Spring Break Trip 2025 // Tybee Island, GA // Day Four: Touring Savannah

 A couple of years ago, our family spent spring break in the Charleston area and our kids loved that trip.  Melayna especially enjoyed Charleston and has asked if we could return.  Since our family enjoys visiting new places however, I thought that we could visit Savannah as a city comparable to Charleston and then we could decide which city that we liked better.  I have to admit, after spending the day in both cities, they are alike in some ways but also very different in a lot of others.  Actually, a gentleman from the area told us that Charleston is known more for being old history and old money and that it has more of a quaint feel to it where Savannah still has the old history, but is definitely becoming modernized because the Savannah School of Arts and Design is located in the city and as the school grows and expands, it continues to buy up old buildings and renovates them for the school's use.  Also, as more and more young artists arrive in the city, the culture continues to move farther and farther away from the quaint historical city of old.  I thought that he described it quite well.

Anyway, as Noel was researching some sites that we should visit, he discovered that Savannah was one of the cities where you could board a trolley that went through the town hitting all of the historical highlights and you were allowed unlimited access to get on or off at any stops from 9-5.  We haven't ever done anything like that on previous vacations, so we thought it would be a really fun way to check out a new place.  We arrived at the Old Town Trolley station around 9:00 a.m. and began the tour shortly afterwards.  

All together, there are 15 stops along the route and 2 trolley stations.  We found out that we actually hopped on the trolley at stop 8 so we rode around with one driver to hit stops 8-15 and then we got back onto another trolley to take stops 1-7.  While we were riding and listening to our guides, each of us was thinking about individual places that we would like to visit again - either using the trolley system, or by walking there.  

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One of the places that we knew that we wanted to go back to was Forsythe Park.  It is Savannah's oldest park and spans over 30 acres.  We were drawn to the park not only because of their world renowned fountain but also because of the massive oak trees that line both sides of the sidewalk and the spanish moss that hangs from the trees.  Pictures will not do the trees or the park justice.... it was simply beautiful!

We took some time to visit the fountain and to take a couple of pictures there and then we moved on down the pathway to take a look at the artwork and jewelry and other craft items that many had lined up along the walkway to sell.

"Join us Victoria... seriously, you're part of the family now!  LOL"

There was another area of the park that had a memorial to all of the Confederate soldiers that had fought in the "War of Northern Aggression".  After the war was over, many of the soldiers wives went together and helped to fund the statue that would stand in the park.  Our tour guide pointed out that the direction that a soldier is facing will point the way towards their enemy.  Since this is a Confederate soldier, he is facing his enemy.... an aggressor from the North.

I was standing on the East side of the park when I took this picture, but the soldier is indeed facing towards the north.

And then this picture was taken at the north end of the memorial.

On the south side of the park, there was just a large open grassy area.  During the Civil War days, that grassy area was used to camp and train soldiers, both Yankee and Conferate soldiers.  Just obviously not at the same time.  Now that area is used for families to sit and watch concerts, exercise their pets, or just lay in the grass.  There is also two playgrounds located at that end of the park and Nolan was sure to find them both.  There were plenty of other places that we wanted to visit, but we decided to let him play for a few minutes since this was also his vacation.

Soon enough, we were ready to begin walking to our next stop.  Nolan grabbed the map and directed us to our next stop which was the Cathedral Basilica of St John the Baptist.

We arrived at the church while mass was going on inside the church but we were told that we would be allowed to enter inside the church as soon as the service ended so we decided to stick around for 15 minutes so that we could see the inside of the church as well.

Noel and I have been to Catholic weddings inside some pretty impressive churches but this one was so huge and had such beautiful artwork on the inside walls and ceilings.  Here is the view to the front of the church....

...the sides...

...and then the back with the huge pipe organ.

We had gone to the front of the church to try to listen to one of the volunteers talk about the history and the design of the church.  All of the sudden, Victoria and Melayna got up from their seats and moved across the aisle to sit with a family that was over on the other side.  Turns out that they saw one of their best friends from school as she was visiting family who live in the area.  How crazy is that?!

After leaving the church, we continued walking through the historical area of town as we headed north towards the riverfront.  There were so many beautiful houses and buildings and town squares all throughout the area.  It was a truly beautiful place to walk.

At one point, we came across this little bookstore.  When you walked inside, the owner had tea and coffee made and then little baggies of candies and treats.  It was a small store, but she had a lot of the classics and hard to find books.  

Remember Nancy Drew?  My older sister use to have every single one of those books.  I'm not ever sure what she did with them, but if she ever needs to replace one, I know where she can go. 

We did eventually make it down to the river and once we got there, we decided to find a place to eat.  Someone had recommended Spanky's as a "must eat" so we stopped and put our names in on the reservation list and then continued walking around the area until our names were called.  (We did find out later that we actually had another location of Spanky's just around the corner from our airbnb back on the Island and we probably wouldn't have had to wait that long to eat.  Oh well.)  At least our table was beside the river and we were able to watch the barges travel past while eating.

While we waited, we enjoyed walking through the marketplace, buying some Byrd cookies, and watching the steamboats.

The Peach flavored cookies were SO good!

Once again, the style of the older buildings were so beautiful to look at...

....and we even stumbled upon an original road or two made from cobblestone and rocks from the river.  Speaking of the river, our tour guide told us that when the city was first established, the river was only about 12 feet deep but over the years, they have had to drudge it many times to make room for bigger ships to make their way down the river.  Even now, as boats continue to get bigger, the bridge is going to have be raised another 20 feet higher to make room for them to pass underneath.  The city plans to begin work on the bridge within the next 3-5 years and amazingly enough, they don't plan to shut the bridge down while they do the work.

After eating lunch and walking around the riverfront, we decided to start walking a couple of blocks south again so see some of the shopping and restaurants that are located in the area.  These would be more of the "chain stores" and places that you can find anywhere... they were just built into the older architecture.  We found "H & M" and "Lululemon's" among several others.  

We also stumbled upon Leopold's, which is suppose to be some of the world's best ice cream.  We entertained the idea of getting ice cream there but the line was really long out in front of the storefront so we decided that none of us needed ice cream that badly.  (And again, we actually discovered that there was another Leopolds just minutes from our airbnb so we did get the opportunity to try it later in the week).  It was good ice cream, but none of us really understood what the fuss really was about.

Noel and I really liked this building below because it reminded us of the place where we stayed on our honeymoon down in New Orleans.

We ducked in and out of a couple of stores and we were just getting ready to head back to our car when we saw the sign for the Peach Cobbler Factory.  We had heard about it on the trolley tour earlier in the day and Noel was really intrigued.  Despite the fact that Nolan was really tired and just wanted to go home, we went inside so Noel could try out a cup of their cobbler.  We may have all taken a couple of bites and it was really good.

Nolan certainly didn't understand what the fuss was all about over a cup of cobbler.  He grabbed a map of the city from the counter and began to plot the fastest route back to the car.

We did eventually get back to our car and he immediately fell asleep for a nap all the way back to the island.

We ended our day by walking the beaches once again.  The kids went to the beach closest to our house and then they walked downtown to the souvenir shops to buy a slushy to top off their day.  Noel and I walked back to the Fisherman's Pier and watched the sun go down on the quieter side of the island.  

It was definitely much quieter on this night.  The tide had come in earlier and left a lot of shells and dead jelly fish in it's wake and it was pretty quiet by the time we were there later that night.

In this picture, you can see the jellyfish every couple of feet.  They were everywhere and all dead.

We also found several dead crabs.

Someone had made a shrine of sorts for this poor thing.

So, we were trying to make it look like Noel was holding the sun in these pictures but we just never quite got it to work.  How do people do that anyway?  

'So close and yet so far!!  LOL