Bill Arnold
09-29-2008, 10:34 AM
But only after determining we will not return to Tybee Island!
Warning to all who venture to Tybee: if you stop your car and get out of it, you must pay for parking! We hadn't been there 10 minutes, driving around a little, then decided to park and walk down to the beach. We walked a couple of blocks, I went back to get my camera and there was a ticket on our car! I left the ticket on the car, walked back to the beach (such as it is) snapped a couple of photos and went back to the car. We drove a few blocks to City Hall and I talked to the Parking Service folks. I had a $20 bill in my hand, so they knew I was there to pay. The attitude was pretty much along the line of, "You should have known there is no free parking on the island." How the heck am I supposed to just "know" that. They really gave me the impression they didn't appreciate "invaders"! Anyway, they wrote the ticket off as a warning, so that made it a little better in spite of their sucky attitude.
So, now what? It was nearing noon, so we drove down the street to Arby's for a sandwich. Yep, parking meters in front of Arby's. So I dropped a quarter in the meter -- nothing happened. LOML says, "the sign on one of the big parking decal dispensers says miminum parking fee is $1.50". We drop a total of six quarters in the meter, it still read "0". We got in our car, drove toward Savannah and will never go back to Tybee!
Our day had started at 4:30am on Friday in Thomasville, by the way. It was about 4.5 hours to Tybee.
So, now on into Savannah to our hotel. We chose a hotel in the middle of the historic district so we would be within easy walking distance of everything. Our first impression of the City was the aroma of garbage dumpsters sitting way too close to pedestrian walkways and streets that needed to be cleaned. Not to be discouraged, we walked on down toward the river. We stopped for lunch at the Outback on Bay St., then went over to River St. to find out where the riverboat was located for the dinner cruise we had reserved for Friday evening. No problem finding the boat and the office to pick up our tickets.
The trees in Savannah are fantastic, large live oaks for the most part. The squares with their many trees, benches and bits of history are welcome oases in the midst of a bustling city. Over the two days we were there, we enjoyed seeing the varied architecture, especially the wrought iron railings, etc., on many of the structures.
Bay St. and River St. have one of the most dense population of restaurants I've ever seen. I makes sense because of the location, of course. Almost too many choices, but we managed to stay well-fed!
The Savannah Riverboat Dinner Cruise was very nice. We would recommend it to anyone visiting the area. Service was top-notch and the food was fantastic. The cruise started at 7pm and went up the river. The sun was setting, so all of the lights along the river gave it a great ambience.
Saturday morning, we walked to Forsythe Park and strolled around there for a while. Then, we walked back toward the river, going through a couple more squares. For lunch, we went to the Cotton Exchange Tavern on the river. The food and service was great -- try it sometime.
After strolling around more of River St. after lunch, we made our way back to our hotel for a well-deserved "nap".
We had made a dinner reservation at the Pirate's House for Saturday night at 7:30. We walked down there and arrived about 7 so we'd have time for a relaxing beverage. LOML had her usual -- regular Coke straight up. I had a couple of glasses of Charleston Brown -- good stuff! Elijah was our server -- great guy! My wife had their famous Pecan-Crusted Fried Chicken and I had the Pecan Crusted Salmon. Both were superb!
Our overall impression of Savannah is good. We made the trip because neither of us had been there before. Did everything look like it does in magazines or online? Of course not. No place ever looks that good! But, we weren't disappointed with the visit. Will we go again? Can't say -- there are a lot of other places we want to visit now that we have more time.
Warning to all who venture to Tybee: if you stop your car and get out of it, you must pay for parking! We hadn't been there 10 minutes, driving around a little, then decided to park and walk down to the beach. We walked a couple of blocks, I went back to get my camera and there was a ticket on our car! I left the ticket on the car, walked back to the beach (such as it is) snapped a couple of photos and went back to the car. We drove a few blocks to City Hall and I talked to the Parking Service folks. I had a $20 bill in my hand, so they knew I was there to pay. The attitude was pretty much along the line of, "You should have known there is no free parking on the island." How the heck am I supposed to just "know" that. They really gave me the impression they didn't appreciate "invaders"! Anyway, they wrote the ticket off as a warning, so that made it a little better in spite of their sucky attitude.
So, now what? It was nearing noon, so we drove down the street to Arby's for a sandwich. Yep, parking meters in front of Arby's. So I dropped a quarter in the meter -- nothing happened. LOML says, "the sign on one of the big parking decal dispensers says miminum parking fee is $1.50". We drop a total of six quarters in the meter, it still read "0". We got in our car, drove toward Savannah and will never go back to Tybee!
Our day had started at 4:30am on Friday in Thomasville, by the way. It was about 4.5 hours to Tybee.
So, now on into Savannah to our hotel. We chose a hotel in the middle of the historic district so we would be within easy walking distance of everything. Our first impression of the City was the aroma of garbage dumpsters sitting way too close to pedestrian walkways and streets that needed to be cleaned. Not to be discouraged, we walked on down toward the river. We stopped for lunch at the Outback on Bay St., then went over to River St. to find out where the riverboat was located for the dinner cruise we had reserved for Friday evening. No problem finding the boat and the office to pick up our tickets.
The trees in Savannah are fantastic, large live oaks for the most part. The squares with their many trees, benches and bits of history are welcome oases in the midst of a bustling city. Over the two days we were there, we enjoyed seeing the varied architecture, especially the wrought iron railings, etc., on many of the structures.
Bay St. and River St. have one of the most dense population of restaurants I've ever seen. I makes sense because of the location, of course. Almost too many choices, but we managed to stay well-fed!
The Savannah Riverboat Dinner Cruise was very nice. We would recommend it to anyone visiting the area. Service was top-notch and the food was fantastic. The cruise started at 7pm and went up the river. The sun was setting, so all of the lights along the river gave it a great ambience.
Saturday morning, we walked to Forsythe Park and strolled around there for a while. Then, we walked back toward the river, going through a couple more squares. For lunch, we went to the Cotton Exchange Tavern on the river. The food and service was great -- try it sometime.
After strolling around more of River St. after lunch, we made our way back to our hotel for a well-deserved "nap".
We had made a dinner reservation at the Pirate's House for Saturday night at 7:30. We walked down there and arrived about 7 so we'd have time for a relaxing beverage. LOML had her usual -- regular Coke straight up. I had a couple of glasses of Charleston Brown -- good stuff! Elijah was our server -- great guy! My wife had their famous Pecan-Crusted Fried Chicken and I had the Pecan Crusted Salmon. Both were superb!
Our overall impression of Savannah is good. We made the trip because neither of us had been there before. Did everything look like it does in magazines or online? Of course not. No place ever looks that good! But, we weren't disappointed with the visit. Will we go again? Can't say -- there are a lot of other places we want to visit now that we have more time.