the left facing the camera was posing? What do you think?
And with that, we slowly made our way back to the hotel to collect our things for the flight home. That’s it for this one, essentially the first of unknown accounts of my travels and film photos. Chat soon!
All embedded photos, with the exception of the candlestick photo, were taken on my trusty Pentax point and shoot camera with Kodak Gold 200 film.
