Savannah-Tybee Island
I intend to write something other than a travel guide, a small memo about a beautifully hectic trip to Savannah, Georgia. It was the start of our spring break, and the odds were against us. Amidst all the odds, mixed weather conditions, approaching deadlines, and unavailability of a few of our friends, we decided to make a quick two-day trip to Savannah, including 900 miles of road. We (five of us) started our journey at 5:00 AM from Cookeville, an hour late than the expected time, with all of us having a sleep of fewer than 4 hours and even a few of us in a partial hangover from the last night. As we headed south from US-111 toward Chattanooga, it was an empty, familiar road. At Chattanooga, we stopped at McDonald’s for a quick breakfast and gas and continued our journey southeast through I-75 toward Atlanta. We enjoyed the sight of Atlanta but couldn’t stop due to our tight time. Further ahead, around Macon, we started seeing the change in landscape and vegetation. Landscapes were getting flatter than we were used to in Tennessee, and we could see more dryness and changes in the size of trees, everything very comparable to Nepal’s terai. We were vibing in Nepali-Hindi-English-Persian music while also trying to devise a tentative plan for our stay in Savannah.
As soon as we entered Savannah, we headed to an Indian restaurant to pacify our hunger. The food was way below our expectations, but our hungry belly was taking anything then. After checking in at the hotel, we started our excursion from Forsyth park. The celebration had already begun for St. Patrick’s Day with live music. Forsyth park, named after the 33rd governor of Georgia, lies in the city’s heart. We were amazed by the size of the park and the way it is maintained in the middle of the town. The park was full of people playing golf, children enjoying the recreation time, and people vibing in Irish jazz. The garden looked even more beautiful with Live Oak Forest and its ghostly gray-green curtain of Spanish moss. After taking pictures in the beautiful Forsyth park, we became interested in visiting Forrest Gump park in Chippewa Square, where the famous scene of Tom Hanks in the movie Forrest Gump was taken. We could not find the same bench as it was brought to the museum, but still, we tried to imagine how the film was shot there. As most people recommended, we parked our car around Forsyth park and planned to walk around the city wherever we went.
Our next stop was at the bank of the Savannah river, which we reached by walking through the middle of town. Each house in the town was unique to us in its architecture as they had ancient houses reminding us of the European cities. The roads were stone paved and lived in the shades of live oak forest with the same ghostly Spanish moss making it one of the most beautiful roads traveling across the city. The savannah river was huge, making way for large container ships towards the harbor from the Atlantic Ocean as I got the chance to witness the big ship from proximity. We also rode on a ferry across the savannah river and returned. It was already 8:00 PM, and our tired bodies almost gave up as we decided to go for refueling coffee. We were in downtown Savannah, and Starbucks would not quench our thirst 😉 (You understood it right). We planned to cap off the day by entering a bar. We entered a live piano bar, paying $12 for an entry fee not to get a place to sit. But we were flabbergasted by the performer’s piano technique and experienced some different bar environments. As we were heading back to Forsyth park, where our car was parked, we saw the St. Patrick’s Day celebration still going on with cool Irish Jazzs; where we rested our tired feet for around half an hour before returning to the hotel.
Sunday morning started late for us, credit to our tired, sleep-deprived body and daylight saving snatching away an hour from us. Our next destination was Tybee Island, where the savannah river joins the mighty Atlantic. We started the Tybee island trip from the northern beach, where the lighthouse from the 18th century was rebuilt many times. The view from the lighthouse was fantastic, as we could see the savannah river, the Atlantic, and the environment around us. We excursed the beautiful museum around the lighthouse, demonstrating its history. We walked on a beach at some excellent distance splashing through the occasional waves of the Atlantic. Some of us even dived into the water, but I restrained myself, seeing how cold the water was. Even without the best temperature to be at the beach, we had fun walking across the beach, taking pictures, and getting soaked in the waves. To add to the fun, I enjoyed watching two air force aircraft flying low above the beach.
After getting into warm clothes, we also visited the southern beach, where the famous pier is located. The crowd was much higher on this side of the beach than on the northern beach. The wooden pier was beautiful, reaching a hundred feet inside the ocean boundary. The view of the Atlantic from the pier was surreal, and we could not stop ourselves from stopping there for some time to enjoy the view. We even joined to walk on a beach to see people doing fun activities. It was almost 2:00 pm as we started our way back. Even though our travel was hectic, with more than 17 hours of driving in 48 hours, we observed the beauty Savannah and Tybee island had to offer. We almost forgot our tiredness when we were enjoying ourselves there, which haunted us back once we were back at our place. Leaving out some pictures to finish this memo.
Link to a few short videos:
