Unfortunately for me, unlike my sisters, I find a pillow over my face to be suffocating! After sleeping off and on for 5 hours I eventually gave up, and made it down to the hotel gym. I busted out my run for the day, did some exercises that my trainer had taught me with the limited weights that the gym had, and then headed back up to the room. After we all showered and got ready for the day, we ate the complimentary breakfast at our hotel. They offered a waffle bar, cold cereal, toast, bagels, fresh muffins, oatmeal, eggs, sausage patties, and GRITS...
Next on the itinerary was a walking Civil War Tour.
Our tour guide...
Some of the beautiful sights...
Important monuments...
The tour was super neat. I have TONS of pictures from this tour, but obviously I won't be posting them all on my blog. We saw amazing things, and heard GREAT stories about Savannah's role in the Civil War. Among MANY other stories, we heard an interesting take on President Lincoln's true political approach to freeing slaves, and we were told a funny story about the women of a church who rang the church bells incessantly to annoy the residing General that had come to occupy their city for some time, in an effort to make him leave...instead he had the bells removed from the church...but the ladies were friends of the President's wife, and the general was ordered to have the bells replaced. The general replaced the bells...but not before cutting out the clapper!
Before we left for our vacation, we had all desired to get large Southern hats. We had imagined that all the ladies in Savannah were wearing wide brimmed hats to shade them selves from the heat...and for fashion, of course. However, the entire time we were in the South, not a SINGLE lady (other than us, LOL) was wearing a hat! One would probably feel stupid for wearing such a fashion statement when it apparently was NOT a fashion statement in Savannah, but, the ladies in my family are not to be embarrassed about something like that, AND, even though the other females were not wearing the hats, we were stopped all day everyday by women AND men telling us how much they loved our hats, and asking us where we had purchased them. In California, most people would stare to admire/judge you, but very few (if anyone) would stop to pay a stranger a compliment. Our hats brought us a lot of (positive) attention, and that was super fun!
After the tour, we walked around town in our Southern hats...
We eventually made our way to Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room for lunch. They are only open mid-week, and they are only open for lunch from 10am to 2pm. There is always a HUGE line to eat there, and on the day we arrived there was no exception. Anna chose to wait in the line for 2 hours while my mom, Jenni and I went shopping at the surrounding neighborhood shops.
Anna waiting in the line for lunch...
Mrs. Wilkes' serves their food family style. They sit you at large tables with strangers, and the food is fresh and ready at your table when you are seated...
Our plates of food...
To drink, your only options were water, or Sweet Tea. This was my first (and last) glass of sweet tea...
For dessert they served a cobbler (which they were all out of...we were one of the last tables to eat that day), or banana pudding. I had NO IDEA that banana pudding was "the dessert" in the South! Every single restaurant we went to served banana pudding! What the!? Banana pudding was another first for me, but I easily embraced it! I would then have to order the banana pudding and compare them to each other at each opportunity.
Mrs. Wilkes' was our first taste of real Southern food and it was INCREDIBLE! I never eat fried chicken for nutrition reasons, and becuase my little family doesn't like to eat chicken off of the bone. But I went ahead and had piece, and I instantly wondered why I had stopped eating fried chicken...SOOOO good!!!
After lunch we went back to our hotel to rest our bellies. According to the itinerary we were supposed to go on a river boat ride that afternoon, but we scratched that idea, and decided to live it up at the hotel pool...
After that, our itinerary said we were supposed to go have some Southern BBQ for dinner, but we were all too full from lunch to have such a heavy meal for dinner. However, the girls were wanting a little something before our evening plans, and so my sisters went out to go grab a sandwich from a deliciously smelling deli we had passed by on our Civil War tour, and then I met them for ice cream at the famous Leopold's Ice Cream parlor...
Before we went in to get our ice cream, my sisters were finishing up their sandwiches and they began talking with the lady sitting next them. She engaged us in conversation about California and where she used to live (both in San Diego AND L.A.) and then went on to explain that her husband was in the movie industry, but then when his father passed away, they took over the ice cream business...all this time we were casually chatting with the owner of the ice cream parlor! Now this may not seem like a big deal to someone in San Diego, but in Savannah, this was like casually talking to Ben from Ben & Jerry's! We had to get our picture with her...
Getting our ice cream...
After ice cream we went back to our hotel. Some of us were still working...some us wanted to rest...and some of us wanted to spend 2 hours getting ready for our big night out on the town (a luxury you don't have at home when you have a husband and small children needing your attention)...
Our first stop for the night was Lulus Chocolate Bar. The only thing they serve is dessert and drinks...such a fun idea!
My drink, the yellow one, was a drink that had the word "sparkle" in the name, and my sisters had a Pineapple Upside Down Martini...they were both good, but the Pineapple Upside Down Martini was incredible!
For dessert, my sister Anna had a chocolate covered strawberry...
My sister Jenni had the Creme Brulee Mini Sampler...which consisted of White Chocolate Raspberry, Chocolate Espresso, and Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee...
My Mom had the Tiramisu...
And I had the Dark Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Buttercream filling...
After Lulus, we thought it would be fun to go to a karaoke bar...I had never been to one. We made our way to an Irish Pub...McDonough's...that did karaoke...
We were too chicken to get up and sing, and by the time we had finally gotten our never up to "perform", the wait was too long. "Sing at karaoke bar" is still on my bucket list. :0(
We went back to the hotel, got ready for bed, and I (selfishly) prayed that my mom wouldn't be up too late working. :0)
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