Historic Savannah - Old Town Trolley - Day 1

We decided to explore Savannah on the Old Town Trolley which is a hop on hop off trolley with 15 stops. We got a 2 day pass and included the evening Ghosts and Gravestones Tour.

Not being an open top like the double-decker buses, it was hard to take photos from the trolley. The huge oak trees didn’t help either…lol However, it was the best in terms of how frequently the trolleys came by. We never waited more than a few minutes and they advertise every 15 to 20 minutes. It was never that long.

We learned that a lot of movies have been made here. 

The Longest Yard 

Glory 

Forrest Gump 

Now and Then 

Something to Talk About 

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil 

The Generals Daughter

The Last Song

The Conspirator

Magic Mike XXL

There are 22 squares here and we strolled most all of them as well as Jones Street which is considered to be the prettiest street in Savannah over our 2 days taking the Trolley. We saw where Forest Gump sat on the bench where he said “life is like a box of chocolates” We also saw a few sites that were used for the movie Midnight In the Garden of Good & Evil. Johnny Mercer (founder of Capitol Records and wrote many songs such as Moon River and Days of Wine and Roses.

We rode the Trolley through several stops before getting off.

 the Welcome Center

 inside the Welcome Center

 in front of the Train Museum

 Independent Presbyterian Church

used in the Julia Roberts movie "Something to Talk About"

We got off to visit the Prohibition Museum. We were early since it didn’t open until 10:00, so we walked around the area and stopped in and had chocolate praline candies.

 Statue of Johnny Mercer

We walked towards the Paula Deen Store and I saw what I thought was a cut-out of her on the sidewalk in front of her store. (I should have snapped a photo then) It turned out that she was having a book signing and it was actually her standing outside before going inside to set up for the book signing. I tried to get a shot from inside, but she was in a back area setting up and people were lined up outside in a long line to get in to have their books signed.

 line forming for the book signing by Paula Deen

 continuing to grow.....

 chocolate covered pralines (of course we each had one)

The Prohibition Museum was quite interesting and well done.

 Greg with the rest of the drunks....

 Carry Nation

the different products the breweries made when they couldn't produce beer

 the guns were the proper weight (heavy) 

 of course they had a bar

We had lunch at a South African sandwich place called Zunzi’s. We had the Chicken Conquistador sandwich which got recognized to be one of the top three sandwiches in the United States by Adam Richman, the Travel Channel host. We split the huge sandwich which had chicken with 2 kinds of sauces. Tasty and bold sauces! We also had hummus & pita. The hummus had a lot of cumin in it so it was quite tasty as well and quite different from other hummus dips.

 lunch stop

 Chicken Conquistador 

 their delivery van

Back on the Trolley to visit earlier stops we rode through:

 Tomo-Chi-Chi Monument

 Tomo-Chi-Chi's Grave

 City Hall

John Wesley 

 The Olde Pink House Restaurant

 cute dog enjoying the trolley tour

 Independent Presbyterian Church

 bell from the steeple

 pedicab

 pretending to be Forest Gump (begging)

 

 young Mockingbird

 Red-bellied Woodpecker

We got off to tour St. John’s Catholic Church. Very beautiful inside.

 Zunzi's Restaurant

 We had ice cream at Leopold's - celebrating 98 years in business started by 3 brothers from Greece

"Famed lyricist Johnny Mercer grew up a block away from Leopold’s and worked at the shop as a boy.  Later, he was a faithful customer when he was home from Hollywood.  He even told Peter that he would write a song about Leopold’s famous Tutti Frutti ice cream, which had become a Leopold’s hallmark and Savannah favorite." (from their website)

We walked along the riverfront.

 Florence Martus Savannah's Waving Girl statue

 1996 Olympic Yachting Cauldron

 Greg walking over the bridge

 Savannah's Cotton Exchange

 Talmadge Memorial Bridge

 World War ll Memorial

 happy Grackle

It was a hot and steamy day….around 97 degrees and humid and sticky. (way hotter than we ever were in Panama and the humidity in Panama isn’t that oppressive.)

We opened the bottle of Prosecco that we bought in Venice to toast finally getting out of Florida and on the road. It’s starting to feel more like what we thought it would be like.

Saturday, we took the day off and chilled out …… Had a few errands to run. (haircuts, groceries, more shopping at Camping World, laundry) 

Tomorrow, we do our second day on the Old Town Trolley.