Savannah, Georgia

As a tourist, there are many ways of seeing the historic area of Savannah. You can take a trolley, a horse-drawn carriage, a bike-drawn rickshaw, or a slow ride. We chose to take a 90 minute guided walking tour. We choose the Free Savannah Walking tour for which you don't pay anything up front, but are expected to give a good tip at the end since the guides work for tips only. 

This seemed like a good deal, and it was. Our guide, Dan, did a very good job. Our group was about 20 people. You do have to reserve a place ahead, but that was easy online.

Without taking the tour we would not have discovered why the fountains were spouting red water. We asked a number of people, and nobody knew. Of course they were all other tourists!

Dan said he thought it was because one of the city colleges was having a "paint the city scarlet" weekend.  That sounded reasonable.

It was a very informative tour. We learned lots about the history and early development of the city. Savannah has many squares, each with its own centerpiece and significance. When the city was laid out, these squares provided a place for communal ovens, wells and other such things. They now provide shaded park places. 

I spent my time on the walking tour listening, rather than trying to find the best photo opportunities. You just have to go there to see each of the sites.

On Sunday we went to Wormsloe, a plantation near Savannah. The entrance drive is edged by over 400 massive live oak trees that were planted in the 1890s to celebrate the birth of Wymberley Wormsloe DeRenne by his father. They are the image of what I think of "Southern Plantations," beautiful.

Although we could not tour the house, since descendants of the original owners still live there, we enjoyed walking the grounds. Almost all of the land that had been cleared for agricultural use has reverted back to forest. 

There are some ruins of the first structure, and just beyond them, the path leads to the edge of the swampy edge of the river. We learned that this was a very important location because it was the only passage to Savannah that the invading Spanish from Florida might use.

Wormsloe Plantation has been used for the filming of many movies including "Roots."

Th weather was pleasantly cool, and our walk was probably less than a mile.

OK, fellow Americans, do you know what this is?

It is a wicket, used in the game of Cricket. Cricket was a popular game during the colonial period. That's all I know about the game.

On Monday we started out intending to go back to the historic district and exploring a few places in more depth, but after stopping at the park office, where I picked up a brochure for "Tybee Island Marine Science Center." It looked interesting, so we headed that way instead.

On the way we saw the signs for Fort Pulaski. Since Craig graduated from Pulaski High School in Milwaukee, it was a no brainer to make the turn and go to see it.
 

Craig with one of the big guns

We have been to a number of forts on our RV adventure, and I have to say this was the best one we have seen. It was very well preserved (or restored), and had many artifacts displayed in interesting "as they were" ways. 

And whats in here?

Each time we go thru a place like this, it adds to our understanding of our nation's past. For me, it's as if I can feel history. As we slowly wander across the country, places that were once just names on a map are becoming real to me. I learned about American History in school, now I'm seeing where it actually happened.

We did make it to Tybee Island, but the science center was a big disappointment. But when we walked out onto the pier area, we got a look at the beach. Lots of people were enjoying the sun and the very pleasant day. For us, it was our first look at the Atlantic Ocean north of Florida.

We finished our day by stopping at Wiley's BBQ and picking up some take-out ribs for dinner back at the Alfa.

Yumm!

Next stop Charleston, South Carolina

  

Santa Fe New Mexico

Saturday morning we decided to drive up to Santa Fe, New Mexico, by way of Albuquerque. A new air filter for the Alfa was on our list of must do's. Craig changed it the last time about two years ago, and it was not an easy job for him. The air filter is a big cylinder that is about 24 inches long. I know Karen's Steve can do a brake job in a parking lot, but most RV parks discourage DYI on-site repair work. So we decided to take the easy way and have it done at the Albuquerque Freightliner shop. We called ahead, drove in, and they did the job while we went to lunch and then waited in the lounge for a little while.

I had not made any reservations in Santa Fe, so as we headed that way I called several RV parks looking for a spot. Since it was Memorial Day weekend they were all full!  No problem. One of my new resource books is Casino Camping. I had checked it a few days earlier and saw there were a couple of casinos near Santa Fe where we could overnight.

We parked at the Camel Rock Casino on US-84/285, where we were the only RV in a large sandy lot, and had a peaceful night. 

Personally, I don't mind an overnight at a casino, but we wanted to spend several days in Santa Fe and I am not comfortable boondocking and leaving the rig all day.  It was OK in Los Algodones because we were only there for a day and there were a lot of other RVs there too. But at this casino we were away from the building, just off the freeway, and our Verizon reception was weak.

So, Sunday I got back on the phone and found a regular RV park that had a spot for us. We drove over to the Santa Fe Skies RV Park, got settled and went to downtown Santa Fe for the rest of the day. 

We wandered thru several galleries and gift shops. The downtown area is a big step up from many of the "gift shop and tee shirt store rows" in some of the other places we have been. Much of the artwork was original and priced in the thousands. 

This quartz and stone sculpture was at least six feet tall.

Even though we had a tourist map of the old town area, we felt a bit lost and overwhelmed. We were happy to find an information desk at the  Palace of Governors and picked up information about the guided walking tour offered every morning by a POG volunteer.

The fact that it rained overnight and was quite cool worked in our favor, because instead of the usual group size, there were only two others wanting to go on our tour, which lasted over two hours and cost a reasonable $10 each. 

I highly recommend this type of guided tour. They are often much better than commercial tours on busses where the guide rattles off a canned patter. 

Our guide told us a great deal about the history of Santa Fe as it is shown in the existing architecture.  

Most of the buildings, and homes all around, are of the Santa Fe pueblo style. They are all stucco, painted in one of 40 approved adobe colors.

Our tour started at the Palace of the Governors and the main Plaza.

We were taken into a typical court yard that is now a shop that sold colorful yard sculptures.

Another courtyard was a wildly growing garden.

As the walk progressed we hardly noticed the sun was coming out and the streets were getting more crowded. 




Our guide pointed out several places we might want to come back to on our own. We learned a lot and enjoyed it very much.

After the tour we took a break for coffee at a charming little restaurant, and then went to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. 

This was one of Craig's favorite pictures of Georgia and a friend.  

What a smile!

On the way back to our car we visited a few more galleries and went into the Saint Francis Basilica Cathedral. A typical, but beautiful old church. 
 
We were both very happy to go home to the RV at the end of the day. I love having my own bed to sleep in.

One of the things I noticed all over Santa Fe was the amazing lack of graffiti. All those stucco walls and fences and not a single tag to be seen.  Come to think of it, there were no beggars at the intersections, or homeless pushing shopping carts either. 

Where are they?

Urban Hiking in Los Angles

Not all good hikes are in parks or on beaches. 

On Tuesday we decided to take a self-guided walking tour of downtown LA. I had found information thru the Los Angeles Conservancy on the internet before we left.  I was under the impression that we could get an audio app on Craig's phone, but when we got there it turned out the app was only for iPhones, not Android phones.  However we were able to find the Conservancy office, and they were nice enough to print out a couple of PDFs for us.  

A view of downtown LA from the top of city hall

For many years we have been driving thru LA on I-5 as we went down to visit our daughter in San Diego.  We have been to some of the attractions, including Disneyland, the movie studios, the LaBrea tar pits, and the Getty Center, but we have never been to the downtown area.

Looking up

Usually, when in a busy downtown area, I concentrate on the street view: the stores, the people, and the traffic.  On this day we were taking our time and really looking at the buildings. It is amazing what you can see if you look above the store fronts!

Fine Arts Building lobby

Using the walking tour information, we were able to find some truly amazing interiors. The Fine Arts Building  features a two-story Spanish Renaissance "courtyard" lobby with a galleried mezzanine. It felt like a church.

Roosevelt Building elevator

This elaborate elevator door in the Roosevelt building lobby is surrounded by beautiful marble walls. 

St. Vincent Court

Tucked into an alley between towering skyscrapers is a fun little area called St. Vincent Court.  If we hadn't had a bit to eat earlier, we would have stopped for something here.

An architectural detail over an entry way

Some of the beautiful architectural details were not on the Conservancy list we had in hand.  

I have not included our pictures of all the old theatre marquees on Broadway. None of them seem to have been maintained or restored, and they all looked very sad.

Interior of the Bradbury building

Sometimes pictures just cannot do justice to the visual richness of a space.  The wood, skylight, wrought iron railings and open elevators of the Bradbury building were true "eye candy". 

View from City Hall

On the advice from a nice lady on the street that noticed us taking pictures, we went to the top (27th floor) of city hall.  There we had panoramic views of  slightly smoggy city landscape. If any of you were "General Hospital" fans, the hospital seen in the distance of this picture was the building used in the opening.

My pedometer registered a bit over five miles. It started to get a bit hot in the afternoon and I was happy to find this lovely bit of shade to relax in.

Our final stop was at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, but we took so many pictures there that I've decided it deserves a separate post.

With that I leave you with a couple of  signs we noticed on our walk!