Savannah GA Part one

       Here we go again. Another great Southern city, Savannah. We spent four days doing walking tours of the historic area's. The last time we were here we did the hop on hop off bus tour, but this time we wanted to get a lot closer to the history by walking all the different streets, and reading all the plaques. We purchased a walking tour book in the visitor center and took off. The book was very informative with great information. I think we walked on all the streets in the Historic area. For now we got our fill of old southern homes and buildings. We need a break from all that history.   But wait we are  heading to The Oldest City, ST Augustine FL. Well its only for a week and we spent 4 months there so we won't do to much touring. We will upload photos in the future. Again we took many pictures of many historic homes and plaques. We probably walked 6 or 7 miles. We did ride the free shuttle around town to different starting points. We also rode the free ferry shuttle, just for the boat ride and to take some photo's from the water.
     One of the best finds we had in Savannah was Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room. They are only open Monday to Friday for lunch from 11:00-2:00. Lunch is served family style. They do no advertising and there is a sign about 18 X 24 inches out front. That's it. Word of month is how we heard about this restaurant. Mrs Wilkes was featured on all the morning shows and many many magazines. People start lining up at about 9:30. We got there at about 9:45 and were about 30th in line. We did get in on the first seating. There are 4 tables of 10. We sat at a table for 10 with 8 strangers. Four of the folks at our table were RVer's. So that broke the ice and we all introduced ourselves. One RV couple  was from about 50 miles from our hometown. The other RV couple was from TN with their daughter and son in law living in the area. The last couple was from Boston MA. After about 5 minutes the uneasiness of dinning with strangers ended. We did meet the one Rving couple 4 days later on one of our walking tours.The food was fabulous. There was so much to eat we didn't know were to start. There was Southern fried chicken, pulled pork, beef stew,jambalaya and about 12 different type vegetable. See www.mrswilkes.com  If you go to the website read the story.
       Linda (in red) waiting in line. The table, see Bob far right.

      One day we took a ride out to Tybee Island. We did not tour Fort Pulaski, because we did this a few years ago. Friends Abbie and Nancy  told us about the Sweets Treats candy store. Boy was this a mistake going there. We are now about 3 pounds heavier. The pralines and glazed pecans were unbelievably good.
   We had to eat at "The Lady and Sons", Linda's favorite Food Network chef, Paula Deen's place. We did eat here in the passed, but what the heck, we have to eat somewhere. It was just ok, nothing really special, just one of touristy things you have to do.
   One day we took a trip to Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge was only about 5 miles from the  RV park we were staying at. It was a cold and windy day. We only got to see a lot of wading birds and ducks. It was to cold for the turtles and gators to be out sunning themselves. The refuge is part of the Atlantic flyway. Part of the refuge was at one time a rice plantations. see more at www.fws.gov/savannah 

    On our last day in Savannah there was a parade for Veterans day. We saw at least a 1000 JROTC cadets form most of the high schools in the area. We talked with a mother of one of the cadets and she said it use to be mandatory to be in the JROTC program. Now it is not mandatory in all schools, but in some.
      On one of our walking tours we cane upon a antique store. The owner was outside and said stop in and check out the 4 floors of antiques. We did and could not believe our eyes. Your have to see the pictures.