Discovering Savannah Part 1

Neither Beth or I knew a whole lot about Savannah. All I knew was that it was hot, very hot, and that a minor league baseball team played there. It doesn't seem all that big, but suprisingly enough, has a population of roughly 136,000 people. Most of that is due to the Savannah College of Art and Design (10,000+), and Savannah State University (3,200...ok, not as much of an impact as expected). Maybe it's the tourism. For some reason, I had no idea that Savannah was such a popular tourist destination. Then, during a tour, found out that Savannah hosts the second largest St. Patrick Day's Parade in the nation (second only to New York, of course), is the birthplace of the girlscouts - and all obesity that goes along with that -, is the home of a somewhat famous artist named Thomas Kincaid, and is the adopted home of famous chef Paula Deen.

That was all pretty interesting to me. Then, I found out the actual history behind Savannah. A city founded in 1733, rich in history and culture. Built on 24 squares, 22 of which still exists, and all boast of monuments, fountains and beautiful oak trees draped with spanish moss. Here, for your enjoyment, hopefully, are just a few of the pictures from our first excursion to this great city:

Home of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the girl scouts. Curse her and her tasty cookies!!

The capitol building, with it's 23 karat dome. I know, it's not the capitol anymore, but they 
sincerely hope it will be again.

The bronze statue commemorating the yachting events held there in 1996

Just another of the ways that you can see Savannah, but this one comes with a 20 minute bath and cool down period in between each tour

The Pirate House, still intact and has a lovely restaurant and gift shop inhabiting it now. I didn't see any pirates, unfortunately.

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, built in 1874. My favorite picture so far. There are plenty more to come, though, so it might not be my favorite for long.
Northerners need to know #1: the dual winding staircase going up to the entrance of the house is called the  open arms of the south