Vacation! Part 3: (rest of) Savannah and Charleston

I have been too slow in getting the rest of our vacation blogged. I'm starting to forget!

Days 5-8: Savannah, Ga. -- We'd walked and seen a lot of Savannah, so we decided to head out of the city on our last full day there, which also happened to be our third anniversary! We decided to spend the day on the beach at Tybee Island, which is only about 25 minutes from Savannah. On the way out, we stopped at the world's smallest Wal-Mart and bought two cheap beach towels and two $10 chairs. We parked, scoped out a spot on the sand, swam in the very warm (but still cloudy, east coast) water, and just hung out. After a couple of hours, we decided to go walk around the little island, leaving our beach chairs on the sand so they could dry out before we packed them up.

Two hours and a long walk later (there is supposedly a lighthouse on Tybee Island that we never did find - we looked for it, followed the map and came up empty-handed), we were headed back to collect our chairs when the rain started pouring. So much for dry chairs! Rob rescued them from the beach, we wiped them off the best we could and threw them in the trunk with a neat sheet. Grabbed lunch at a random roadside stand (the fish tacos were excellent!) and headed back toward Savannah to clean up and walk around a little bit.

Dinner that night was AWESOME. We celebrated three years at The Olde Pink House and loved it! I think it was probably the best meal I've ever eaten and we went all out. I had the blue crab beignets, she-crab soup and bbq grouper with spinach and grits. Rob had a shrimp and fried grits appetizer, a wedge salad with fried green tomatoes, and striped bass with a coulis of potatoes, corn, black-eyed peas and blue crab. We were seated in the nicest room in the restaurant -- it only had five tables and looked out at the square -- that they use for anniversaries and special occasions. It was so nice and a great way to end our time in Savannah.

The next morning, we got up and stopped at a jewelry shop we'd been in earlier, and Rob bought me a pretty pendant designed by a local jeweler. We headed out towards Charleston!

Days 8-11: Charleston, S.C. -- On our drive, we realized that the car's front power outlet wasn't working. Turns out we blew a fuse when we plugged in the GPS up front and a cooler in the back (it was above the suggested combined wattage, which we never thought about when we plugged them in). So we stopped at an Auto Zone and bought a new fuse, which Rob replaced after trying forever to take out the old fuse - he couldn't get his big fingers in there to grab it. But it still didn't work, so we passed a Honda place and I made Rob pull over. The guy there was super nice -- apparently there are two fuses for that power outlet, so he swapped out the second one (he was much faster than Rob, but he had tools!) and we were on our way. By this time we were starving, so we stopped at another random roadside place for an excellent BLFGT (bacon, lettuce and fried green tomato) sandwich!

We checked in to our hotel and spent most of the day walking around the downtown area. Charleston is much more of a city than Savannah, with more traffic and people and distance. We trekked around and stopped for a Lady Baltimore cupcake -- one of my favorites that can't be found anywhere near home.

For dinner, we'd made a reservation at Hominy Grill -- shrimp and grits for Rob, and more grouper for me. Rob says this was his favorite meal of the trip! Our only miscalculation was that it was 2 miles from our hotel, and it was looking stormy when we left (to be honest, we thought it was closer and probably would have driven, but we didn't realize it until we were on our way). We made it to the restaurant before it poured, but the skies opened up while we were eating. The gal at the restaurant called us a cab to get back!

The next day we walked through the City Market, visited the Powder Magazine, ate some southern cookin' lunch at Jestine's Kitchen and headed toward the docks to do a riverboat cruise. We'd both been to Fort Sumpter before, so we opted not to do that and instead cruised down the coastline, under the Cooper Bridge and by the Yorktown. Then we walked a loooooong couple of miles down around the Battery and finally back to our hotel to crash. Dinner that night was lowcountry cuisine -- more shrimp and grits for me (are you seeing a pattern here??) and a seafood medley for Rob. Plus, the best biscuits and honey butter!

On our last day in Charleston, we headed out to Cypress Gardens for a blackwater swamp tour, alligator spotting and hiking. We arrived soon after they opened, so we were the only two on the first guided boat tour. Our guide took us in a smaller boat and we saw about five alligators! After the boat, we hiked around and spotted some other weird wildlife. Back to Charleston for our last walk of the city, visit to the Market to pick up some bene wafers (like sesame seed cookies) and dinner at Blossom.

Sunday we started north for our 8 hour drive. It actually went quickly and we were sorry to see our vacation end, but glad to be home.

Next up, photos!