Savannah

This is the view from our hotel room in Savannah. Isn't that crazy? We're right on the river, and I asked for a river view, but I had no idea we were going to get such dramatic action! Gigantic container ships like this one passed several times yesterday afternoon.

My mom keeps expressing fear that they're going to hit the building. I told her I was pretty sure that's not a realistic danger.

The bridge in the background carries U.S. 17 over the river and into South Carolina.

We got here yesterday just before lunch. The view of the industrial riverfront isn't typical of most of the central city, which looks more like the picture above -- the elaborate 1858 fountain in Forsyth Park. Central Savannah is dotted with 22 "squares," or small parks, so it's very green, and many of the parks are surrounded by 19th-century mansions and contain historic statuary.

When we drove into town, we dropped the car at our hotel (the Hyatt Regency) and walked a few blocks to a local cafe for sandwiches. Then we caught a trolley tour to get the lay of the land.

Apparently dolphin downspouts, like this one, are a Savannah thing. Or so our tour operator said.

We had two trolley guides. We weren't thrilled with the first one, but then we disembarked for a walk through Forsyth Park, and when we got on another trolley we had a much better guide. He kept up a steady stream of information and every once in a while he'd interject a comment about other drivers and pedestrians, like, "A turn signal would be nice. Bless your heart."

It's a good thing we weren't walking around, because it was pretty hot and Mom, who turns 80 today (!), much preferred riding. She would really have preferred air conditioning, but you can't have everything.

Anyway, after the tour we rested a bit, and then went to dinner at The Grey, a sleek art deco restaurant housed in an old Greyhound bus terminal. We had an excellent meal -- mom had foie gras with grits and I had tilefish.

Everyone associates Savannah with the book (or maybe movie) "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." I loved that book. This is the Mercer mansion, where "the incident" (as our second tour guide put it, with typical Southern discretion) occurred in the left front room downstairs.

Today we have plans in the morning, and then we'll get back on the road in the afternoon for the two-hour drive back to Jacksonville.