My husband had an encounter with an alligator at the Wild Dunes Golf Course in Charleston. Our derby race picks were LOSERS. My approach to betting is this: I bet on a horse if I like the silk the jockey is wearing or if I like the name of the horse or jockey. I don’t recommend this approach. My big win of the day was picking the right horse to win on the 7th race of the day. I pocketed $120 and promptly gave it right back to Churchill Downs.
All my cute, girly, girl shoes went permanently in the suitcase when we got to Charleston. The streets are so old, uneven and unpredictable. While in Charleston we went to the Charleston Museum, took a tour boat to Fort Sumter, went on an architectural walking tour, shopped and shopped some more, did some fancy dine-in, did some real good not fancy dine-in, took a yoga class at Blue Turtle Yoga, golfed at Wild Dunes and Kiawah Island, had drinks on a roof top bar and looked at the new bridge over the Cooper River, and took hundreds of pictures of buildings.
We stopped in Beaufort (BEEYOUFORT) on our way to Savannah and tried to find the house where they filmed the Big Chill and had lunch at Plums. Then we stopped at Hilton Head Island so we could buy a golf shirt and look at the famous lighthouse at Harbour Town Links course. I decided I like Savannah a lot more than Charleston. Savannah is tourist friendly although I still didn’t get out the cute shoes but the town squares every two blocks give you a peaceful, easy feeling! They are so lovely. I would like to see the town when the azaleas are blooming in March. We gave up on the Paula Deen Lady and Sons insanity. If you want lunch you line up at 9:30 a.m. and dinner you line up at 3:30 p.m. Only Paula Deen would comprise a list of places to taste sweets at every town square.
There’s a swanky place in Savannah called the Mansion on Forsyth where we had dinner on Saturday. The decorating was over the top mahvelous. The hands down best meal for me was at a little place called The Sweet Leaf (which is now closed) where I had the best, best smoked barbecue chicken, corn pudding and cole slaw. It was right around the corner from our B&B. Food TVs Rachael Ray recommended it in her magazine and so did the concierge at our B&B. I am still waiting for Dixie Lee from our B&B to get me the recipe for the corn pudding.
We ended our trip in Atlanta at the Ritz Carlton in Buckhead at the busiest intersection in Atlanta on mother’s day weekend. Yikes! I couldn’t wait to come home at that point.
Historic Charleston, South Carolina
Pink House Art Gallery on one of the oldest streets in Charleston.
One of the many beautiful gardens in Charleston
Lobby at the Charleston Place Hotel
The Old Exchange Building in Charleston
Bonaventure Cemetery outside of Savannah, Georgia.
Bonaventure Cemetery
One of the many squares in Savannah
One of the homes in Savannah
Chippewa Square in Savannah taken from the Foley House Inn Bed and Breakfast across the street. The site is famous for the waiting for the bus scene in Forest Gump when he said, “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.”
Savannah College of Art and Design
Andrew Low House
The Mercer House was once the home of our huckleberry friend and singer/songwriter Johnny Mercer. This was also the location where the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was filmed.
Owens-Thomas House in Savannah, Georgia
