{savannah, GA}

When we were planning and getting ready for a small vacation in Savannah, Georgia, I was expecting for us to all get a much needed break from deadlines and work. I was expecting to find a small town with a few antique stores and mostly tourist stops. I was expecting to want to spend a lot of time in the adorable downtown home we rented, sipping coffee and putting my feet up on the table. I was expecting somewhat chilly weather and lots of sleeping in. What I wasn’t expecting is that I would fall in love with this welcoming, homey, old city that makes you want to be a local ever-so-much. Everywhere you turn there are adorable gingerbread-house looking homes/shops, rugged cobblestone streets, and swaying Spanish moss. There are an abundance of parks and squares, like the main Forsyth Park, which made me want to take some coffee and spend all day sitting in the shade under the trees. The weather turned cold just for us- it dipped down in the 30s and I was so thankful that I could bust out my winter clothes that I so carefully planned out and packed before leaving. I am so glad that we went and still a little sad that I can’t spend more time there. Hopefully, I will again one day.

Sigh.

So, here is how our vacation went:

The six-hour drive up there was not that bad, except for the fact that me and my three siblings along with our two friends all crammed into me and my sister’s Toyota Tundra that we named Clyde, which is another story. At least we had lots of music, pretzels, goldfish, and granola bars, right? And my parents drove my dad’s truck with all the luggage and food crammed in.

We stopped at our favorite place, Micanopy, FL, for a midway break. We had a pasta salad picnic with fruit and bread (all courtesy of yours truly) and then went downtown for ice cream/antique strolling.

After making it to Savannah, we toured the house choosing rooms and lugging our belongings up the stairs. Afterwards, we went out to the easy-going Sentient Bean cafe, where I ate a delicious hummus, tomato, and spinach quesadilla. I think the recipe is permanently written in my brain. Yup, it was that good. The other two nights we planned out good home-cooked meals, like my dad’s amazing spaghetti and meatballs. Yum.

The cozy cafes, like that one and the Gallery Espresso (including some seriously comfy couches), are where we spent a lot of time in the evenings, sipping hot chocolate and, in my case, decaf black coffee (I didn’t want a caffeine/sugar rush, okay?) If not at the cafe, we had plenty of hot chocolate flavors to go around at home.

We did plenty of walking, which I didn’t mind because I love walking! There was so much to look at and so much to take photos of. I was sure to stay in the back of the pack of us eight so I wouldn’t make someone trip over me for abruptly stopping for that woah-here-is-the-most-perfect-shot type of moment. I loved how different houses would have really neat courtyards and gates. And I loved, loved, loved the fences. We also strolled River Street, which was more high-end, but it was still fun. We went inside the Savannah Bee Company store and tasted different types of honey. All I will say is that we came home with plenty… and that you need to go get their Acacia honey. It’s really good. Their whole set-up was so cute, like the cute jars of honey that you will see down the line of pictures:

And voila! There it is. A review of Savannah and a photography post all-in-one.

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Road trip+cold weather+black coffee= All on the new blog post! {savannah, GA}: http://t.co/ll3afcs—
Kari Elaine (@karielaine1) November 10, 2010