We had dinner at The Olde Pink House last night.
We made it to Savannah just in time to change clothes and walk over from our hotel to the restaurant. The Yankee had the almond encrusted tilapia. I had the crispy duck. Also, try the she crab soup, and definitely enjoy the praline basket with vanilla bean ice cream, berries and chocolate sauce for dessert.
We did not see Mr. Habersham. James Habersham Jr., an important financial player during the Revolutionary War, built the house in the late-1700s. He’s said to be one of the spirits in the house, straightening things up, helping people to tables (according to the ghost tour folklore) and so on.
There are videos on YouTube. There are always videos on YouTube.
On the subject of food, we had a late breakfast at Clary’s, which we always visit:
For the first time in all of our visits here over the years Ms. Maggie wasn’t working.
I don’t take pictures every visit, but I do this one when I remember:
This is our first visit to Clary’s, more than seven years ago.
Here’s another visit, just five years ago. You’ll notice the paintings change, but the paint doesn’t. And that green orb lamp is still in the background.
We’ll go back again tomorrow.
It has rained on us most of the day. And it has been cold. I left my camera behind, so all of my shots from the day were on my phone. We visited the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, where we saw the most involved nativity scene ever — rabbits, ducks, sheep, lambs, Optimus a pink turtle, floating angels from central casting, dogs and cats. You had to look hard to find the Optimus Prime. We shopped. We enjoyed the day without any plan whatsoever, which is an unusually rare experience, but altogether lovely.
We took the ferry across the channel of the Savannah River to see the gingerbread houses on display at the Westin. There were almost 100 there, including some amazing work.
Here are a few of them, many floating in an ethereal cotton cloud city. The winner is in here, as are most of the houses that will take home ribbons. At the end you’ll find my favorite, The Yankee’s favorite and the hotel general manager’s favorite. Of course it was a giant replica of their hotel, so it was a ringer:
For dinner we drove through the rain out to Tybee Island and ate at a sleepy little crab shack called The Crab Shack, which we’ve never seen sleepy before. We watched the wind blow on the windows and stared at the giant Christmas tree lights floating out in the water. It was topped by a tremendous yellow light crab, who no doubt was incensed by our eating his delicious actual crab brethren.
Tomorrow the rain will be gone. It’ll just be a bit colder. We’ll have no plan and a great time, same as today.
