Southern Hospitality

Every summer, I make my annual pil­grimage to Savannah, GA. Some­thing about this city just makes me feel at home. I am not sure if it is the archi­tec­ture, cul­ture, art, his­tory or charm, but I absolutely LOVE this town! Truth be told, it prob­ably helps that it is the one day I escape from my family beach vaca­tion and spend time all alone, shop­ping and sightseeing.

Savannah, while sim­ilar to New Orleans in archi­tec­ture, is true southern charm and a mecca for sweet tea. Wide brick streets, squares, court­yards, moss cov­ered cen­tury old oak trees, ornate archi­tec­ture and incred­ible Amer­ican his­tory. Savannah has been the loca­tion of choice for numerous films including, but not lim­ited to, Mid­night in the Garden of Good and Evil and For­rest Gump.

My favorite stops include the Forsyth Park Foun­tain, Madison Square, The Olde Pink House (food is sooo yummy) and the incred­ible Noble Hardee Man­sion. The Noble Hardee Man­sion is one of the last unre­stored man­sions in Savannah and it is home to a most incred­ible antique store. I love to tour around the inside of the house, with peeling plaster, creaking floors and vines that are growing in through the win­dows. This house is one of those that is referred to as having good bones, reminding me of the book, Good Bones & Great Pieces by Suzanne and Lauren McGrath. There are incred­ible rooms on every level and you can almost feel the pres­ence of those that lived in the house many, many years ago. It would be amazing to see this house restored to its former glory, but until then I will con­tinue to make my annual migra­tion and revel in its his­tory and charm.

I’m trading in my mason jar of sweet tea for cock­tail glasses and a zinc trough bev­erage con­tainer and heading back to Tampa. So until next year, as always Savannah, the plea­sure was all mine.