So now that we're all together it's time to go sightseeing.
Mami, Carmen and me head out of the hotel on Liberty Street and start walking. Do we know where we are going? Oh heck no. Despite the fact that both
Mami and Carmen have been to Savannah before we have absolutely no idea where we are in comparison to where we would like to be and where we would like to be is well... somewhere fun. Can you tell the
Palacios women are not
pre-planners? Yes, we all come from the
Que sera,
sera club. Doris Day would be so proud.
So we're walking along and we see a small crowd lined up on the street. At first, we walk past the crowd, but then a tiny spark lights up in one of our brains and one of us (okay, it was Carmen) decides to ask the crowd what they are waiting for. "The bus," answers one woman. A bus!
Genius. We find out the bus is free (good) and that it will take you all around the historic district (even better.) We go by some lovely places that I cannot recall at the moment because we get off at River street and all I can say is: the $20 store.
Let me tell you, if you ever go to Savannah, you HAVE to go to this store. It's fabulous. We all bought rubber watches. I also bought 3 scarves and 2 pairs of sandals all for under $20 each (hence the store's name). Think of the dollar store but add nineteen dollars more. I know the salesgirl thought we were crazy because we kept coming back all night long because the bargains there are just too good to pass up and the more you think about them, the more you must have them.
All this shopping made us hungry and we go off in search of food. But before we eat we decide to buy tickets for the
Ghost Tour. I've never been on a ghost tour. I bought tickets to one in Reno when the
RWA conference was held there a few years back, but it was rained out and I was majorly bummed. It appears that ghost tours and I are not meant to be. The woman at the ghost tour booth was... well, I'm not sure what she was.
Mami is convinced she has smoked one marijuana joint too much. Carmen thinks she's just daffy and I'm almost of the belief that she didn't really exist we just imagined her (kind of like a ghost herself). After about 15 minutes of trying to buy tickets and her fumbling and ruffling pages she never could get us booked and we gave up, disappointed, and went to
The Shrimp Factory where a couple of margaritas and a bloody
mary later, we felt much better. Of course I also felt much much better after eating my shrimp and grits. It was absolutely delicious.
After dinner, we continued our walk/shopping spree along River Street. If you are a fan of Paula Deen then you are in luck, because just about every store carries her stuff, which includes all the various cookbooks and cooking paraphernalia you can imagine. The other big tourist seller is anything that has to do with the "book" or the "movie", which is Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. More on that in the next post...
Eventually, we get tired of the shopping and we head back to our hotel, walking along Bull Street, which is packed with people. The night is beautiful. The weather is cool and crisp and the atmosphere is quaint. The one tiny drawback is the smell, which is not so crisp and quaint. This is because the streets of the historic district smell like horse urine. There are more horse drawn carriages than there are cars. I didn't mind the smell though, because it's all so very lovely. We get to our room, where we collapse on our beds and get ready for a good nights sleep because we have lots of sight seeing to do tomorrow.
My one regret of the night? I should have bought candy at the Savannah Candy Kitchen, where the pralines and the salt water taffy abound. It was one of the cases where I thought we'd be back and I could buy at my leisure. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. Lesson learned. Live in the moment!
There's two new books out this week from fellow GBC authors! The cool thing is that there's something for everyone in the house here.
