Goal: Tour Savannah, Georgia
We rise, coffee, eat the pecan buns we purchased at Publix yesterday, and head south to Savannah, Georgia.
On the Peter’s advice, we take US 17 south from Hardeeville, south to Savannah. This takes us through the wooded, back way into Savannah, and across the beautiful bridge. The drive was about half an hour from camp to the city.
Rob has researched where to park, and what some of our options are for our visit of Savannah. We start with driving the length of River Street, viewing the numerous river level shops, while looking for a parking space for Clyde.
After reaching the eastern end of River Street, and not finding parking, Rob turns south and climbs the embankment up to East Bay street. Continuing south for a few blocks, he then turns north on the ancient oak lined Oglethorpe Ave. We drive under these ancient and majestic oaks; noting the resurrection plants, and the Spanish moss.
We make our way to the Georgia Sate Railroad Museum, which also serves as the Savannah tourist bureau. There is a large inexpensive parking lot which has parking until 8:00 PM. We also note that there are 4 different tours that leave from this point.
We then set out on foot to see the sights. The old section of Savannah is very walk-able, with lots of interesting homes, and numerous park squares.
We decide that the breakfast pecan rolls have worn off, and that should pick up some lunch. We walk north on Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, and then down the cobble stone ramp at the western end of River Street.
Ambling east on River Street, we get to watch one of the large container ships being pushed along the river by a tug.
Fiddler’s Crab and Oyster House
On our drive along River Street, we had seen a restaurant who’s name suggested we should at least look at the menu. Fiddler’s Crab House and Oyster Bar, is located on River Street just after the intersection of Barnard St. It is a two story restaurant with a balcony on the upper level overlooking River Street. When we reached the restaurant, we reviewed the menu posted outside. The list of seafood dishes appealed to our pallets and to our tastes desires. Fiddler’s is a reasonably large restaurant, with a dinning room and bar on the first floor, upstairs there are two large dining rooms, and the balcony with seating.
We went upstairs, hoping for a table on the balcony. Unfortunately, the last available table was just seated, so it would be at least a half hour wait. However, there were plenty of open tables inside near windows. We elected to take an inside table as we were hungry, and did not want to spend all afternoon at a restaurant.
After inquiring about the oysters on the half shell, and learning that today they were from Maryland, we ordered a dozen. Rob then added the crab claw appetizer to the order. Deryl added the Costal Spinach salad and the gator bites appetizer to the order. With the salad, oysters, and two appetizers we figured we had enough food. To accompany the meal we ordered a bottle of Pino Grigio.
The wine was quickly delivered, and the salad and appetizers followed shortly there after.
The Costal Salad was a delightful combination of baby spinach leaves, candied pecans, crumbled Bleu cheese, Craisins (sweetened dried cranberries), and large light croutons, which we chose Bleu cheese dressing to accompany. The spinach and cheese contrasted the sweetness of the pecans and Craisins.
The crab claws were the small blue crab claws lightly battered then fried. The breading was more of a light dusting of a cornmeal based batter, than a full fried fish batter. The breading was lightly seasoned with a Old Bay style seasoning, which had the right balance of salt and spices to complement the crab meat. The accompanying spicy mayonnaise based dipping sauce, also provided a delightful tang.
The Gator Bites, were advertised as “wild Georgia raised alligator tail”. Deryl suspects that this is restaurant speak, since alligators can’t be domesticated. What it must mean is that the meat comes from alligators raised on a Georgia alligator farm. These were light and the breading again was a thin coating of a fine cornmeal base with complementary seasonings.
But what about the oysters? Yep that was our question also. Half when into our meal, when the waitress finally checked back on how things were. Deryl asked “Oysters? We ordered oysters.” Our waitress, realized in dismay that she had missed delivering the ordered oysters. Moments later she returned and apologized. There usual person responsible for shucking oysters was not at work yet! We sighed, and figured that meant they could not serve the oysters we ordered. However, a few minutes later our waitress returned in triumph with a half dozen oysters! She proudly announced that not only did she find someone to open oysters for us, but she had personally managed to open one for us! The oysters were huge but wonderfully fresh and delicious.
Having sated our hunger and thirst. We were now fortified for an afternoon of walking and we left Fiddler’s. We proceeded down River Road to the east end of Savannah.
Old Savannah:
Savannah, like any city built along a river, was built where there was sufficient bluff or rise above river level to keep the city from flooding. In the case of Savannah, River street is near river level, but at this time of year the river was still a good 15 feet below street level. The next street in from the river is Bay Street, and it is 2 stories above the River Street level.
The access from River Street up to Bay Street are via the River Street buildings or the occasional “road/street” that curves its way down the bluff face. These connecting routes are more like alleys given their width than modern streets or roads. River Street, Bay Street, and all of the connecting roads are surfaced with cobble stones.
Along with restaurants, River Street is now filled with tourist shops selling all kinds of silly stuff they think tourists will buy. Tee-Shirts, tchotchkes imprinted with slogans, and even shops dedicated to selling you sea shells. Then there were 4 candy shops, each one temping potential customers in with the aroma of freshly made pecan pralines.
Given the limited space on the Wols Roost, Rob and Deryl have a high tolerance to purchasing random items. Also, while Rob has lost enough weight over the last few years that he is in need of smaller Tee-Shirts, he doesn’t need many. Besides we will be traveling all over in the next few months. Therefore the maximum Rob would possibly buy in any city would be one REALLY appealing Tee-Shirt.
One of the candy shops did manage to grab Rob and Deryl by the nose and lure us in. Unshelled Pecans, you say? Unsalted pecans, salted pecans, candied pecans, pecans in caramel, pecan pralines, pecans on top of caramel and white chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate, candied apples covered in caramel and pecans, pecan bits in with fresh caramel pop corn, chocolate cups with pecans, pecan turtles… Yes, Virgina, candy shops in Savannah have pecans with all kinds of things.
We managed to escape with only a bag of candied pecans, a box of pecan pralines, and one each dark chocolate pecan gopher (pecans embedded in caramel and topped with chocolate.)
Tree Lined Streets:
Having walked the length of River Street, and climbed up the final ramp to reach Bay street. We discover an oak lined, broad, road, with gardens along one edge. There are bridge crossings to 3rd story entry ways of the River Street buildings and spanning the alley running at the 2nd story level of those River Street buildings.
As we walk along watching people, and admiring the various architectural features, we observe that behind the grand City Hall building, a public access elevator has been installed. Rob and Deryl comment how wise some one was to facilitate access from the upper level of Bay street down to River street, beyond climbing the occasional ancient steep staircase, or the steep cobble stone alleys.
This section of Savannah has large wide avenues with large live oak trees in the center dividers of the lanes. The streets are mostly one way, providing room for traffic, sidewalks and again more trees.
We found this area to be very walkable, and enjoyed strolling along the avenues and streets for hours while we worked up an appetite again. We also knew we had to move the truck at 8:00 PM, so put off looking for a restaurant until we had relocated the truck to street parking.
In the mean time we were entertained by all the people out enjoying the afternoon and early evening. Many people were dressed in costumes. Today being Saturday, and the day before Halloween, the bars were hosting a “pub crawl” where patrons could get a card stamped at each establishment they visited. In addition, various bars advertised costume contests.
We timed our walking tour to arrive back at the Georgia Rail Museum & Savannah Tourist bureau parking lot just before 8:00 PM. We climbed into Clyde and took off to find free parking along a street. A few blocks down Ogleothorpe Avenue, we found an open end slot and slid Clyde in.
While at the truck, Deryl donned the fascinator Claudia had loaned her. The fascinator was a red head band, with a large red spider. The body was attached to the head band. The legs arched upward from the body, and curved down around Deryl’s head as if gently holding on to her hair. Rob put his black cowboy hat on. We were now in our costumery for the festivities.
Sorry Charlie’s:
We stroll down Oglethorpe to Bull Street, and then along Broughton street, peering at restaurant menus, and observing the crowds. We circled Ellis Square, where a large number of pubs and restaurants are located. The menu at one brought us back, Sorry Charlie’s Oyster Bar.
Yes, there is a theme here. Rob and Deryl determined that South Carolina would be the last coastal state we would visit on our travels. Hence, we should dine on as much fresh sea food as we could.
We checked in at the front desk and the wait time for a table was running about an hour to an hour and a half. However, we were welcome to wait for seats at the bar or shuck station bar. We put our names in, and then kept watchful eyes on the patrons at the bars.
Rob picks up cocktails at the bar, and we stand as out of the way as we can while we wait. After about a half an hour, two people get up from the shuck station and we have our seats.
Sorry Charlie’s has a variety of oysters and we select a half dozen each of the two gulf coast oysters. Having once again satisfied our hunger we decide to wander back to Clyde while enjoying the revelry.
An uneventful drive back to camp completes the day.