Day 4 - Bonaventure Cemetery

Doug and I wanted to explore a tourist spot that we hadn't seen the year before when we visited Savannah. After a little research, we both agreed on Bonaventure Cemetery.

 

This is the description on Wikipedia...

 

 

The famous "Bird Girl" statue used to be located in the cemetery, but she became so popular after the movie came out, she needed to be moved for safety purposes. She was moved to the Telfair Academy Museum, and Doug and I saw her there last year...

So, Doug and I got up early in the morning on a Wednesday to head over to the cemetery. We knew temperatures were going to keep creeping up during the day (and it was going to get even muggier), so we wanted to go as early as we could...

 

 

Driving in...

 

Parking was located right near the river...

 

Then we started to explore. There is an app for the phone that explains a lot of about the grave sites as visitors walk around. The trees were so beautiful...

This is the tallest monument in the cemetery...

The General Lawton and family cemetery plot...

The Jewish section of the cemetery...

War veterans/soldiers/military section...

The grave I really wanted to see was Gracie Watson's grave...

 

Gracie passed when she was just six years old and it is believed she still haunts the cemetery. She became such a tourist draw, her grave and statue needed to be placed behind an iron fence for protection...

 

I thought this tombstone was so thoughtful and creative. I read that this man was a piano teacher...

It is always heartbreaking to see graves of little ones...

Every row we walked down, there was another beautiful statue or tombstone...

 

The cemetery was just amazing...

After walking around a couple of hours, we eventually tapped out. We were hot, tired and getting hungry. So glad we visited though. Wished it had been a bit cooler that day, but it was still a great visit.

It was time to eat some lunch. Part two of day 4 coming next...

Day 3 - Pool Time And The Olde Pink House

Day 3, Tuesday, was yet another laid back day for us in Savannah.

My request for the day was to spend a few hours at the hotel pool. It was a beautiful, breezy morning and the sun was out.

We were the first ones to arrive...

The only bummer was they did not serve lunch poolside on Mondays or Tuesdays (we found that out about an hour after we got there). That rule was not listed anywhere and must be something new that they came up with. We had gone to the pool on a Monday the year before and were served food poolside - so we went with that intention. We were told we could pickup food somewhere and bring it poolside, but the pool is located quite a distance from any restaurants. So, luckily we were there early to get a few good hours in before we would start to get hungry (and I did have some light snacks on me and they did sell drinks). It was still kind of frustrating though that we didn't know.

It was still a beautiful day and we swam and relaxed and it was really nice...

 

 

We eventually went back to our room and just ordered room service for lunch and freshened up.

The woman who cleaned our room that day left this cute "dog" on our bed...

I ordered a quesadilla for lunch...

It was quite tasty.

Again, afternoons got really toasty in Savannah, so we just laid low at the hotel until things started cooling down (a little).

I had made a dinner reservation (weeks before) for that evening for me and Doug at The Olde Pink House. It is a super popular restaurant. We had eaten there for lunch the year before and we knew we wanted to go back for dinner because the food was delicious.

And again, it was delicious.

We decided to Uber over to the restaurant because we were dressed up and the temps were still quite steamy outside. 

The Olde Pink House...

We were escorted upstairs to eat. When we came for lunch the year before, the upstairs wasn't being seated but we were allowed to tour the house  - so we were able to see the upstairs then. 

 

They seat the entire house for dinner...

 

The food was amazing. I ordered the she crab soup and fried green tomato salad (again). Doug tried a crab stuffed flounder. He ordered some sherbet for dessert and I ordered pecan pie...

 

The best bite of the night though was this "southern" sushi that Doug ordered as his appetizer (he let me try a piece - so good)...

Doug was trying to figure out an appetizer and the waiter recommended this. He assured us it was the best thing ever. Dang he was right!

It was smoked shrimp and grits rolled in a coconut crusted nori. And the sauces were amazing. Seriously one of the best appetizers we have ever tried.

This woman/employee was walking around singing for tables for tips - she was really good...

We finished our meals with smiles on our faces and called another Uber to take us back to the hotel...

We saw this ghost tour hearse drive by as we waited. Heh.

And that was our day. Quiet and laid back.

The next day we had plans to visit a large, historic cemetery. More on that next...

Day 2 - River Street, Rhett And District Smokehouse

Our 2nd day in Savannah was VERY low key. We just did a little walking and shopping on River Street and ate lunch and dinner out. That was it. But that is all I wanted it to be. Sometimes vacations can be so full of hustle and bustle that you don't get to really breathe at all.

That was Disney for us in February. I mean, it was super fun, but it was BUSY. I needed a vacation from my vacation after that one for sure.

 Doug and I awoke on Monday to a pretty morning, and Doug ran downstairs to the very convenient Starbucks located on the street under our room to bring back some drinks/breakfast...

We got dressed and headed down to do a little site seeing and shopping on River Street...

We stopped in two of my favorite Christmas stores...

We stopped in a little novelty gift shop...

Of course, we stopped at River Street Sweets Candy Store (best pralines ever!)...

We walked up and down the street for a while and then we headed over to Rhett Restaurant for lunch. We had eaten there last year for dinner and wanted to try their lunch menu. We had a wonderful experience last year and hoped for the same experience this year. Unfortunately, it wasn't so great.

The waitress was very inattentive. She took our order and then we basically didn't see her again. The restaurant was quite empty. Other servers delivered our food. She never followed up to see if we needed drinks - I had to ask another server to get some more drinks since she was no where to be found. She did come back out finally but worked on stocking the bar. Still never came over to check on us. I finally had to walk over to her to ask for our check. Our food was sadly just "meh" that afternoon. Good enough - but nothing super special. It was just disappointing...

I wrote an honest review on open table about our experience, and I actually did get a note back from the manager apologizing and asking us to come back so he could try to make it right. We had other plans for the rest of the week though, so we weren't able to return.

Once we were done with lunch, it was time to head back to the room to rest and cool off. It was starting to become really warm that afternoon - and it only got hotter in the afternoons as the week wore on.

The only time we walked through the Power Plant building during our visit was on that day...

We got back to our room and binged watched some TV and just chilled. It was nice.

Later that evening, we were starting to get a bit hungry again. We decided to go back to District Smokehouse (which we had visited last summer) and get some BBQ.

We sat down and watched the barges go by again...

Doug got brisket again and I got smoked pork. It was really yummy once again. Just a really laid back place to eat which is really nice. It was warm, but it was cooling down and there were big fans spinning above us making things quite comfortable.

After dinner, we walked a bit as the sun was setting...

A view of our hotel again. We were staying in the room with the smaller balcony at the very top...

Watching a barge float by...

 

Me enjoying the evening...

We headed back to our room for the night.

I really wanted to sit by the pool on Day 3 - so that is what we did. More on that next...

Day 1 - Three Muses, District Seafood And Madame Butterfly

Doug and I arrived at the Plant Riverside Savannah around 2PM and checked in. We hoped that our room would be ready for us but sadly, it was not.

 

We did find out that our room would be in the Three Muses building this time - and that was the one building of the hotel we really hadn't gotten to check out the year before.

 

This is the post I wrote about the hotel buildings last year...

 

https://waitingforbriana.blogspot.com/2022/08/savannah-plant-riverside-district.html

 

Three Muses...

 

 The lobby of the Three Muses...

We left our luggage with the front desk and Doug suggested we should get a drink at one of the outside riverfront restaurants while we waited for our room. My nerves were a little frazzled from the semi-shaky drop off at SCAD, so I was good with that.

We stopped in at "District Seafood" restaurant.

We ordered drinks (I got a delicious non-frozen strawberry daiquiri) and split a basket of fried oysters. I'm not usually one to like oysters, but the ones at this restaurant were delish. I calmed down, drank my drink (ok - two drinks) and watched the barges float by...

We finally got the text our room was ready and we headed up.

Walking toward our room...

We were in the "Zeus Suite"...

 

Our room was really pretty. Lots of crystals, silver and paintings with ladies and flowers. We had a living room area (with a pullout couch for when Bri joined us the last night), a large bathroom and a comfortable bedroom. The room overlooked the river...

From the street, the balcony of our room was in the middle at the top...

So, the building we stayed in last year (The Atlantic) was located at the end of the street away from everything. It was pretty quiet over there and we had easy access to the pool (there is only one hotel pool and it is in that building). We reserved the same kind of suite again, not knowing suites like this were in the Three Muses building. Randomly, we were given a suite in this building. There were pluses and minuses with this room. The big plus - the location was great because it was so much easier to get to everything. The minus - the atmosphere was kind of loud (we were next to a rooftop restaurant with music at night and also bands played on the riverfront on the weekends). Also, our view of the river was obscured on one side this time because of how the building was shaped - and the balcony was quite small. If we could combine the pluses of both rooms (last year and this year), we would have had the absolute perfect room. It ended up not being a super big deal, but if we ever go back again, we would request a room in The Atlantic (we just prefer quiet over convenience).

We freshened up when we got to our room because we had a reservation at a restaurant that evening called "Madame Butterfly."

We decided to walk to the restaurant because it was just a few blocks away and the weather was quite comfortable that evening...

 This was the building across the street from the lobby of our building. Yes - the cobblestone is very bumpy to drive on...

We arrived at the restaurant and it was very quaint and trendy. The upstairs of the restaurant offers a Korean bbq/group experience (which I bet is delish), but we chose to sit in the dining room downstairs for a more private experience...

The food was amazing. Seriously - the bang bang shrimp appetizer was one of the best appetizers I've ever had. The steaks were amazing and the chocolate mousse dessert was scrumptious. Doug had an old fashioned and an espresso martini. He said they were both great...

 

After dinner, we walked back and took a stroll along the river before heading back to the room...

 

This is the rooftop restaurant situated on the top of the Three Muses building - Myrtle and Rose...

We wanted to go up there and check it out, but it was closed a few of the days we were visiting and then the temps got really warm (too warm for outside eating) and we had made other plans as well - so we just never made it up there. We've been told it has a pretty garden-style atmosphere. Wish we could have seen it.

Slowly walking around after a good meal was a nice way to end the day after a long day of driving and getting ourselves settled...

We didn't have anything really planned for the next day (we just had a lunch reservation), so we were going to just play things by ear.

More on that next...

Happy 17th Birthday Briana!

I must interrupt my SCAD blogging to wish my amazing girl a very happy and wonderful 17th birthday!!

 I can't believe I am the mom to a SEVENTEEN year old!! 

How is that possible?

Happy birthday to my best gal!!

 

Briana's Camp/Seminar At SCAD

We arrived once again on a Sunday afternoon to drop Briana off at her SCAD summer seminar...

The very well-oiled machine of the SCAD drop off last year wasn't as well-oiled this year unfortunately. There were a few extra bumps trying to get Bri settled in, but once we got over those humps, she was good to go.

 This was her dorm...

Bri's room had a great view over the swimming pool, she ended up with a great roommate from Kentucky (the brunette in the pictures) and they got along wonderfully, she knew a friend from her high school, she once again loved all the food options at "The Hive," she really enjoyed her two art classes, she had a fun activities to attend after long class days and she bought a stuffed SCAD panda bear that she named Reggie. Heh...

I will eventually blog all about parents day which happened at the end of the week. There is very little doubt that Bri will most likely end up at SCAD for college. It is just where her heart is. Her "people" are definitely there. It is just figuring out which campus she wants to attend (Atlanta or Savannah). And she can attend any SCAD campus that she wants to if/when she is accepted and even switch campuses if she wants.

Once we dropped Briana off at the campus, Doug and I then headed to our hotel on the riverfront.

More on that next...