Escape Attempts: Thanksgiving in Savannah.

Once again Don and I decided to scamper off to Savannah for Thanksgiving. Our plans were to stay at the River Street Inn right on the water, have Thanksgiving dinner on a riverboat, and have our "Friday after Thanksgiving anniversary seafood dinner" at The Crab Shack.

We scrimped and saved for months for this trip. I booked our rooms and bought our tickets for the Savannah Riverboat Cruise ( http://www.savannahriverboat.com) and we were ready. We were able to check in early at the River Street Inn (http://www.riverstreetinn.com) and the room was small, but lovely upon first inspection. We paid 140.00 a night, plus taxes, for a river view room. You could see the river and all of the comings and goings along it right from the window. That view was really amazing.

A Tall Ship, like the olden days

The old, and the new.

The "Who Cares"

But, the stay at the River Street Inn wasn't worth the 140 a night. Beyond the room being tiny and dusty, there was literally no place for our suitcase. No stand, no bench, nothing. We improvised and used the ottoman in the room, so that worked out in the end. The place was dusty, and I mean DUSTY! They didn't bother to plug in the lamps, so we had to plug them into the dirtiest power strip I've ever seen under the bed. It was gross. The maid staff made the bed and left fresh towels, but didn't empty the trash. The beds slept horribly, even after we received extra pillows (the three on the bed were flat). There was only one partial roll of toilet paper in the bathroom too. For what we paid, I guess I expected it to be more like the Hilton. The elevators required the use of a key card. So when the car hung up on the 4th floor the second day, I stood patiently behind a man at the check in counter and listened as the staff rudely told him he was not using his card right (though I watched him and he had). As he walked off, I told them the car was hung up, and got nothing more than a shrug. The following morning, as we got ready to leave, Don went to get the car and I discovered our key cards had been deactivated more than two hours before check-out. They wouldn't work on the elevator, or the room door and there wasn't a bellman in sight. So I had to lug my suitcases up the stairs to the check-in desk. The girl behind the counter was quite short with me and could have cared less that my key card was non-functional. I was NOT pleased. The rooms were pretty, and they were right where we wanted to be for the stay, but that's all I can say about the place.

The riverboat dinner was, as expected, fantastic. The food was good, the entertainment was pleasant, and we had a fine time. The two and a half hour ride at night up the river was just delightful. Last year we went outside after we ate, but it was too cold this year, so we stayed in and watched people dance and act a fool at the request of the DJ. It was great and I do hope we can go back!

We spent the next day wondering in and out of shops along River Street. Our favorite is the Savannah Bee Company (http://www.savannahbee.com). You can sample different honey and products made with honey. It's a sweet place! After dropping off our packages in the room, we booked a carriage tour. Because no one else booked with us, the tour wound up being a private tour and we just loved it!! We wondered through the Paula Deen shop, for kicks and giggles, and then off to our car for a trip down to Tybee for a look at the sea.

Dinner was super fantastic! The Crab Shack (http://www.thecrabshack.com) over on Tybee is our favorite! The gators were too sleepy in the cold weather to be much to see, but the birds in the bird house were excitable. The service is good, the food is great, and its a lot of fun! We started out with a crab chowder that was the best crap soup I have ever had. It was rich and creamy and perfect. We ordered the Shack Specialty for two. It is much like a low country boil with all kinds of extra shellfish on it. We followed up the yummy meal with come key lime pie. YUM!! I highly recommend The Crab Shack.

We left out early to try to avoid the Clemson-Carolina game traffic in Columbia on our way to Sylva, NC to see some dear friends. We stayed in a old, OLD road side place next to a creek in Downtown Sylva. Although the place was super old, it was clean, the beds slept better than the 140 a night place, and the owner was exceptionally friendly and kind. 50 bucks was all it cost. We visited a cool little bookstore and we had a greek dinner with our friends. It was a lovely end to a lovely trip.

We didn't take as many photos this time as we normally do, but I'll leave you with some none the less...