July 10, 2019 Savannah, GA (day 2)

 

Rains came in the early morning hours, but it was the clap of thunder that brought Auggie trying desperately to get into bed with us.  It didn't rain long and when we finally got up, we had sunshine and blue skies.  It was steamy after the rain.  We said goodbye to Neal and Lynelle as they hooked up the car to their bus and soon they were on their way.  

We got ready for our day in Savannah.  First, we took a drive through the campground to the Mackey House in the back of the property.  Neal had told us about it and we wanted to see it for ourselves.

This gorgeous building serves as a wedding venue and well as other events and has beautiful landscaping around the house.

We left the campground at 10:15 after checking out the house and took the 20 minute drive down to the waterfront.  We easily found a parking space on Bay Street.  From there, we could see the City Hall's clocktower, topped with a gold dome, standing tall above the trees.

From Bay Street you can see all the shops on the upper level of the River Front Plaza.

Standing in the center is the Old Savannah Cotton Exchange Building.  It was built in 1887 and was used when Savannah ranked #1 as a cotton seaport on the Atlantic and 2nd in the world, moving over 25 billion bales of cotton a year through Savannah.

We made our way down the stairs to the waterfront and the shops along River Street.  

The path and roads were made of original cobblestones and bricks.

From the lower level, we could see the Savannah River.

We ducked in and out of the shops on River Street to take advantage of the AC when we got too warm.  Our favorite shop, that we discovered on our last visit, is called Bob's Your Uncle and Fannie's Your Aunt.

It may seem like an unusual name for a shop, but it has special significance.  It means "there it is" or "there you have it"–phrases commonly used in the UK or so the sign said. Upstairs in the shop is the area that contains all the "Bob" clothing.  Bob already has a few "Bob" shirts, but he added another to his collection.

From there, we walked over to the Food Court where we were looking for the Naked Dog Stand.

We ordered Chicago dogs and sat by the river to enjoy our lunch.  They were some of the best we've eaten.

The river traffic was pretty quiet except for the ferry that takes people across the river and a tugboat.

We shopped our way back to the truck and drove east out of town, past Ft. Jackson, to Tybee Island.

Crossing over the salt marshes, we could see how much tidal flow affects this area, by how far the piers are built out from the shore.

The drive to Tybee Island took about 10 minutes.

It is definitely a tourist/beach area with lots of shops, restaurants, vacation rentals, and plenty of beach access areas.  

We continued along the eastern shore of Tybee Island as far as the road would take us and then turned around to head back.  On our return route, we first stopped at the post office to mail Anne her shirt.

Our next stop was to view the Tybee Island Lighthouse built in 1736.  This is Georgia's oldest and tallest light.

Originally built at 90 feet, it now stands at 154 feet tall and contains a first order Fresnel lens.

It was the loftiest lighthouse in America at the time and stands at the mouth of the Savannah River and the Atlantic Ocean.

Across from the lighthouse was the Military Battery Garland built in 1899, which also includes a museum.

In leaving the lighthouse area, we discovered an RV park near the beach that looked pretty nice.  We'll have to check more into that for a future trip.  Our next stop took us to Fort Pulaski.

It was built to guard the river approaches to Savannah as a Confederate stronghold.

From the fort, we could see the Cockspur Lighthouse which was built around 1837 marking the south channel of the Savannah River.  The lighthouse is no longer lit, but serves as a daymark.

We took a different route back to the campground which took us over the Intracoastal Waterway.

From there, we got a view of Thunderbolt Marina where we stayed with our boat on our trip to Chesapeake Bay in 2011.  It was interesting to see it again.

We arrived back at the campground around 2:00.  Auggie and I spent some time outside in the shade of the awning for the rest of the afternoon.  There was an occasional breeze with cloud cover which made sitting outside tolerable.  We sat and watched the arrival of more campers as I worked on my blog before dinner.  Auggie and I took our evening walk before the sun went down as things started to cool off a bit.  Tomorrow we will be heading north to Statesville, North Carolina for just an overnight stay.  Here's hoping temps will be a little cooler.