Savannah -- the city obsessed with "In the Garden of Good and Evil" -- their tourism has increased 67% since the book/movie. A lovely city along the Savannah River that has been working on preserving their treasures of old homes and buildings. But it may be too little, too late. A pale comparison to their northerly cousin, Charleston, who has been at it since the 20's, and has a really sparkling gem to show for it. Savannah does have a wonderful series of "squares" -- parks -- every few blocks throughout the mostly residential downtown area. The riverfront along Bay St. and the old Cotton Brokers buildings just above the riverfront, make for a nice experience of shops and restaurants.
We took a bus tour of the town as it was very cold when we were there. The visitors center is housed in the old railroad building and is a nice introduction to the city. We visited the Owens-Thomas House, a well known example of "Regency" architecture style. It was built with a very interesting cistern water system that provided running water throughout the house -- in the 1760's!! Lovely gardens too. Also saw many of the homes and other places in the book. Guess I should read it -- or rent the movie...
So WHY did I always believe that the capital of Georgia was Augusta!! I understand it was at one time -- but not when I was learning that stuff!! This strikes me as a town that can't decide what it wants to be. Millions spent our their waterfront that is lovely, but a mere one block away, the main street, Broad, is almost dead. A wonderful wide parkway running down the center of the street, nice old buildings, pretty lampposts, but absolutely nothing going on -- and it goes downhill from there. One exception is the Summerhill area where, back in the early 1900's, many resort hotels were built in the area on the hill for the wealthy southerners. It was from this that The Augusta Country Club was built -- now practically in the middle of town. This area retains some charm and lovely homes. There is absolutely no view from any location of their beautiful golf club. You can't even go to the pro shop to buy something. You order it at the totally non descript gate and they bring it to you -- rather tacky, I think!! The Masters seems to be the only possible avenue to seeing it close up and personal.
Our next stop was Athens -- home of University of Georgia -- and, yet another stadium to view!! A nice little college town with an attractive campus.
Everyone told us to skip Atlanta -- there is nothing there and it is a big, dangerous town. But we both wanted to see it -- it is one of the major cities in this country. We decided to check out Stone Mountain on our way -- and ended up staying there. It is only about 45 minutes out of town, and lovely. The Stone Mountain Inn was available for $69 a night. A lovely older Inn with nice grounds and a view of the Mountain -- the largest hunk of Granite in the world!!
We found our way to the MARTA Park and Ride to go downtown -- it is about 15-20 minutes from Stone Mountain. But the lot we entered from was full. We could see a practically empty lot that was cordoned off. We found a MARTA employee who was just going off shift and asked him the drill. A nice young man, who said, I'll show you how to get there, but I'll have to ride with you -- it's complicated. And he was right -- but he got us to the other side of the fence -- it took about 10 minutes more driving to get in from the freeway side of the lot (very strange system here!). Can you believe our luck in finding nice people!! MARTA was another good system, taking us everywhere we wanted to go.
Saw the World of Coca-Cola Museum -- all things "Coke" from the beginning. Visited the Atlanta Underground -- where the original city was downtown, but now all shops and restaurants -- very well done. Went over to the recently renovated State Capital building with a fabulous gold (real 21 carat gold leaf) dome -- lovely inside also. Walked down to the CNN center and took an interesting tour of their facility -- quite a place -- definitely worth seeing. After a full day of sightseeing, jumped back on the MARTA and headed back for the seclusion of Stone Mountain.
We feel a part of history. We didn't go to Columbia, SC, as they resolved their Confederate flag issue, and it no longer flies over the capital, however, Georgia is hot in the midst of their own flag issue. The current flag is 2/3 occupied by the Confederate Flag. It was adopted in 1956 as a rebellion against integration! The governor has come up with a new design, as the NCAA has threatened to withdraw the "Final Four" competition next year, based on the "racist" flag controversy. We were at the state house just yesterday, and today the House adopted the new flag in a swift and decisive action. Gov. Roy Barnes was eloquent in his delivery of the reasons to"put the divicisveness behind us".
Today was our explore Stone Mountain day -- and a nice winter day it was -- sun was out, a nip in the air, and hardly anyone at this spacious 500+ acre park. We took the train around the mountain (would be fun for kids), visited the Museum, oooowed and aahhhed over the huge sculpture in the Mountain of Lee, Jackson, and Jefferson Davis, tried to go on the gondola (too windy -- got a rain check for tomorrow), visited the Antebellum Plantation, and toured the Lake on the open air boat. We were tired after all that walking. We enjoyed this park -- not too Disneyland, but enough interesting things to keep even Nicholas and little Jack busy. Kind of a "throw back" to the way parks used to be, but with an up to date flavor -- cleverly concealed water slides in the trees, some interactive computer learning, and fun toys for on the lake. No roller coasters, no animated computer games, no obnoxious noises (just the carillon bells every hour), -- lovely, peaceful. All within an easy walk of our Inn, where we could sit on the porch and rock in our rocking chairs and watch the world go by.
The Skylift was wonderful - really enjoyed the ride and the view from the top. It was very cold and windy, but the view was awesome. The REAL reason it was not running yesterday was that a chip in the computer had gone bad and they had to overnight one from the Palm Springs Tramway!! Pretty funny.
After a lovely lunch overlooking the lake and the mountain, we were off for a couple of National Historic Sites. Andersonville was tough. It is a memorial to all prisoners of war, set at the site of the Andersonville site from the Civil War. 2.5 acres designed for no more than 10,000 prisoners that housed up to 32,000 prisoners at one time. Disgraceful that we could treat our fellow Americans that way. Poor sanitation, poor nutrition, deplorable conditions -- 14,000 Americans died there. But probably no worse than other wars -- WWII, Vietnam -- all deplorable, and a disgrace on mankind. Another reason why women should run the country.....
After a night in Americus, the world headquarters of Habitat for Humanity, we were off to Plains, GA. and Jimmy Carter's homeland. The entire city has been made into a National Historic Site. His school, the hospital he was born in, his boyhood home, the train station where his campaign HQ was housed, the peanut warehouse, Billy's gas station, and the house they lived in then .... and now. Charming, old fashioned, and a true piece of Americana. He still teaches Sunday School at the Baptist Church. Nothing has changed about Jimmy Carter.
Several hours on the road, past the Swamps, through all kinds of small towns, and we arrive at The Golden Isles. Brunswick, Sea Island, St. Simon Island, Jeykell Island. This may be the most genteel of the South. The Carmel of the South. Found a nice place on St. Simon Island and had a great shrimp dinner at Frederico's. Nice place, not overrun with junkie shops, just nice development and shops. Strict sign ordinances add to the ambiance, but makes it more difficult to find things!
Jeykell Island is where some early millionaires bought an island for $10,000 and created their own enclave. Names like Rockefeller, DuPont, and others built The Jeykell Island Club and invited only their friends to attend. The basis of our current federal reserve policy was created here, and the first Transcontinental telephone call from Alexander Graham Bell to Thomas Watson in San Francisco, with the President in Washington, DC (three way calling in those days!??) was completed from here in 1915. Frankly, I didn't know that Bell was still alive in 1915!! You would think I would have known that fact!
Much of the compound has been restored to its elegance. The "cottages" they owned weren't as opulent as those in Newport, RI, but still very substantial homes. Most of this started in the late 1800's and continued into the 1940's, when the island was sold to the state of Georgia for a park. They have lovely beaches which are now open to the public. Quite a change from the island's previous heritage! In fact, Jeykell Island was the first beach in GA. where blacks could go -- dating back to the mid 1950's. It is so hard for me to imagine the discrimination that existed just a short 50 years ago -- when I was a little girl. God that makes me so old!!
Which reminds me, I really felt old the other day -- we were somewhere and a father was explaining to his 10-12 year old son about something that happened in the sixties (I can't remember what it was -- another sign of my advancing aging!) -- I was mentally nodding along with his explanation (like it happened yesterday), and the kid says "yeah, I know dad, we learned about that in HISTORY class"! Oh my GOD -- how can that be!!
Anyway, we enjoyed a nice afternoon strolling through the Historic District and lad lunch on the Veranda of the "Club", which is now a lovely hotel.
Off to Florida -- and hopefully warm weather -- the locals (and us) are complaining about how cold it is. It's all a comparative value, you understand -- it's supposed to be warm here -- not in the 50's during the day and the 30's at night!! Actually today was in the low 60's -- so it is heading in the right direction!