Dawn Atkins Stanford Savannah Tour Company, Inc

In the past few years, I have reconnected with some childhood friends through Facebook.  Some of them are folks that I went to school with in 2nd-7th grade, when I attended Chickahominy Academy. This was a school that our parents started in the year that Jimmy was in 4th grade and I was in 2nd. The first two years of the school, it met at Rivers Edge Plantation over on the James River in Charles City County. They then built a school, I think it may have been barely into Henrico County. Jimmy and I both went there until we completed 7th grade and then each of us transferred to York Academy.

The group of folks who started out in that plantation house have some shared memories that make us close, even though it has been years since we've been together.  One of those folks was Dawn Atkins.

I let her know that we would be coming to Savannah, and asked her recommendation between a few parks - I'll do another post on how beautiful the park is where we're staying. But, she also offered to provide us with a "tour from someone who moved here and has come to love Savannah as home." WOW - what a tour!

The first place she took us was Isle of Hope - the street right along the waters edge is just breathtaking - no pictures to do it justice - suffice it to say that you need to take La Roche Avenue to W Bluff Drive and take Bluff all the way around to the end at some point when you visit Savannah - the water to the left and the houses to the right are gorgeous.

Then we made a quick stop at Wormsloe - Unfortunately we didn't see the sign telling us not to take a picture of the trees until I had already taken it -- so this is an illegal picture.... uh oh!  (I may need to join the witness protection program with Marty (Carl) and Irene (Mary) -- see "Cousins" post).

Wormsloe State Historic Site

 We then went into "Majestic Oaks" - and wow was its oak majestic! I think it took up a whole suburban lot. It reminded me of Banyan treens in Hawaii.

On Majestic Oaks Circle

On Majestic Oaks Circle

Then we got to visit with Dawn and Kelly's daughter, Savannah, at the best bakery in Savannah.  We got treats to go and had them after we got back to our motorhome in the evening - YUM!

We drove down Bull Street, allowing us to enjoy many of the squares in the city - so beautiful. We ended up on River Street for lunch. We found parking on one of the side alleys, and walked to Spanky's -- home of the original chicken fingers - for lunch. Another YUM! We saw some of the tugboats from the company that Kelly works for on the river while we were at lunch.

Huge yacht at the Marriott across the river

One of our neighbors at the campground had told us that the cobblestones in Savannah were from the ballast that British ships used when coming over to the US before the revolution - the ballast was thrown out on US shores so cotton could be carried back. The colonists used it for paving; the British wanted to tax them for recycling the trash.... another reason for the American revolution (it was over tea and recycling....).

Grade school friends!