Coastal Georgia’s Tybee Island and Fort Pulaski [March 13-18, 2018]

Tybee Island Light Station

Fifteen miles East of Savannah is Tybee Island, once known as Savannah Beach.  This 3-mile long barrier island has a wide sand beach, many yummy restaurants (featuring local shrimp), a lighthouse, a civil war fort, hotels, vacation homes and one campground.  We called the campground a few days in advance hoping to reserve a spot for 5 nights but were told that they only had a campsite for us for the first two nights.  They were booked up for the weekend because of the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Savannah AND they had closed the waiting list at 30 names.  As luck would have it, we arrived just after they had received a cancellation, and had exhausted their waiting list.  So, we were able to stay for five nights after all.  Kismet!

The Shriners meeting hall built atop a battery

Standing atop another battery

The ocean view from on top of the battery

The campground is located on the North end of the island, just a few blocks walk from the ocean beach in one direction, and a few blocks walk in another direction to the beach along the Savannah River at the end of the island.  This strategic entrance to the Port of Savannah was fortified by massive concrete batteries on both the river and the ocean sides, built starting in the 1890’s.  Some of the batteries have homes built on the top of them.  The Shriners meet in a building perched atop one as well.  The Tybee Island Historical Society has a museum inside another one.  You pass between two of these batteries to walk through to the beach.  There is no missing them.

The light station compound

Near the batteries is the Tybee Light Station, which at one time employed 3 lightkeepers and provided housing for them and their families.  Initially, you could only access the island by boat, then by train and finally by car.  It must have been a fairly isolated existence, but oral histories with surviving lightkeepers children tell of going crabbing every day.  Care of the lighthouse passed to the army and then the coast guard, so the lightkeepers homes were kept intact.  They have been lovingly restored and are open to the public.  Sadly, we were unable to climb to the top of the lighthouse, it was closed for restoration work while we were there.

Quirky and fun

Yum

Shrimp and  BBQ food truck

Sunset from Coco's

There is no shortage of places to eat on Tybee.  At Leslie’s recommendation, we started at The Crab Shack.  This quirky seafood joint has holes in the center of the tables with trash cans beneath for your refuse.  While we were there a crazy, festive Junkanoo band from the Bahama’s paraded through with their homemade drums, tubas, trumpets, whistles and cowbells.  So much fun!  Another spot was a glorified shrimp and barbecue food truck with the sign, “Friends don’t let friends eat imported shrimp.”  Coco’s, on the western side of the island, has delicious shrimp and lovely sunsets over the salt marsh separating Tybee and other islands from the mainland.  The shrimp boats that supply all of this delectable shrimp to the island dock next to Coco’s.  The restaurant has a sign on that dock that says, “We get our shrimp from here.”

Fort Pulaski

Surrounded by a moat and salt marsh

Yes, they have cannon

Between Tybee and Savannah is Fort Pulaski (happy 102^nd birthday NPS) on marshy Cockspur Island.  This masonry fort was built after the war of 1812 as part of a system of forts created for coastal defense.  Pilings were driven into the mud, and soil was brought in to provide a firm foundation for the huge brick fort.  In 1861 at the beginning the Civil War, it was seized by the Confederacy.  In the winter of 1862, Union forces set up batteries on Tybee Island, less than a mile away.  Using experimental rifled cannons, they were able to tear through the Fort’s brick walls.  This was the first time that cannons could be used with such accuracy and force from so far away, and the last time these masonry forts were considered impregnable.  

The patched southeast corner and dents from cannon balls

A cannon ball remains, it is at the top left part of the "7" shaped dent in the picture above

 Since the Union forces knew how the fort was constructed, they targeted the southeast angle of the fort, boring a hole that would give them a clear shot to the powder magazine across the interior of the fort.  After 30 hours of bombardment, the Confederate militia inside the fort surrendered.  Within a week, Union forces had repaired the hole (with a different color brick).  As you walk around the outside of the fort, you can see the patch, as well as big dents left in the fort walls, one with a cannonball still resting inside it.  As time progressed, the fort fell into disrepair and then was later restored by the CCC. 

The demi-lune

Crossing the moat on to the demi-lune

The huge earthen work demi-lune area at the front of the fort (inside the moat and outside the walls) was originally used for underground storage of supplies and munitions.  During a recent tornado, Park Rangers and visitors sheltered inside the passageways while the roof was blown off the more recently built Visitors Center next door. 

Tybee Island is a wonderful vacation spot.  The only thing that keeps it from being perfect is that dogs are not allowed on the beach - ever.  Regardless, we enjoyed what it had to offer.  On our last beach walk, we saw dolphins swimming just off shore.  Perfect!

Russ' yacht berthed at the Crab Shack

We returned home to a rare snow storm and an even rarer family reunion of many of Dana's cousins.  A good reason to leave paradise. 

Sunrise on Tybee Island

Stately Savannah GA – [March 14-15, 2018]

 We only had a week or so between other commitments, so we started looking for a spot that was sandy, salty, not too far away, and warmer than home.  After a weekend visit with Leslie, Natalie, and little Asher, we headed to Savannah and Tybee Island.  What a good choice!

Putting on the Green for St. Patrick's Day

We started our 5 day stay with two days in Savannah.  The city was gearing up for the 2^nd largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the US (3^rd largest in the world), or as one resident termed it, “The worlds largest outdoor cocktail party.”  We decided to enjoy the town before it got too rowdy – though we did find one fountain spouting green water.

A lovely square

Georgia was the last of the 13 colonies to be settled, and Savannah was the original settlement in 1773.  It was intended to be a strategic buffer between Spanish Florida and the English Carolinas.  Gen. James Oglethorpe, the expedition leader, decided to lay the city out around 24 squares.  Each square had lots designated for houses on 3 of the sides, and a civic building or a church on the 4^th side.  The 4^th side also originally had communal cooking areas away from the timber (flammable) houses around the rest of the square.  22 of the squares remain today, and they are lovely.  Many have statues.  They all have lovely plantings, and benches for people to sit and enjoy the lovely oasis of nature, stately live oak trees draped in Spanish Moss, and (for most squares) the beautiful old homes that remain today.  The abundant azaleas were in full bloom, and absolutely gorgeous.  The squares also slow traffic, as cars travel around them in a counterclockwise direction.

Pretty azaleas in another square

There are so many things to see and learn.  Union General William Tecumseh Sherman finished his trail of destruction across Georgia in Savannah, presenting it as a gift to President Lincoln on Christmas Day 1864.  Savannah was the home of Juliette Gordon Low and the Girl Scouts.  One of the earliest urban restoration and historic preservation movements started in Savannah in the 1950s. 

Wrought iron on your home displayed your wealth - even in fish shaped down spouts

We have so many great pictures and memories, so here we go…

Davenport House

Davenport House is a lovely old home built in 1820.  In 1955, it was slated for demolition as the city tried to revive the derelict downtown area.  A group of 7 women recognized that beautiful buildings and a good part of Savannah’s history would be lost to the wrecking ball.  They started the Historic Savannah Foundation, restored Davenport House and fueled a revival of the historic downtown district not only in Savannah but in other cities as well.

Kehoe House

The Kehoe House is now a swanky B&B.  It’s original owners built it of iron and brick; they owned an iron foundry.  It was empty and almost ruined when Joe Namath bought it with the idea of making it a pub.  The area was not zoned for commercial use, so the city fathers pushed back and said no.  Namath sold the unrestored house that he had purchased for $90K for $200K.  Later the restored building was sold for $5M.  The property values of restored historic Savannah have sky rocketed.

Green Meldrim House - Gen. Sherman's Headquarters

The owner of the beautiful Green-Meldrim House offered his home to Gen. Sherman to use as his headquarters while the Union Army occupied Savannah.  Meldrim did not want his fellow Savannahans to have to endure the embarrassment of housing the enemy.  Sherman got not only the house, but a small fortune in cotton housed in Meldrim’s warehouse.

Factors Walk - note the ballast stones paving the road, and the walkways from the top of the cliff into the warehouses

Savannah was the center of cotton export in the early 19^th century.  Down on the river front, warehouses once used to store cotton have been turned into bars, restaurants and shops.  The town is built on a bluff above the river front, so the 19^th century factors, or sales agents, built wrought iron walkways from the top of the bluff across to an upper story of the warehouses.  Below the walkways of what is today known as the Factors Walk are roads paved with rounded ballast stones from the holds of ships coming to take cotton to the rest of the world.

Waving Girl statue looks out to the river

Another view

Also down on the river front is the Waving Girl Statue, depicting Florence Martus as a young girl.  Martus waved to every ship that came into and left Savannah harbor for 44 years between 1887 and 1931.  She waved a handkerchief by day and a lantern by night as the unofficial greeter of the ships.

Juliette Gordon Low's birthplace

Where Juliette Low lived when she organized the Girl Scouts

The first meeting place and headquarters of the Girl Scouts

Juliette Gordon Low’s birthplace is open to the public, as is the home she shared with her husband William Low and where she founded the Girl Scouts.  The first Girl Scout meetings were in the carriage house behind her home, as was the first headquarters of GSA.

Live oak tree draped in Spanish Moss

Savannah was gusty breezy and a bit chilly.  It is a stately and lovely city that recognizes and celebrates its historic heritage.  We enjoyed visiting, even the fountain with the green water!

The fountain in lovely Forsyth Park, note the green water...