Honeymoon Part I: Savannah

I don't have professional pics of the wedding yet, so I thought I'd share some honeymoon photos. We randomly went to Savannah (which turned out to be a great choice) because we couldn't afford to fly. We first thought about New Orleans but wanted to go somewhere new.

We absolutely loved, loved, loved Savannah. If you enjoy history (especially creepy history), good food and gorgeous architecture, Savannah is a great place to visit.

The drive was about nine hours, but we basically talked about the wedding the whole time, so it didn't seem that long, especially in our sweet ride:

About six hours into the drive we saw our first sign for Savannah. It was deceiving. The exit was one mile, not Savannah.

We stayed at the Planter's Inn on Reynolds Square, which was very affordable and in a great location in the Historic District. We weren't wowed by the place, but it was clean, the room was nice and it had cable! A luxury for sure, when all you have at home is Instant Netflix.

Our first morning was hot and steamy. We took a trolley tour around the city, which ended up being one of the best things we did on the trip. It was nice to ride around, get a sense of direction and hear about the history of Savannah.

A couple of scenes from the trolley tour:

This cat seemed very Savannah to me. We also saw some really neat wrought iron work (who knew wrought iron could be that cool?) and heard histories of some of the famous houses, like the Mercer House from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and a bed and breakfast that used to be a funeral home.

After a lunch of tapas in City Market we spent a lot of time exploring Savannah's 21 squares on foot. The wedding fans (our favors) came in quite handy on this Southern honeymoon.

Some more pretty Savannah greenery and buildings:

River Street was a block over from our hotel and had these cute little cobblestone roads. It was very touristy, but some of our favorite restaurants were on this street. We had a really good time drinking daiquiris from Wet Willie's and watching the ships go by on the Savannah River.

And if all the walking wasn't enough to work of the 27 million calories we consumed during this trip (it wasn't), Savannah had the steepest stairs ever that led from River Street back up to the main Bay Street.

We took frequent oyster breaks at Bernie's on River Street. We ate several dozen on this trip, which is gross unless you're obsessed with oysters on the half shell like us. Don't judge.

On the first day, we visited a cemetery. Why did we go to a cemetery on our honeymoon? Because it was awesome and when you're in a place like Savannah, where so much emphasis is placed on the dead, you just have to go. During the Civil War the Union soldiers occupied the place and used their bayonets to change dates on the headstones as a practical joke and to this day some stones say that people lived to be like 1200 years old or died before they were born. I don't usually make it a point to visit cemeteries on vacation, but this was worth it. The picture is of fallen headstones that have just been mounted to a wall.

The trees were just dripping Spanish moss. It looked like the whole city was melting and with the heat it felt like that too.

For our second dinner in Savannah we went out late to Vic's on the River, which we highly recommend. It was a leisurely paced dinner with a piano player and a nice view of (you guessed it!) the river. I'm really bad at photographing food, but this fried green tomato appetizer was Andrew's absolute favorite thing we ate on the whole trip. It's covered in some kind of tomato chutney/salsa and it's on a bed of grits.

Andrew also had the Dirty Bleu Martini, a Vic's special. It had olives stuffed with blue cheese.

On the second full day we got the car out of valet and drove about 20 minutes to Tybee Island. It rained for a little while, but ended up being quite the nice day. I had my bathing suit in my huge Target purse but we decided to eat oysters (at the Bernie's Tybee Island location) instead of doing island-y things. Andrew was happier than this, I swear. He just doesn't like having his picture taken.

We bought matching Tybee Island hats at a shop and Andrew loved his so much he took the headrest off the back of his seat (so he could wear it while driving and not smash the brim). Sawyer has since dined on this beloved hat.

I make Andrew take lame pictures of me. I got a Tybee Island hat too.

A close up of our hats and Ray-Bans. There was a big pier where you could sit in the shade (we forgot sunscreen), sip a cold beverage of your choice and enjoy the scenery.

After lunch we went back to our hotel for one of these:

We napped everyday on our honeymoon, but usually not upside down. Dinner that night was at the Pirate's House. It used to be a pirate hangout and when they needed new sailors the pirates would drug boys drinking at the house and carry them through a secret passage to their ships. When they woke up, the boys were pirates whether they liked it or not. Or at least that's what the menu says.

This was my absolute favorite dish of the whole trip. It's a Southern eggroll filled with pulled pork and greens dipped in a mustard sauce. So. good.

This food photographed really well but it wasn't our favorite. I thought Andrew's steak was delicious, but it was cooked a little to well-done for him, and the pecan glaze on my fried chicken was overpowering. I would definitely ask for the sauce on the side the next time. But the Southern eggrolls alone are worth the trip.

After a trip to the local brewery and a PG ghost tour, we went to one of my favorite places in Savannah (based on my limited, tourist-driven knowledge): the Planter's Tavern! We look really gross in this picture but I loved the tavern so much that it's ok.

Is that a ghost between us?

The atmosphere reminded me of a speakeasy (because I totally know what hanging out in a speakeasy is like). It was underneath the Olde Pink House restaurant, right next door to our hotel, and we missed the entrance the first time we went. It was dark inside and there was a piano player. The tavern serves the same food as the Olde Pink House and I wished we had tried more than one appetizer there (fried artichokes and goat cheese). Here's the Olde Pink House. The entrance to the tavern is below it, hidden by those bushes.

On our last day in Savannah we just walked. All morning we walked, read historic markers and went into little shops. By that time, we mostly knew our way around.

I feel the need to pose in front of everything.

After a quick lunch I think we napped, and then we got up to go to oyster happy hour on River Street, where I took a picture of our rings, because we're married!

We later drank these delicious things on River Street with our on-duty waitress who was also drinking. Then she had to go back to work.(Mine was melon and quite refreshing, and Andrew's was called "Call a Cab" and not as refreshing, as you might guess.)

We ended our trip to Savannah with a riverboat dinner cruise which was quite touristy and reminiscent of a Carnival Cruise downstairs, but really nice when we finally escaped to the top level with a bottle of wine.

And just as randomly as it began, this is the last picture I took in Savannah.

I have come to three conclusions while posting this: 1.) I only own three cute dresses and I wear them over and over again because I can not afford new ones. 2.) All of Andrew's shirts look the same. 3.) I suck at using Blogger because this took me forever and the font kept getting big and blue.