Saturday, April 24, 2010

Historic Savannah, Georgia

A chalk art festival at a park



One of the oldest homes in the city










Owens-Thomas House that we toured, above is the carriage house, where the slaves lived





Back of the Thomas-Owens house, view from the courtyard













Davenport House, second home we toured










Some of the buildings in the Historic District in Savannah










Old street sign that was found in someones yard under the ivy, it was longer before it broke




One of the fountains in the parks



This is what some of the streets down by the river look like




We went on a tour of the Historic Part of Savannah, we just loved it. It is so pretty and all the houses and buildings and parks are amazing. We went to two historic houses for tours and to the Savannah Museum which was really interesting.


Went to a interesting place to eat called Zunzi's, it's a cross between african and dutch cooking we were told. Yummy!! Rained a little, but not bad, it stayed fairly cool.


We were told some interesting things on the tour: beds were made with the Spanish Moss, which was full of bugs called Chiggers, and they say that's where the saying, "don't let the bed bugs bite" came from. They also filled the seats of the first Fords with it. We were also told that when there was a severe outbreak of Yellow Fever, it spread so quickly and so many people died from it, that they didn't waste any time burying the dead, but sometimes they were buried too quickly, so they had a rope with a bell on it by the grave and a man stood post so he could hear if a person rang it, and the person that was buried would pull on the rope ringing the bell, thus the phrase "dead ringer". That's what we were told!!

Many of the buildings here, including the historic site Wormsloe that we visited yesterday, are made with Tabby: a combination of lime, sand, oyster shells and water.


We also saw the home ( the outside) of Juliett Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts.






































Friday, April 23, 2010

Savannah, Georgia, Skidaway State Park and Wormsloe Historic Site

Remains of the original plantation house



Mile and a half drive to the plantation


Entry into the Wormsloe Historic Site






Trail in Skidaway Park












Cherokee Rose


























Walked on some more trails while we were still at Skidaway Park outside of Savannah. So many different things to see. We found out the thousands of crabs we saw yesterday and today are Fiddler Crabs. Had to change campgrounds, unfortunately the one we were in was going to be full for the weekend. We are still in Savannah but closer to downtown Savannah. We went to Wormsloe State Historic Site, the remains are still there from a plantation that was built in the l740's.










Thursday, April 22, 2010

Savannah, Georgia, Skidaway State Park

Remains from the moonshining
More than 30 stills were on this property




Mounds from the civil war that were built by the slaves, hard to see from the picture, called Earthworks, they fought behind them






On one of the many trails here






On our bike ride, fun trails






On the trail at the State Park







Going to the Observation Tower








There are literally thousands of these all over the area you see above this picture


Still in Savannah, Georgia at a beautiful campground. We stayed around the campground today because it's so beautiful and the bike riding is great. They have an interpretive center and a bird feeding center where they have binoculars and bird feeders so you can sit and watch the prettiest birds feed. The park has the reddest Cardinals, beautiful woodpeckers, chikadees, brown headed cow birds, owls, and a painted bunting, which is beautiful. Rode bikes all morning, great trails. You go on one trail and there is an old site that has moonshining equipment left and there are burms where the dirt is built up in mounds that the slaves built during the Civil War as part of the defense system against Union Troops.










Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Leaving our East Coast Manion family

Oh look, Bob has joined us!!


Aunt Laurie and John







Aunt Laurie and Bill



Well, we left Palm Harbor, Florida after a great visit with our family. Always hard to leave. We do think they have vicious birds in Florida, however. Laurie was flogged 3 times while there. They just dive bombed, not friendly at all. Headed to Georgia, and we are not in Savannah.





Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Palm Harbor, Florida, East Coast Manions

Aunt Martha,Uncle Joe, Laurie, Bill, Bill and Mike

Same but with Jolene


Uncle Joe
We went to visit Uncle Joe and Aunt Martha, Uncle Joe is Bill's dad's brother. We went out to visit and have dinner with them. Such a great time, makes you miss them even more!!

The deer come right behind Mike and Jolene's house in their backyard, right by the pond, where the alligators live.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Palm Harbor, Florida with the East Coast Manions

Our nephew John and Dusty
Dusty

John and Uncle Bill




John

The lesson










Not a clear picture, but the lights were not cooperating















Uncle Bill and Bill







We are being treated to a wonderful time with our East Coast Manions, being shown all over the area. We went to Bill's (our nephew Bill) softball game and got to watch him play.









Uncle Bill had to show Bill how to play tennis, ha ha, but Uncle Bill is happy to report, he still has it and wupped up on his nephew!!









They have a lovable black lab and he loves to go fishing, and swimming.









Bill and his brother Mike went fishing and Bill reeled in a alligator!!