Savannah, Georgia!

We took a weekend and went to Savannah, Georgia and it is beautiful! It is super hot! We went down there thinking it would be nice and as soon as we got out of our car, SWEAT! Blah! We were in long pants and had to change into shorts. Savannah is gorgeous though, the live oak trees are huge and the old architecture is amazing to look at.

We went on a few historical house tours, our first was the Juliet Gordon Low house. Juliet was the founder of the Girl Scouts, it was really interesting learning of how the Girl Scouts came about. She was mostly def through most of her life, such an interesting woman. Our second house tour the the Owens Thomas House, a extravagant home, it had some architecture inside that we haven't ever seen before. The Owens house also had a beautiful garden in the back of the house.

We stopped by a very old cemetery that had a creepy feel to it, it said that a lot of the people buried there were killed by yellow fever and various other diseases. Also our tour guide said that when the city of Savannah was expanding and needed to widen the streets they paved over 5000 plus graves, so we drove on dead people, spooky and sad at the same time.

We took a historic tour of Savannah that took us through a lot of the different parks inside Savannah and explained what the monument built inside of them mean. The parks were beautiful, they were everywhere in the historic district of Savannah, there was one every couple of blocks. The parks added to the coolness of Savannah.

We then journeyed though East River Street and found an old ship that looked like a pirate ship. We went aboard and shivered our timbers. The ship had really close quarters to live and is still sailed to this day, fun stuff. The ship rounded out our first day in Savannah.

The very next day we headed to the Savannah History Museum, typical as most history museums go, but it did have a replica of an ironclad. I have never seen real proof that those actually existed but there it was, it was pretty cool. Right next door the museum was the Roundhouse Railroad Museum. The railroad museum was an old railroad hub that housed all the different train cars used back in the day, like coal burning steam engines. We even got to ride in one of the old train cars pulled by a steam engine.

We headed over to the Andrew Low House and took a tour, it was a very pretty house. All of the rooms looked really well kept up and in great condition. Andrew Low was the man that married Juliet Gordon Low the founder of the Girl Scouts. This house also had a pretty garden in the front of the house.

On our way out of the Andrew Low house we saw a cathedral across the street, so we decided to go and have a look. It was St John's Baptist Cathedral, it is said to rival St Patrick's Cathedral in New York. It was very ornate and beautiful inside.

The last stop was Bonaventure Cemetery, which is said to be haunted. One of the hauntings is a little girl named Gracie, she is said to be heard crying on the wind. When we went to her grave, a little girl had written a note to her and told Gracie that she was sorry she was so sad, it was pretty cute.

Farewell to the Big Easy

It was a busy week this time around, we had Presidents day and this weekend to go and explore some more of downtown New Orleans. For Presidents day, we started off going to a historical tour of the French Quarter. We walked around the city and learned about the establishment, the history, and the modern changes that have happened since the city was founded. It was fun to hear about the history in addition to seeing the fun architecture.

After the tour, we headed over to Natchez Riverboat. Katie wanted to go on a steam boat during this trip, and this was the perfect chance. The Natchez steamboat is one of the few remaining boats still in operation today. The ride on the boat went up and down the Mississippi and took a total of three hours. We ate lunch on board and enjoyed the views from the boat. It was a step back in time.

Our final stop before heading home was to go and grab a bite at Cafe Du Monde. We sat down, had an order of beignets and hot chocolate and then called it a night. Our hair got a little wind blown from the steamboat ride.

On Saturday we headed back to New Orleans to see the famous cemeteries, a Mardi Gras parade, and take a tour of the historical Garden District. We stopped at one of the more modern cemeteries on our way to the garden district and saw many of the extravagant above ground tombs. Many of these tombs are used over and over again and can have as many as 20-30 family remains. Here are a few of the pictures we took at the cemetery.

Next on our stop we headed over to the Garden District. We had a tour that took us around many of the famous homes in the area. They are several celebrities that live there, and a rich heritage of architecture. Many of the homes look like they would make great haunted houses, and we had a fun time seeing them.

Our last stop on our trip was to see one of the many Mardi Gras parades that are happening. The parade we saw was put on by the Krewe of Sparta. It had a total of 14 floats and the beads were flying from them. For only seeing one parade, we ended up with around 40 bead necklaces. Where as other parades throw candy, these parades throw beads. It was fun to see the celebrations of Mardi Gras.

Thats it for Louisiana. Next week we are off to Lake Sinclair near the middle of Georgia. We are both looking forward to a relaxing month and seeing Atlanta and Savannah.