Feeling well on the way to recovery I spent Friday making my way through Georgia. From Atlanta I drove to Athens where I saw a double barreled cannon, wandered around the University of Georgia Campus, and had a tasty Spanish tortilla for lunch. After taking the elevator up in the wrong parking garage I found my way to Velma and headed south along highway 221 making a few other stops in pictaresque towns along the way. The highlight was definitely a short detour I took to drive across a covered wood bridge, check it out:

The Covered Bridge

That evening I made it to an airport hotel outside of Savannah where I was suppose to meet my mom. I got checked in and relaxed for a while but it got later and later and still my mom wasn’t there. I called her and she said she was terribly lost and hadn’t set up the gps on her phone. With some patience we figured it out and she finally arrived after traveling the whole day, what a champ!

Saturday morning we headed into Savannah completely unaware that there was a marathon going on, we clearly were not participants in our fall boots and sweaters. Savannah is charming as can be and more than a little enamored with itself. We toured one of the historic houses that took up a whole side on one of Savannah’s squares. It was particularly fascinating because of the advanced indoor plumbing the home use to have. To nerd out for a moment, they build these three giant water storage areas in the house to collect rainwater. From there the water reached the plumbing fixtures only through gravity. The builder was also obsessed with symmetry so there are a lot of fake doors.

Savannah, GA

After that tour we gradually made our way to the Telfair Art Museum which was a very nicely done museum, smaller than most but it was nice to make it through all the galleries for once! We rested our feet in the main gallery/ballroom on a plush round red couch with paintings on every wall! It kept us entertained for quite some time. The Telfair is home to the Bird Girl statue made famous by “The Book” aka “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” shown here:

They had to remove the statue from its original place in the cemetery because so many tourists would go tramping through. The other place we visited the next day that was really important in the book was the Mercer Williams House where “the incident” took place.

 I asked my mom, “What incident?!”

And in good form she told me, “I’m not going to tell you, your just going to have to read the book.”

Well fine.

My mom had given me this book before the trip and told me I had to read it before going to Savannah. Of course, I forgot to. I am reading it now though and my whole visit made so much more sense!

Sunday evening we made a reservation for dinner at The Olde Pink House, which was delicious Southern cuisine in all its modern glory. Full of fabulous fried food my mom and I made the quick walk back to our hotel.

The next morning, Monday the 7^th, we had breakfast in Savannah, found Mom a Christmas ornament, and headed to Charleston, South Carolina.

Charleston was as lovely as Savannah and another wonderful town to walk around. We spent the afternoon wandering around seeing the waterfront, the homes, and took a break to watch the sunset at a rooftop bar. Afterwards my mom took me to try raw oysters, I’d never had them! We slurped the little lemon-and-cocktail-sauce buggers out of these hideous alien-looking shells. It was cool!

Actual dinnertime had arrived and based on my friend Taryn’s recommendation we went to Magnolias for another round of Southern cuisine. After dinner this time we skipped the walk and caught a pedicab back to the hotel.

The next day we had some time before I took my mom to the airport. We found a place to get my haircut (its hard to find a good place on the road!), visited the site of a former slave market, saw some old churches, saw some old graves, AND got pralines. After such a fun long-weekend I took my mom to the airport and said, “see you in December!”

Thanks for such a fun weekend Mom!

With love from the road,

Cara