Savannah: Day 1

This past weekend we headed to Savannah, Georgia.  I signed up for the Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Half Marathon back in the Spring.  It was the first Half Marathon from this series in Savannah.  There were 23,000 participants and it sold out in August.  We found out that 2/3 of the participants were female. We drove down on Thursday night.  It felt like a marathon getting there...it was a 4 1/2 hour drive.  I drove and Seth studied away in the passenger seat next to me.  

Friday morning we headed to the convention center across the river from Savannah to pick up my race packet.  Below is our first picture in Savannah.  You can see River Street in the background with several ferries lined up.  

We had a little difficulty picking up my packet.  There was apparently someone else with my name signed up for the race.  From that moment on my goal was to beat "myself" in the race.

We drove across the river and took a trolley tour of the city.  Savannah is one the the most beautiful cities I have ever been in.  The plan for this city is so unique.  There are 23 historic squares that are full of massive live oak trees that are draped in Spanish moss.  We learned that Spanish moss is related to pineapple and thrives off the humidity in the air.  It was stunning.  The house below is the house that the haunted mansion at Disneyland is patterned after.

We toured inside this cathedral.  The stained glass windows were breathtaking.

We headed down to River Street and stopped at the Waving Girl statue.  The real waving girl was Florence Martus she waved at all the ships that entered the port near Savannah between 1887 and 1931.  During the day Florence would wave a handkerchief and at night she would wave a lantern.  Legend has it that she never missed a ship in her forty-four years on watch.  Some say she waved at all of the ships because she had fallen in love with a sailor and was waiting for his return.

River Street is full of cobblestone, souvenir shops, candy shops and restaurants .

We were able to step aboard this early colonial ship.

We also climbed these stairs to get back to Historic district.

Just below the stairs is this alley way.  Carts would drive through full of cotton and cotton brokers would bid on the cotton from the walkways above.  

The park below was one of my favorites.  The live oaks were woven together beautifully in the canopy above our heads.

Below is the famous fountain in Forsyth Park. Can you believe this fountain was ordered through a catalog in 1858.

My dad is the biggest Forest Gump fan.  We took the picture below just for him.  The opening scene of Forest Gump was shot in this very spot.  This obviously isn't the bench from the movie...that bench sits in the Savannah history museum.  We wished we would have had a box of chocolates with us.  In the background you can see the church were the feather from the movie started down from.

The ironwork in Savannah was very elaborate.  Here is a dolphin shaped downspout that our tour guide pointed out.

The house pictured below is the Mercer-Williams House.  It is the main location in the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

After seeing most of the sites in Savannah we headed out to Tybee Island.