But When Are They Closed?

The hotel I stayed at in Appleton, WI, gave out free day passes to Gold’s Gym. This was the sign on the door. Am I missing something??

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Flying Is Better With Adam Carolla (But If Given a Choice I’d Rather Be in First Class)

I’m on a plane back to the ATL right now, and I am literally laughing out loud listening to one of Adam Carolla’s podcasts. If you know what podcasts are and you don’t listen to his podcasts on the reg, you are doing yourself a tremendous disservice. They’re usually a bit off-color, so I can’t really listen to them at work, and they’re about an hour long, so I can’t really listen to them in the car, so I usually have to save them up for when I travel. So what usually ends up happening is, I sit on airplanes and listen to him and laugh my ass off, and people around me probably think I’m high on pills or something. Do yourself a favor and download one of his podcasts, or listen to him on his website. You will not be disappointed. Trust me.

In other news, my seat assignment was 3A, so I thought I was in first class on an upgrade, but it was a tiny plane, so I’m wedged into a window seat on a 2:20 flight. Not cool, Delta. Not cool.

(update: I forgot to publish this 3 weeks ago when I wrote it. I also ended up getting home at 2 in the morning that night thanks to thunderstorms in Atlanta. Good times.)

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Weekend in the Garden of Good and Evil, Part Two

Mercer House

Our second day in Savannah was much, much wetter than our first.  It poured.  I’m talking, torrential downpours.  Plural.  Because it would rain for an hour or so, then clear up completely.  Then an hour later, it would open up again and rain for another hour, then clear up, then, well, you get the picture.  We had a great time, though, and we were able to take advantage of the non-rainy segments of the day and do a fair amount outside.

We started off by taking a trolley tour of the historical district, which was awesome.  This city just has such a cool look to it, you feel like you are literally walking around in a movie the whole time.  The tour lasted about 90 minutes, and was jam packed with historical sights and interesting tidbits.  For instance, did you know that when Savannah was founded, they did not allow lawyers in the city?  They actually had a designated dueling ground for people to settle their disputes (which was conveniently right next to one of the cemeteries).  It actually seemed more appealing for them to have a specific place to shoot at each other, rather than to allow any lawyers into the city.  And now, Savannah has the most attorneys per capita of any city in the United States.  Suck on that, Savannah!  We’re never going away now!!

Sherman

We had lunch at a little local place called the Firefly Cafe, where I had some sort of omelet and Amanda had some sort of tofu and sweet potato dish.  I wish I liked that crap, because it’s much healthier than what I eat.  I just don’t have the stomach for it.  No pun intended.

We did a good bit of walking around after lunch, because the rain let up for awhile.  We checked out the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, which was beautiful, and we walked around a bunch of the historic squares in town.  We saw the Mercer House (from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) but did not go inside, and we saw the house where General Sherman stayed during the occupation of Savannah, during which time he “gave” the city to President Lincoln as a Christmas gift.  What a guy.  We also made a stop in Chippewah Square, which was the park where Forrest Gump sat on his bench.  The actual bench is in Hollywood, but the park is still in Savannah.  Then I sat at Starbucks for awhile, while Amanda did a little shopping, after which we had some ice cream at Leopold’s.

After a little more walking around, and a nap back at the Habersham Inn (our B&B), we headed back out for dinner at Saigon, a Thai/Vietnamese place that had been recommended to us by a few of the locals (if we didn’t already live in Atlanta, I’m sure Southern food would have been more of a priority, but we’re not getting anything there we can’t get at home).  We both had Vietnamese dishes, which were really good, and then we headed back over to Molly MacPherson’s so I could try some of the Scotch I didn’t have the night before.  For the record, I had the Cragganmore 12-year old single malt.  That was one hell of a Scotch, man.  (Evidently in Savannah, nobody gets drunk, they get “into their cups.”  I like that.)

Spooky Stairs in Haunted Sorrell House

We decided to be tourists for a few more hours, and we went over to the Sorrell-Weed House for a nighttime haunted walking tour.  This one was well worth it – SO much better than the previous night’s haunted pub crawl.  We started out at Sherman’s old place, which was next to a church that may or may not have had some undead occupants.  We also saw a beautiful home (from the outside, of course) that Walt Disney once stayed in, and which was the inspiration for the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyworld.  Next we walked over to one of the cemetaries and heard a few more supposedly true ghost stories, and then back to the Sorrell House, which we were brought into and heard some pretty spooky stories about some of the deaths that occurred there, and some of the ghosts that still rattle the occupants.

Savannah is known as “the city built on top of its dead” for a few reasons.  Three of the four Colonial-era cemetaries have been developed over, which some people think angered some of the people buried in them.  Also, the Americans battled the French (I think it was the French) there in the Colonial era, and were defeated (so maybe it wasn’t the French?), and did not have time to remove their fallen soldiers from the battlefield before being forced to leave town, so they literally just covered them with dirt right where they were, rather than moving them, or digging graves.  Some of the soldiers weren’t quite dead, though, but they didn’t have the manpower to take any of the mortally wounded soldiers with them either, so they were all buried alive.  There’s a lot of haunting going on in Savannah.  Amanda was pretty spooked.  I may or may not have been spooked myself.  But it was cool, though, even if some of it was a little outlandish.

Pre-Columbus Era Torah

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast at the B&B, then visited the bookstore at SCAD, which was one of the greatest college bookstores I’ve seen, and you know I’m a sucker for books and coffee.  Then we checked out the synagogue, Mickve Israel, which is the third oldest active Jewish congregation in the country.  We took a quick tour of the building, which is almost entirely original from the 1800s (the building, pews, Ark, organ, and most of the stained glass windows are all original), and saw a Torah in their museum that is believed to predate Columbus’s 1492 trip to the United States.  After the synagogue tour, we decided to head out of town, because despite the fact that the weather was finally beautiful, we wanted to get back to the ATL before rush hour traffic.

We are definitely going to go back at some point, though, because we really enjoyed it, and there seemed to be enough to do there that you could definitely spend a few weekends there and not really see the same things twice.  I would for sure recommend Savannah as a destination for anyone who even remotely likes history and/or ghosts and/or drinking and/or Southern food.  Preferably all four.

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Weekend in the Garden of Good and Evil, Part One

Our drive to Savannah was uneventful, thankfully, and we got here just before noon and found a bar to watch the Texas Oklahoma game, which was maybe the best game I’ll see all year. We walked around a bit after that, despite intermittent rain (supposed to rain all weekend), then made our way to the B&B to check in and get changed for dinner.

Dinner was at Planter’s Tavern, downstairs from The Olde Pink House (picture below). The food was amazing – I especially loved the “southern sushi” appetizer, which was shrimp and grits rolled up in nori with a soy wasabi glaze. Amanda had the signature trout dish which was also very good and very filling. Planter’s Tavern reminded me of the kind of place where secret meetings used to occur hundreds of years ago, to discuss a political overthrow or two. I told Amanda I bet John Wilkes Boothe probably ate there. They gave us a description of the history of the building and it was pretty much right on the money, but with no mention of Boothe. I still think he ate there though. We left just as the piano player was getting started, unfortunately.

After dinner we walked around a bit more, stopping in to Paula Deen’s reataurant’s store (picture below), killing time until our Haunted Pub Crawl tour was supposed to start. (We’re tourists, what do you want me to say?) We started at Molly McPherson’s Scottish Pub, which had over 100 single malt scotches (picture below). Unfortunately I didn’t have any. Maybe I’ll go back later. The tour started about 30 minutes late, and wasn’t really all that interesting, aside from the large group of people dressed like pirates who were on the tour with us. Evidently there was a pirate parade yesterday on Tybee Island. It also started pouring again right after we started, which made it a little less enjoyable as well. No regrets, though.

This morning it was absolutely POURING when we woke up. We went downstairs for breakfast and chatted with the other couple staying here, and the woman who runs the place. We’re hoping the rain lets up a little bit, as we’d love to walk around and look at the parks and old houses. Check back for an update on today’s happenings.

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