This is a famous cemetery, maybe because of its opulence and the fact that the rich got to be buried by the river? Well in fact, this is considered to be one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the entire U.S. Now I haven’t been to all the cemeteries in the U.S., so I will have to take Google’s word for it. But I will say it is quite pretty with all the oak trees and plants indigenous to the 1800s.

There are a lot of famous people buried there. As well as military generals, there’s poet Conrad Aiken – his poetry apparently is negative and a real Debbie Downer (God bless Rachel Dratch from SNL!), and Academy Award-winning lyricist Johnny Mercer who wrote Moon River (which we can all agree is a famous song), and his is the most visited grave in Savannah.

One grave that gets a lot of attention and is the most famous, is the grave of Little Gracie Watkins. Gracie died when she was only 6 years old. The iron gate around her tomb is often adorned with trinkets and toys left by guests of the cemetery.

Gracie was born in 1883 and moved to Savannah with her parents, as her father had been given the opportunity to manage one of the most popular hotels in Savannah, the luxurious Pulaski Hotel. From the moment they arrived, Little Gracie’s face become one of the most recognized in all of the hotel. The guests loved her, and she them. She would laugh and dance, sing and play for anyone willing to give her a moment of their time.

At six Gracie caught pneumonia, and passed just days before Easter. Her parents, obviously distraught, had a beautiful stone carving erected in Bonaventure Cemetery by famed sculptor John Waltz; it was an exact likeness of Gracie. Her parents eventually left to return to New England and are buried there, leaving poor Gracie all alone. For over 100 years now, Little Gracie has been a favourite stop for visitors. While not buried with her parents, one could argue she is not alone as everyone makes it a priority to visit her tomb and leave toys, or just say hello. I dare say, we are her family.

Some pictures of the Jewish part of the cemetery

SAVED BY THE BELL!! IN THE NICK OF TIME!! Don’t you always wonder where sayings come from?? Apparently the story goes that people were buried alive “back in the day”. So people bought the option of having bells when they bought their plot, “just in case” they were buried by accident. Charles Mills clearly believed that this could happen, as you can see his is quite elaborate. If you were buried alive, then you would ring the bell from underground and someone would hear and you would be dug up. Saved by the bell and frankly just in the nick of time!

Some random pics of the cemetery itself.

The tour was great and the cemetery was indeed beautiful. I would recommend you take it with Bonaventure Don. He is an historian and his whole family is buried here. He tells the story of the cemetery, the people, and Savannah from historical research and facts. (There are a lot of bogus tours out there.) He was great, talked fast, but great.

And the oak trees are just amazing.

A beautiful coastal island!

Sharon & I went to the lighthouse and museum to start. The lighthouse is the largest in Georgia. We climbed to the top and enjoyed the views!

We then moved on to the museum, which is also a hurricane shelter today, inside the old Fortification building. The museum was okay, but what was really interesting is that at the far end of the building a section of the Fort was purchased by someone for $600,000. He then renovated it for his home, which is now assessed at $10.5 million. It is the white part of the structure. He also apparently bought a $1.9 million home on the island so his architect could live there during the reno/build…..as one does when renovating any home.

Then off to lunch at Stingray’s for fresh grouper and fries! It was delish!

Next, the beach and pier. The Island of Tybee has 3,000 permanent residents. In the summer it swells to 25,000. Not a tourist destination at all!

I find it interesting and sad that even the beaches were at one time “whites only”. Here is another reminder of that.

We still have a few things to explore around the Savannah area, so stay tuned for more adventures!

After a trip to the Black Rifle Coffee Co. Sharon & I headed into Savannah to see what was going on. I found a parking spot by the river and we hopped out for a tour of River St.

We did some shopping at the Savannah Bee Company, purchasing a block of raw honey comb (I had no idea that it was full of protein) to go with our cheese plate that evening, Then The Black Dog Company to purchase some t-shirts, and a local artisan shop where I bought some cards. It was a lovely day for a walk and we can’t wait to come back and do the Hop On Hop Off tour.

Christmas Eve turned out to be an interesting day given the night before was pretty cold! Coldest here in about 20 years apparently. Water froze in the whole park, so we had no running water and I was a tad panicked as our water pump in the RV was also not working, so I couldn’t use onboard water from our fresh water tank. So what does an RVer do when they don’t know what to do?? You walk around the park checking to make sure you aren’t the only one without water. You then go about asking how to get water flowing again. You unhook everything and pack up and pull in the slides so you can go fill up the propane tank to run the furnace all night. You speak to the RV repair guy who is also getting propane to see how to avoid a second night of disaster. You listen to the great advice, and go to the local hardware store for supplies only to find out everyone else is doing the same thing and what you were originally looking for is nowhere to be found. So you get a huge roll of reflective bubble insulation and MacGyver your way to success !

I wrapped the water source, which is covered by more reflective insulation, and made sure the winter hose was working. I also put some in the storage unit that houses our pump and water system coming into the RV. I wrapped our filters also inside this storage unit to keep them from freezing. I turned OFF the water outside (even though it was wrapped) and power-filled the fresh water tank to make sure I had water on board. I then went to dry camping (meaning not using city water but tank water) and turned on the tank heaters and water pump. With the furnace running all night, which also keeps the floor warmer, all was good and the pump worked smoothly. VICTORY!

Christmas Day we got up walked the fur babies, had Prosecco and orange juice, and hit the hot tub !!! People thought we were crazy Canadians, but it was not THAT cold outside!

Dinner was BBQ tenderloin, lobster tails, potatoes, and mushrooms. And of course a bottle of Alamos to wash it all down. We followed this up with the movie Spirited. Overall delightful!

Boxing Day we will go to Tybee Island. An hour away, it is a beautiful coastal Island.

After Barb had taken me to the Angel Oak, I knew that I had to make sure Sharon Babcock, who was coming down to stay with me for Christmas, also had the chance to see this incredible tree. It is a 2 hour drive up north from Georgia to N Carolina; traffic was busy given it was just a couple of days before Christmas.

Sharon loved the Oak and we met a lovely gentleman painting the tree, well not actually painting ON the tree, but creating a painting of the tree. Apparently he has been doing this for 10 years. He told us that the Oak was 500 years old, even though some believe it to be 1500. He also pointed us to the best place for lunch. Below are the pics once more of the tree and a couple of our lunch.

Not a pet was stirring, not even the Cat;

The bathing suits were hung in the washroom with care,

In hopes that the sun would soon be there;

The adults were nestled all snug on the couch,

Having bevvies and appies while watching the grouch. (yes Grinch but it didn’t rhyme with couch)

Sharon in her woollies, oh what a sight,

We’d just settled down, for the night,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, rolled up the blinds and tripped on the trash.

The moon on the breast of the still rain flow, gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a travelling food truck, serving what is unclear,

With quite a handsome driver, so lively and slick, I knew in a moment it must be MY St. Nick. My eyes were a wonder at this vision below, and named off his wares as best that I know.

So Dashing, a Dancer, a Prancer, I’m clearly a Vixen! Oh cometh oh Cupid, my Donner oh Blitzen! (OK I will settle down now)

His eyes—how they twinkled! His dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, soon gave me to know I had JOY to spread.

So with that in mind, thinking of you this Christmas, may 2023 be filled with richness.

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a fabulous 2023!!

You know you are blessed with great friends when it feels like just yesterday when you last saw them, vs 4-6 years ago.

I had the pleasure of heading off to Hilton Head South Carolina on Sunday for an overnight visit with two old BMO colleagues and their spouses. The only friends missing were Barb, who went back to Toronto for Christmas, and Elaine, who decided to move to Scotland 14 months ago. Despite the missing two, we did enjoy the great company, great food, and the great conversations with many many laughing fits!

The view of Caroline & Geoff’s backyard and VERY short walk to the beach. Incredible

The food and atmosphere

And the friends enjoying life

Anar & her husband Karim made their way back to Toronto for Christmas on Monday and I headed back to Savannah. I can’t wait to see all these friends again. Caroline & Geoff I will be seeing soon, as they are only an hour away. Anar & Karim I will see when they make their way back down to Florida in the New Year. Cheers to the NEXT TIME we will be together!!

Or also known as Barb’s last day here. BOO! Taco Tuesday turned out to be a real nice surprise. Not that it was Taco Tuesday, which was posted on the activity sheet, but that the taco shells were homemade! We both had a taco salad and the homemade taco bowl was exceptional! YAY!

We had a lazy day at the pool and Barb was able to spend quality time in the lazy river. Beautiful sunset to boot! Tomorrow we are off to the airport for Barb to fly home and for Lori to pick up a rental car for the next month.

We are really liking this RV park where we plan to be for 6 weeks from the beginning of December right through to mid January. It has a lazy river, pool, hot tubs, gym, tennis court, volleyball court, bocci court, and steam room. It also has a snack bar at the pool and a nice restaurant at the lake. It is large enough that we can bike ride around the park to get some great exercise. A favourite of ours at the Lakeside restaurant are the crocodile bites. How appropriate of an appetizer in the Lowcountry. Yum!

There is also a great little spot a few kilometers away that we can bike to. It’s called Nine Line Apparel and Black Rifle Coffee Shop. While the browsing is fun and the coffee good, the real treat are the food trucks that show up around lunch hour for the staff that work in the warehouse behind the shop. We have eaten lunch at the food trucks several times and really enjoyed it.

Creek Fire RV Ranch is one of the nicest RV parks we have stayed at so far in our journeys. The front office staff are friendly and told us about a local pizza shop that delivers here. Uh yah…we had to try it! Fabulous!

We pretty much have these water sports to ourselves when it is below 20C. In fact, the first day when we were the only ones in the pool, people kept walking by and asking us about the water temperature, which seemed sensible to us. What we discovered the next day, was that people were chatting about us being in the pool as it was only 15C outside…….when someone asked us where we were from, and we stated we were from Toronto……they started telling people walking by that it was the Canadians that were in the pool! Too funny really. They really do think it is cold up north and therefore we can withstand the high teens when outdoors.

Yesterday was a great day of relaxation. We went to a spa for a facial and massage. Facial, we all know what that is, but the massage was new to us. It was called Ashiatsu, which is a barefoot massage. It utilizes the body weight of the therapist and feet. There are two bars hanging from the ceiling that the therapist hangs onto in order to manage the pressure/weight of her body. In fact we couldn’t really tell if she was using her feet vs her hands which is incredible. While we agreed that we wouldn’t do it again, we also agreed it was a good experience and something different.

We then walked to a great BBQ place JIM’N NICK’S for lunch. The BBQ joint doesn’t utilize any freezers, so everything is freshly made daily. The smoked pork and chicken were great!

We then headed to the grocery store, via a liquor store which was next door. Lori was able to pick up her fave gin for less than in Canada, and the grocery store had one of our favourite wines – Malbec Alamos for $8! Next week they have an extra 20% off a case…we won’t be in S Carolina by then, but maybe Georgia will have the case sale.

Back to walk Winston with Safiya in her backpack, and visit the neighbours to see what they did for the day. Then we packed up the outside, given we knew it was going to rain, and had a nice night indoors. Some final pics of the RV park.

Tomorrow we are off to Creek Fire RV Resort in Savannah Georgia where Lori will stay for the next 2 months as Barb flies back home for 6-8 weeks for Christmas and her daughter Vanessa’s baby shower.

Here are some early morning views of our RV campground on our last day. Thanks to Sue Kelley for taking these beauties!

Confusing? Well our new friends Sue and Paul Kelley from Gravenhurst ON and who we met at the pool in Hardeeville, asked us to join them in Savannah to do the Hop On Hop Off tour. We decided that would be a great idea as it would help us see some of the city in their car. Our next RV park we are going to is on the outskirts of Savannah and this feels like a leg up on what else we might want to tour.

The trolley had 15 stops. We will have to do this again to capture everything, but here is a sample of Savannah Georgia.

We also learned of the movies that had been filmed here, so had to take a couple of pics of some famous spots.

The Lady Chablis is also known as The Grand Empress and The Doll. She really became famous when Clint Eastwood was looking for a Lady Chablis for his movie, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. When Clint met Lady Chablis, she apparently told him to look no further, that he had to use the REAL Lady Chablis in his movie. And that was that, she got the part and frankly was incredible; we especially loved her famous catchphrase in the movie, “Two tears in a bucket, motherfuck it”. Through the exposure of this movie, she became one of the first trans performers to be introduced to a wide audience.

The waving girl deserves some dialogue. The romantic tale of this girl is that she met a sailor and fell in love. He had to leave port but vowed to come back to her. So each day she greeted the ships with a wave hoping her love would be on the ship returning. She did this every morning and every night for 44 years; her love never returned. When she passed, it is said that thousands of sailors came to her funeral. They knew her only as the waving girl.

The historical story: Florence Martus created a identity for herself by the simple act of waving at incoming ships entering the port of Savannah Georgia. Between 1887 and 1931, Martus would wave a handkerchief or lantern, depending on the time of day, to every single passing sailor and ship. As a young girl she became fascinated by the ships and began waving her handkerchief at them as they passed by. Sailors quickly took notice and returned her gesture with a simple wave from the ship. Regardless of the day/time Martus would wave either a towel during the day, or a lantern at night. Through the years she never stopped, continuing this practice for 44 years. Martus never missed a single ship. Sailors began to respond with three blasts of their whistle, acknowledging Martus every time. Ships looked out for Martus as they approached the port, taking care to ensure they acknowledged her. She became quite the talk of the town amongst the sailors. Despite the sailors’ differences, they could always find common ground when talking about “the waving girl” who welcomed them in on their way into port. Martus passed away in 1943 at 75 and her legacy continued to live on through the stories of many sailors. While only a few people ever met her, thousands knew her from a distance, and that was enough to make an impact on them. Just the simple action of waving to passersby enchanted sailors, and her story was told worldwide.

Amazing what an act of kindness can do.