Savannah

Yesterday we cautiously rose to check on our sun burn and luckily we were in pretty good shape but the weather was overcast anyway. This was actually a good thing though as we had decided to take a guided walking tour to explore Savannah and didn’t want to be trekking around in 90 degrees. We met our guide, ‘Savannah Dan’ at 10 AM in Johnson Square, which is one of 22 historic squares that make up the historic downtown. We have obviously been on a fair amount of tours since we began our adventure but this ranked up there as one of the best. Dan was an excellent guide, a charismatic Southern Gentleman with a personality as large as his frame (check out our photo with him!). An ex-police officer and part-time radio guest he made what would have still been an excellent way to explore Savannah more than a simple tour with his plethora of knowledge and interesting stories.

During our tour we visited 9 out of the 22 historic squares, learning about the significance of each as we went. We also stopped to get snapped at the spot Tom Hanks sat waiting for the bus in Forest Gump. Funnily enough there is no bench there today as the crew made one specifically for the film, also the bus actually breaks the law in the movie as it comes from the wrong direction down what is actually a one way street in real life! We also passed the church that holds the spire at which the feather floats past in the beginning of the film. Towards the end of the tour we passed an ice cream parlour that Dan suggested as a nice lunch spot. So, we popped in afterwards for a sandwich and ice cream and it turns out the place is now owned by a big time Hollywood film producer and it is littered with memorabilia from various films he produced including Mission Impossible 3 and The Wolfman.

Around 2 PM we left Savannah and drove out to the coast. A huge storm rolled in as we were driving and we got  battered by torrential rain, which is becoming a recurring feature at the moment in the afternoons, but at least we weren’t still walking around outside! When we got to the beach, which is on a sea side community just north of Savannah called Tybee Island, the weather cleared a little and we took a walk along the pier and took in the sights of this famous location. If you have or are going to see the new Miley Cirus movie ‘The Last Song’ then one; you’re no longer my friend and two; it was filmed at Tybee Island. The sun never really broke out so we didn’t stay long before setting off for Jacksonville and our final state of the trip, Florida.

By the time we arrived we were exhausted from a busy day and driving in tropical storms so we quickly crashed out and went to sleep. As we have two days here we had a lie in this morning, Jenny even went down and grabbed some breakfast for us to have in bed...I think someone might have abducted the real one in the night and replaced her! The weather is still stormy so our plans for the Zoo or beach were scuppered and we decided to hit the outlet malls and a Walmart instead! Hopefully the weather will clear a bit tomorrow and we’ll decide what we are going to spend the day doing before we set off in the afternoon for Daytona Beach.