Savannah - My Kind of Town

We started our day off in Savannah at the Railroad Museum much to Landon's delight as he's all about the trains! Most trains were off-limits for climbing, but there were some that we were allowed on, and one luxury train we were able to tour. There was also a small play train for the boys to climb on, and a model of a train set inside. The boys thought it very fun.



Afterward we went on a trolley tour of downtown Savannah which revealed many fascinating stories about the city's history and included driving around all the many park squares (including the one which held the Forrest Gump bench found in the movie) they have as well as passing by beautiful homes and buildings. The architecture is amazing, and the city itself oozes such Southern charm. Here are some of the photos we took...



After our day trip around Savannah, we stopped at Paula Deen's restaurant to see if we could get a bite to eat (not a huge Paula Deen fan, but knew enough about her to be curious about her restaurant), but unfortunately due to construction on the streets around it, the restaurant didn't even have electricity and water so no luck there! Instead we stopped at another restaurant right off the riverwalk which served us some good 'ole Southern food. Lauryn and I then boarded the Ghosts & GravestonesTours of Savannah to check out the spookier sights and sounds of the city where we had a lovely (albeit cheesy) ride on the tour bus listening to the actress spin her tales of ghost lore. We thought we were actually going to be able to visit a home featured on Ghost Hunters (we realized we had an older brochure touting this benefit) and officially proclaimed haunted, but alas we drove right by it much to Lauryn's and my chagrin {and truth be told, relief too}. But we were able to take a couple pictures of it...



Lauryn and I really fell in love with Savannah because it was a full-scale city with a down-home feel to it. Out of all that we got to see and experience down South, this was by far the favorite of our travels. We certainly would love to go and visit again, not only to experience their wonderful hospitality but also to further explore its rich history and beauty.

Charming Charleston

The biggest recommendation from friends was to visit Charleston, supposedly the most charming city in SC. It's location on the coast gives it the laid-back but elite charm of most any historical seafaring town. It has the attitude of a big city like our Boston with every imaginable upscale retailer down King Street and art galleries up Church Street yet lacks the congested traffic of cars and people you'd expect to find in a big city. Now I realize we were there in winter and not in the peak of tourist season, but we found ourselves in stores and on the streets without much other company. I will admit that Charleston was a tough city for us with three young children who didn't find much fun in the areas we visited. If it had been just Michael, Lauryn and I, we probably could have really savored every historical drop of Charleston along with shopping til we felt like dropping.



By the time dinner rolled around, the boys were tired, hungry and ready to go home (Reagan even asked several times if he could go back home and go to sleep!). We chose to eat at the Hominy Grill which had national rave reviews on their Southern home cookin'. It was pretty good, and I got to try grits for the first time which seems to be the South's version of risotto as there are as many different ways/flavors to cook grits as there are for risotto. And instead of the traditional dinner roll you'll find at every restaurant here, you'll be served cornbread (which we learned can be eaten with honey or syrup to make it extra yummy).

In our travels through downtown Charleston, we passed by the cutest little store called Cupcake and vowed to visit it before we left the city. So after dinner, we stopped by and picked up a few cupcakes which can I just say were the most scrumptious little mini-cakes ever?!? Lauryn just had to take a picture of them.
Just to give you an idea of some of the flavors they have besides the basic vanilla and chocolate, they have chocolate almond, peanut butter banana fluff and red velvet (which they're famous for but much to Lauryn's chagrin did not have any left). Yum-O!

The kids totally perked up when we told them we'd go visit the Holiday Festival of Lights (thanks, Peg!) which is a beautiful three-mile drive-thru with thousands of holiday lights set up in James Island County Park. Though pictures don't really do it justice, I'll share a few we took there.




It really was quite amazing and helped put us in the Christmas spirit being down South with no snow where we didn't even have a Christmas tree. Here's a video of just a tiny bit of our drive-thru which will give you a better idea of how festive and cool it all was:



Our visit to Charleston actually fell on Landon's birthday however we chose to celebrate the next day when we were staying closer to "home". Those pictures are up next...