Savannah, GA

Isle of Hope, GA

Isle of Hope Marina

April 18-20, 2012

We left Jekyll Island at the crack or maybe a little before dawn.  We had 94 miles to go to Isle of Hope Marina and we wanted to get there before 5.  The water was shallow and the route was ridiculously twisted. The PC which runs the chart plotter software kept crashing at the worse possible time.  I brought up my other computer but the screen is not sunlight view-able so it was hard to see but we still had the chart plotter on the boat and the Ipad so I was not without charts but I hate it when things don't go my way (I know I am a little girl sometimes).  It turns out the problem was not with the PC but with the GPS connected so the company sold me another one that should work better.

Isle of Hope Marina is about 10 miles from Savannah so the plan was to either rent a car or use the courtesy car to visit the city. "Passport" had arrived at Isle of Hope the day before and they had a car reserved for dinner the night we arrived.  We went to dinner in Savannah with "Passport", "Mary Francis IV" and Kris from "Southern Belle".  We went to the Shrimp Factory and had a very nice dinner.  Thursday was a free day because we were going to go to Savannah on Friday.  We spent the day doing laundry and a few other boat chores.  On Thursday night there was a potluck at the marina.  As always, there was a lot of great food and we got to meet a few of the live-aboards in the marina - wonderful people.  

On Friday we loaded up the van with 7 at 8:30 A.M.  and headed to Savannah.  We parked at the trolley station and took the trolley to see the town.  Everybody got off at different stops and explored the city on their own.  Ginny and I got off near the waterfront and went from there.  The city is very well laid out and easy to get around even for me.  The weather was threatening but it did not rain.  Out tour conductor mentioned a restaurant called the Wilke's House.  It is only open 5 days a week from 11:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M..  Ginny and I got there at 12:30 and waited for 1 hour before being seated.  They serve the food boarding house style so the tables seat 10 people and there is no menu.  When you sit down all of the food is on the table and you just start serving, passing the dishes and eating.  There were at least 20 different dishes of food plus fried chicken and biscuits.  The food was fantastic and we got to meet all of the other visitors from California, Pennsylvania and Georgia sitting with us.

That night Lyndi (Ginny's sister-in-law) and Hank (her nephew) who are now living in Vadalia came to see us.  Her brother, Fred coordinated things from LA.  Lyndi brought us real Vadalia onions and we had a great evening visiting with them on the boat and eating dinner at a nearby restaurant.  Overall we really liked Savannah and we will come back by car someday.

 Sunrise leaving Jekyll Island

 The bridge to Savannah

I think I saw Forrest Gump

 Building a new bridge on the way to Isle of Hope

Isle of Hope Marina

A pot luck at the marina

 Some old houses in Savannah

 The Westin Hotel across the river from Savannah

 Forrest Gump's Bench

The Mercer Williams House (From one of Ginny's favorite books - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil)

 Where we had dinner the first night

 The Wilkes House for lunch

 Very satisfied after eating a ton of food

 Every dish had a different food

 I love Paula Deen, but Wilkes was great.  We didn't see any lines.

A statue of Johnny Mercer (he wrote the song "Moon River")

 One of the many churches in Savannah

The Six Pence Restaurant (in the movie "Something to Talk About" with Julia Roberts).