Midafternoon in the Garden of Good and Evil

The main activity for today was a walking tour of Savannah. We had a free morning before the tour, so we started by walking along the Savannah Riverfront.

The riverfront is mostly filled with bars and tourist shops that didn't interest us. The exception was Savannah's Candy Kitchen, which features old-time candies like pralines and divinity. Amy was eager to try their divinity to compare with what she made, but we learned that they only sell divinity online. We got a turtle and a praline, but both were not as good as what we make. A few steps away, we found River City Sweets, which did have two kinds of divinity available, along with a taste of the pralines. None was great, but we took away some inspiration for our own candy making.

Next, we walked up a steep stone staircase towards the North Historic District. At the top of the stairs was a sign warning that the old steps were at your own risk. Too little, too late. We walked towards the Prohibition Museum, but saw this sign:

This made us decide to wait for tomorrow to visit the museum; we'll report back afterwards. It was also confusing since we learned that it's legal to carry an open drink around the Historic District of Savannah. Meantime, the woman who sold us the tickets is named Bunny, which got Greg talking about his (late) Grandma Bunny. Good memories.

In the afternoon, we took our Savannah walking tour. Greg was careful to sign up for an authentic tour led by a historian, who spent some time debunking Savannah myths. We learned about the battles during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. More interesting was how Savannah is a planned city, with wards (neighborhoods) organized with a group of homes surrounding a small park. This explains why Savannah has a grid of roads with small parks every few blocks. At the final park, we saw the Mercer-Williams House. Amy recognized it immediately because she decided to re-read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil for the trip, while Greg recognized it after the guide started to explain the story. What we didn't remember is that the book is based on a true story!