First Long Trip : Having been six months in the US, we have never had any long trips so far. Our visits have been restricted to the city tour within Atlanta and even shorter ones. This was starting to become frustrating. This trip marked the freedom from this frustration.
We have been wanting to make a real trip for quite a long time but has not been able to. We wanted to use the memorial weekend for a slightly far off trip but as I had a not-yet-recovered ankle , we could not plan in advance. We had guests coming in on Saturday evening. So Saturday night, I decided that we are going - however unplanned , however difficult so that we could get over the inertia.
Sunday morning, woke up at 5:00 AM , used internet to book a hotel , bid farewell to Sajan's parents and drove to Savannah - staring at 7:00 AM. The highway to Savannah was a straight and even one - set cruise to 80mph and let go for most of the time.
We stayed at
Wingate by Wyndham Savannah.We reached around 11:00 AM but the check-in time was 3 PM. So we went to Ruby Tuesday nearby to have Barbecue pork ribs which was recommended by one of our guests - Balu the previous day. During the breakfast, we decided to take a trolley tour of the city.
Trolley Tour
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The trolley tour was nice where the driver spoke about the various preserved buildings in the city. Savannah being the first city in Georgia , there were many 18th century buildings. It was slightly unexpected to see in the US. A one and a half hour long trip where in I kept snapping at each and every interesting sight on the way.Of course, we could not follow the explanations well enough.
The trolley tour lets you take any of the trolley buses in the visit circuit till 5:30 PM.
City Market
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The first complete tour dropped us off at the city market. We just walked around a bit. We window shopped a bit and bought one pound of 'Praline' candy which was very delicious indeed. I have just had two while I am writing this blog.
River Street
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Then we took a trolley trip to the river street. The choice was made as per suggestion from the waitress from Ruby Tuesday this morning. The river street was good - The Savannah river and the street by it reminded me of the marine drive in Kochi,Kerala. It was a pleasant sight with nice breeze. We did some shopping and Divya bought a top designed from India. We could see a lot of clothes from India here much like we see in Bangalore.After the shopping, we walked about in the breeze. A beautiful and luxurious yacht caught my attention and I tried photographing it but could not capture the beauty that I felt.By then , it was time for the 5:30 shuttle back to the starting point where our car was parked.
Tybee versus Thunderstorms
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While shopping, I had found out from the sale girl the spot in Tybee island where there was a good sunset view. So we go back to the hotel , take some rest , may be even dinner and go to Tybee Island to see the sunset.
I had slept very little the previous day as I had not slept early where as I woke up at 5. This had interfered a bit with my driving initially and by the evening, I was completely tired. That is when we checked in and slept for some time at the hotel.The television weather channel warned us of the thunderstorm in Savannah. At times, it was a nuisance where as at other times, it instilled fear.At the least, it was effective enough to drop the trip to Tybee beach that evening
Snow Crab Dinner
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SnowCrab : Wanted to have sea food from Savannah and had excellent snow crab. As it was very difficult to have the snow crab using the tools they gave, I got to eat a lot of the crab since Divya would not have it with two hands. A very sumptuous happy meal for myself where as Divya and Niya watched on for most!
Had a long relaxing sleep.The next day, with all the storm warnings , we wanted to go back early. But finally we ended up taking the complete second trip trolley tour.
Second Day
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Woke up late and lazy and had the complimentary breakfast just before it closed at 10:00 A.M. The checkout time was 11 AM. So , soon after the breakfast , we packed our stuff and checked out. The fears from yesterday evening had not surfaced as much as per the morning weather reports.However, we still decided not to go Tybee but relaxed on our plans to leave back early.The plan for the day was to take a second trolley tour to spend more time on a few of the remaining 50 or so points of visit.
Cathedral
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As per advice from the ticket selling lady, the first spot we visited was the cathedral where the interior architecture was very appealing. We spent 10-15 minutes inside while I photographed the glass paintings and other architectural beauty around.
Mercer's House
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Next, we decided to visit an old house museu. But unfortunately for us, the next conducted tour was at 1:30 PM where as time was then 12:00 PM or so.
Forsyth Park
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Next, we went to the Forsyth park in search for some green. It was a nice park like Lal Bagh. There was a children's play area which Niya consumed over and over. We decided to have lunch at StarBucks right next to the play area and not shop for Savannah specific food. After a sandwich lunch, we walked around more in the Forsyth park , saw an old and beautiful fountain , a closed Fragrance garden with very healthy looking roses.
Tomochichi monument
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Next in the list per the ticket lady was the Tomochichi monument which is just a piece of stone - an uncut granite that one might find lying around while shopping for kitchen slabs. However , the square where the Tomochichi rock was kept was a nice shaded one.
Telfair museum
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Per the bus driver, telfair museum is a great place to go. So we went to the Telfair museum where we took combo tickets that could be used for three museums. As no photography was allowed , I could pack my camera and just appreciate the sights. It was a house museum with grand rooms and grand interiors. There were sections of paintings and sculptures which were pretty good as well. Pretty satisfied , we went to the next museum , the Jepson Center
Jepson Center
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This was a modern museum and presented an experience quite unlike typical museum experiences. In particular , this museum inspired a lot of interaction and was not a place to just wow around. There were sections where one could fit together geometric pieces of glass pieces into structures , similar possibility with wood pieces.
What struck most was the section where light patterns created through computer program output was displayed as art. That was a break from conventional museums for sure. I could draw a parallel with the feeling you get when you watch a movie that feels fresh and in time. Computer science and it's manifestations were being appreciated as art.
Also, there were photographs taken in 2011 , 2009 etc being displayed. That is great too. The museum felt very young and has excellent architecture too.
The third museum starts it's last conducted tour at 4:30 and hence we missed it.
Pralines and Gophers
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The rest of the little time we had , we purchased some Gophers candy from the same shop where we had purchased pralines the previous day.
Coffee/Pizza
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On the trip back , the driver was speaking to other passengers as to how Savannah has the best pizza in the US. We decided to try it and have some coffee as well to refresh myself before I start driving back home.Coffee was not served there. So we just had 'Buffalo Chicken Pizza' which was quite ok
Drive back
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So the drive back started at 6:30.Within ten minutes, we saw an accident with an overturned car. The 165 mile straight stretch started. The traffic was much more than the onward journey and I kept using left lane to overtake and the right lane to let overtake. Once again , I set cruise at 80mph where the speed limit was 70mph and tried to maintain equanimity between passing all slower cars and letting faster cars pass.
Rain
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I had noticed earlier that the altima's wiper blades had elaborate controls that control the speed of the wiper and the interval between the wipes separately. I had wondered why such detailed control. Suddenly, it started raining heavily that I sought these controls but could not get to the necessary configuration. The car in front of me apparently faced similar struggle and started hazard-blinking as did my car. There was no shoulder to park and there were times when there are 4-5 seconds where you don't see anything in front at all - an 85% blindness. I was at my wit's end as to how to sustain this challenge as my speed had quickly dropped to 55. Luckily , the rain just switched itself off and I was quickly in the clear
Rest Area
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I had done 200 miles plus on one stretch and was still going happily and strong when we decided to take a break at the rest area. Divya set rest area as the destination in the GPS and we figured out that there was no rest area in our line of route. So we set the destination back to home and told GPS 'Go Home'
Forest Route
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Samantha(GPS Lady) pushed us off I75 and we were led into empty isolated hair thin rural roads. I did like the excitement. Soon we seemed to be going deeper and deeper into some forest area with deer jumping signs and road names like 'Hideout'. The GPS had recently given some issue with the simulator being off. So the fear that GPS was infested was there. Divya zoomed out on the GPS and could see that we were being led to the i75. Relieved, when the zoom was reset , Garmin started finding more convoluted routes and that too away from the i75 point it was just about to reach.
Now , I was even less sure that I can follow these instructions.We kept going.
Blue Lights
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We see the familiar blue lights of the cop vehicle in front. This might be the forth vehicle or so that we had seen in the last twenty minutes. We assumed that it must be the cop trying to help us out as we were convoluting aimlessly. As it turned out , they had caught another car and asked us to pass
Sheriff
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We did not pass and I told the Sheriff that the GPS is acting wierd. He gave us instructions first to go back the way we were coming. There was no space to turn around. So , the sheriff asked us to follow him and he led us to the way that leads to i75.
Back on Track
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Back on track, I drove confident without any further breaks to our home.
The trip was a very interesting and fruitful one for myself where as Divya did not enjoy it as much for the lack of plan and the lack of effective use of time.
Next, I wanted to take in the local cuisine and Divya wanted to do some local shopping. It was lunch time and I remember 'Fish Fry' as a chain of restaurants on the internet that serves great Bahamian fish. Stingy to spend another twenty five dollars for a taxi, we walked along bay street - the shopping plan and the fish fry plan strained and we stopped the walk at Junkanoo beach restaurant. We had grouper and snapper , the snapper was made in local style and was very satisfying. But I still had the longing to eat conch meat and as discussed with our Junkanoo restaurant hostess, conch seviche is a local style of conch.
I had setup alarm to watch the sunrise. I walked out of the stateroom alone and went to the deck. There were a few others like me who had come to photograph the sunrise, a few folks had come in couples to be romantic , a few had come to offer prayers to the sun god. It was not that great a sunrise with all the clouds but it is the best that I had seen in a very long time. The sunrise from the ship is only slightly different in that there are no waves in the ocean and for the first time I noticed the clouds get a golden lining.If all the gold I saw was real gold, then it was indeed a very expensive sunrise. 
So we walked to the closest beach. The island is privately owned by NCL and is just about 250 acres. Nice blue easy chairs were placed on the beach for us to use. We sun-bathed our feet and face and watched the excellent blue color of the ocean. Set Niya free and Niya embraced the ocean - picking up white stones from the water.She was quickly attached and we could easily see that taking her to the next spot was going to take some effort.
After lunch, we had a nice little sleep at the beach - again at the beach easy chairs but at a different section. When there is so much to see, how can you sleep? That is one challenge with vacations - you want to see everything and you want to do nothing. When I woke up , I consulted the life guard and he advised me to walk down to the man-made lagoon further down.
From the outdoor cafe which was on top deck, miami city looked very attractive. Later on from our balcony, we also got the chance to witness the beautiful sunset against the miami cityscape.I had been missing sunsets a lot but this one came in unexpected and I could not make the best use of the opportunity to capture the beauty in photographs and memories fade faster which is why I am trying to blog.
