Oasis of the Seas Pre-Trip Report - 2 July 2016

[Cruise Envy]

Oh my. So glad your family made the plane. One of my top rules for travel is once everyone (and thing) is in the car, we show each other our 1) identity documents, 2) our tickets, and 3) our money. Then at least we know we started the trip with it. Everyone laughs at me... until they read a story like this!

 

Keep it coming!

[SPhillips]

So glad your parents made it! Can't wait to read the rest :)

[lufree]

Following siunds like a fun review. Looking forward to the rest:)

[FLKerry]

I am loving the action-packed review so far! We go on our back to back Oasis cruise next May!

[ozscot01]

Following! Just FYI my morning cuppa went cold while I waited to see if your parents made the flight!

[orkaren]

We are now 24 hours out and the flight gods have smiled upon us. It’s been a very long time since I received a very early boarding pass on a Southwest Airlines flight. I am the guy that won’t pay for early boarding but will get up at the exact 24 hour window to check in for the best possible boarding pass for a non-upgrade passenger.

 

Today’s result A29, 30, 31, and 32

 

If you don’t fly Southwest none of that will make any sense so let me briefly bring you up to speed. Southwest does’t sell assigned seats. This means once you board the plane you just pick the seat that you want of the available seats on the plane. This means the later you board the more likely you are to be squeezed between a sumo wrestler and a big biker (with a mom tattoo on his forearm) in the dreaded middle seat. And don’t get me started on the overhead bin space. Hint - Storage space becomes non-existent after about half the passengers have boarded.

 

Anyway - Southwest boards in this order:

A1 - A15 - These are business select customers or frequent flyers with some level of status. Us normal folk will never see one of these boarding numbers.

A16 - A30 - The rest of the frequent flyers and Early Bird Check customers normally take up these spots.

- I believe it’s around about here they do family boarding or assisted boarding for young families or disabled customers.

A30 -A60 - Normal low life’s

B1 - B30 - Almost normal low life’s

B31 - B60 - How did this happen to us but at least we’re not in the C boarding group

C1 - C30 - Look at all the low life's ahead of us who paid too much just to board the plane.

C31 - C60 - First time flyers who have no idea that they are going to spend the next 3 hours cuddling with a sumo and a biker with arm rest issues.

Finally - Last minute arrivals - These are normally frequent flyers who thought Southwest wouldn’t let anyone board until they showed up. “But I am supposed to board First! Why are all those low life's already on MY plane!”

 

I have a friend who was a gate agent for Southwest for 37 years (Just retired a couple of weeks ago) That last statement about last minute arrivals would be funny if it wasn’t true. He has really good stories about the insane things passengers will say or do. He should write a book. I am sure it would make for a great read while sitting in the terminal at the airport.

 

 

Wow - I typed all that just to show you how special it is to get an A29 - A32 set of boarding passes. Basically all it means is that I’m the only idiot on this flight willing to get up ridiculously early…. two days in a row!

 

 

On the Docket for today -

 

My last day of work, gather everyone’s luggage and check the weight, re-distribute as necessary, double check girls carry ons for contraband, take the dog to friends house, and try to get a few hours of sleep.

 

 

 

Two Side Notes

 

1. Yes I am the guy who will open up a piece of luggage at the terminal to remove a 4 ounce object so that my bag is under the 50 pound limit. However, I am also the thoughtful guy who doesn’t want to do this and hold up the line. At home I always weigh the bags. It’s usually coming home where I get burned if we don’t get the distribution just right. Some hotels have scales for precisely this purpose.

--Side note to the side note - I live with 3 women… Packing light is like a foreign language to them.

 

2. Contraband in the carry on - If you want to terrorize your children give them a harmonica and let them take it through security at an airport. TSA Agent holding up a pink and purple Dora the Explorer backpack, “Who’s is this?” And watching my daughters eyes get as big as saucers. Then feeling my eyes get as big as saucers when I realize they won’t be taking a 7 year old to jail. What in the H E double hockey sticks did you pack? So now we know that a Harmonica looks just like a 9mm ammunition clip. You can’t say you haven’t been warned!

 

 

My husband is disabled and on our last Southwest flight we were the first ones boarded. When the lady who was A1 boarded she made a big deal to the steward about being first on the plane. He just looked at her and said, " No these folks were first". She was not happy but we thought it was pretty funny.

[bajadahl]

Thanks for the kind remarks. Believe it or not mom and dad are still talking to each other. I guess that’s what 50 years of marriage buys you. I think dad used up a few get out of jail free cards yesterday.

 

Now I am beginning to think - How can I top the first day? I am afraid that I’ll bore you to tears with the more mundane stuff like the crazy times when everything just goes according to plan….. Anyway - Here goes the rest of day one (kinda boring) and day two… pretty much according to plan!

 

We landed in Fort Lauderdale a few minutes early at about 8:50 am EST.

 

We then collected our checked luggage and moved onto the Alamo Rental counter. I ended up renting a luggage cart due to the fact that the luggage carousel and the rental car counter are on different levels at the airport. Not the most efficient airport setup I have ever seen but not terrible.

 

We rented a minivan so that we could squeeze all our luggage in and still sit comfortably. I promise pictures later (yes I took pictures of the luggage) I am fairly weird like that.

 

First order of business after getting the car was breakfast since nothing was open back in Austin. We wanted something truly unique to Florida… We settled for Chick-Fil-A :-) Actually for some reason the girls were craving Chicken Minis. So we had actually planned for this and I had mapped out a location early along our route to Savannah. I know - I really do know how just plain weird that sounds… But think to yourself - How many times have you gotten up in the morning and gone to a Chick-Fil-A for breakfast…. (It doesn’t count if you’re still in college) Average parents that live in the burbs don’t typically get up in the morning and take the kids to Chick-Fil-A. At least I don’t think they do. My kids get Chick-Fil-A for breakfast basically never… Or when we are traveling. And those Chicken Minis are addicting.

 

After Breakfast we started the long day of driving where we only stopped once in Daytona Beach for a few hours to have lunch and briefly enjoy the beach.

 

Lunch was another vacation staple for us - Bubba Gump’s - It’s a household name. If you don’t know Bubba Gump’s - It’s basically a chain sea food restaurant based on the movie Forrest Gump. My youngest love’s their shrimp. It’s average food at an average price. We like it but a foodie looking for an authentic or local experience should look elsewhere. I’ll sum it up this way…. It’s an entire experience based on a fictional story.

 

We spent a little time exploring the beach and then it was back on the road. If you really must know Daytona Beach is really almost perfectly half way between Fort Lauderdale and Savannah.

 

We arrived at the Hampton Inn in downtown Savannah at 8:03 PM. It’s a fantastic location close to everything but I have to say it’s the first Hampton Inn I’ve ever been to that has Valet Parking Only. $22 per day. The cheapskate in me hates valet parking. It also feels just a touch lazy. Anyway no big deal we are ready for dinner and a good nights sleep.

 

Up to this point we had driven through a couple little rain showers but nothing torrential. As we decide to walk the few blocks to dinner the skies decided to open up. The nice thing about Savannah are the sizes of a city block. They are quite small. If I’m in New York City and someone tells me a restaurant is 2 or 3 blocks away. I might get a taxi, or rent a car - if it’s 4 or 5 blocks I’m looking for flight possibilities. 2-3 blocks in Savannah is more like walking to the neighbors for a cup of sugar.

 

So when the front desk told us they recommended a restaurant that was only 2 or 3 blocks away we thought nothing about walking it even though it was “kind of raining.”

 

So after getting to the restaurant and going to the bathroom to Actually wring out my soaking wet shirt. We finally sat down to a nice meal. The Moon River Brewing Company was a nice restaurant and bar with your typical beer food. Burgers, Brats, and the like. It was a decent meal but I was soaking wet so what the heck do I know…..

 

The receipt for Moon River says 10:24pm I am guessing it was almost 11:00 by the time we closed out the check and made our way back to the hotel. Luckily the rain subsided long enough for us walk back.

 

I think we squeezed enough out of this day. Wow- I am exhausted.

 

 

Day 2 -

 

Like clock work I wake up at 6am… Oh wait that’s Austin time. It’s actually 7:00am I quickly got myself ready so at 7:03 I was ready to go out the door. Too bad I live with women. They are still going through luggage trying to figure out what to wear. I’m thinking to myself didn’t you just pack this like yesterday? Did you already forget what you brought? However, I am a smart man. I said none of that out loud. That’s what I have all of you for. Thank you cruise critic therapy team.

 

I decided to go down to the breakfast cafe and work a little more on my novel from our travel day while the rest of the family got ready.

 

On the docket for today were three main tasks:

Savannah River Boat Tour

Walking Tour through some of the famous squares of Savannah

Dinner at the Pirate House

 

After everyone had a little breakfast at the Cafe De Hampton Inn (That’s cheap American crap for those of you who don’t speak French) We headed down to the River Frontage shops. On our way out of the hotel the concierge desk heard me discussing the River Tour and offered to help me get the tickets in advance to avoid the lines. Hmmm - I thought to myself. While I do realize this is a tourist area it did not strike me as a travel mecca worthy of planning detail a concierge need offer. However, once he mentioned he could get the tickets cheaper I was sold.

 

“You had me at Cheaper!”

 

Sure I can laugh about it now but in all honesty this guy really helped me out. First let me get this out of the way. Everyone should know that a Hampton Inn is a middle of the road average hotel. I Never enter a Hampton Inn and “look” for a concierge desk. In my opinion it’s like looking for a ribeye at McDonalds. The more I think about it though I will say this. We use the Hilton family of Hotels frequently. Normally, Hampton Inn or Hilton Garden Inns while traveling for the one night quick stops. Then Hiltons for major cities like Chicago (Magnificent Mile or Hilton Anaheim) two that come to mind. Of course those quick stop rode side Hampton Inns aren’t going to have a concierge desk but maybe some of the ones in major cities do. We just hadn’t seen them because most of the time we are in a regular Hilton in the larger cities. Bottom line is that I am no expert in any of this just sharing what my experiences have been over the years.

 

First Dale helped us secure tickets for the 1pm Savannah Riverboat Cruise. He saved me a $1 or $2 for each ticket. Nice but not really a big deal. He then asked if there was anything else he could help us with. We already have another tour scheduled for 4:30pm so I started to say no but then I mentioned and then we were planning dinner at the Pirate House. He said we should get reservations and offered to call for us. “Sure why not.” There was no answer so he took my information and told me he would text me when he got it setup.

(Skipping ahead to finish this story)

We went about our day and a few hours later I got my confirmation text from Dale for our 7pm reservation. We showed up at the Pirate House at 6:50pm to a 1 1/2 to 2 hour wait and were seated immediately. Oh thank you Dale. Us normal folk get really confused when things go that well.

(Back to the timeline)

 

So off we went to explore the shops at the river front.

Boring Shopping

More Boring Shopping

OMG - Boring shopping…..

Time to eat again - Yay -

 

Huey's (If you don't read anything else - Read this part)

 

The absolute Highlight of the day was lunch. So while my wife and kids are spending every freakin dime I make on crap they don’t need I was standing outside contemplating my existence as an ATM for their every desire when I overheard a women on a phone mention the words, “yeah we just had some great Beignets and….blah…blah….blah…..

 

“You had me at Beignets.”

 

So I began to follow her. Not in a creepy stalker sort of way…. More like a 007 on a mission sort of way… Ok fine I was stalking her… but I only wanted her for the Beignets! But I’m not rude so I’m waiting for this lady to get off the damn phone! By the time she hung up I think we were about three miles from where I first saw her. No no no….. That just sounds creepy awful.

 

Back to reality.

It was 30 seconds in the same store she was walking into when I overheard her. I did get the courage to say excuse me and quickly ask about the Beignets. You know as a normal guy we want to get over that awkward moment when you stop a complete stranger (a woman no less) to ask a question just as quickly as possible. No this isn’t a pickup line…Unless you’re the one making the beignets. And No I don’t need two dollars to get my mom out of prison… Just looking for a good lunch.

 

I am pretty sure I disarmed her with my dashing smile and quick wit. Of course it might have been the fact that her husband was standing only a few feet away. Either way she was quite friendly and told me about Huey’s then proceeded to take me back outside and point to the Awning about half a block away. By the way, her husband agreed the beignets were worth the interruption.

 

So around 11:40 - I started herding up the cats…. I mean girls to tell them we had lunch plans and off to Huey’s we went. Huey’s is a beautiful New Orleans style cafe nestled right in between some of the shops on the river front.

 

The food was nothing short of spectacular. This is the type of place you would write about and want people to find if ever in the area. I can’t say enough good things about Huey’s but I promise food porn pics later.

 

Thank you to my “stalkie" friend and her husband for the tip!

 

I timed lunch to end just in time for the River Cruise at 1pm. It’s a good thing I did that to. If I didn’t have other reservations I’d probably still be a Huey’s eating another helping of beignets.

 

We leave Huey’s just in time to head over and board the River Boat.

 

Savannah River Boat Tour

 

The Savannah River Queen. It was a very pleasant boat with a fun an informative captain. The only thing really worth noting here is that the sound system they used was Very good. I don’t have the best hearing, due to too many Rock Concerts as a teenager I imagine, but I had no trouble hearing his narration over the intercom.

 

Ok - one other brief comment for you ladies. If your going to take a tour where there is the possibility of windy conditions (such as the top of a river boat moving at 10 knots) don’t wear a short sun dress. These poor young ladies were doing their best Marilyn Monroe impersonations for pretty much the entire voyage. All three levels of the boat had air conditioned inside space to get out of the wind. Yet there were three (guessing college age) all in short dresses and not a single one of them thought…. Hmmm maybe we should go inside and rethink our clothing decisions for this ride.

 

After the cruise I asked my girls how they liked the cruise and they both said it was fantastic. “That’s great! This was much cheaper than a Royal Caribbean Cruise. Since you like this one so much we don’t have to go on the Oasis now. Right?”

 

No They didn’t think it was very funny either. Oh Well.

 

We started making our way back to the hotel for a brief break before our next tour. Unfortunately you have to walk past all the shops again to get back to the hotel. Well my family can’t just walk by the shops. Gotta stop in to see if they got anything new in stock in the last freaking hour!

 

We finally make it back to the hotel just in time to leave for our next tour.

 

Savannah Walking Tour

 

We found this tour called SavannahTourWalk online. The nice feature about this tour was that each of us was given an iPad for use during the tour. Daniel would walk to an area and talk about the history of that specific person, building, place, or monument and then show us pictures on the iPad of how it looked 50, 100, or maybe 200 years ago. Each picture was numbered so he could say go to picture 16 and everyone in the group could easily navigate to a given picture quickly and the tour flowed smoothly. The tour ran from 4:30 - until about 6:15. I would highly recommend this tour for anyone looking for a historically accurate tour. This tour coupled with the River Tour gave us a ton of fun accurate Savannah History.

 

Maybe tomorrow we’ll do one of the goofy ghost tours.

 

After we left Daniels tour we made a beeline for our appointment at the Pirate House for Dinner. The walk via my iPhone maps app took us off the beaten path a little over to Broad Street and then back towards the touristy area near Bay Street.

 

Dinner at the Pirate House -

Very mixed emotions here. I was really looking forward to this because I have a very unhealthy clinically weird love of all things piratey. I am the guy that built a 26 foot pirate ship in my yard for Halloween (more picture later)

 

I will break down the Pirate House in 4 parts.

 

1. The atmosphere - perfect - It was exactly what I expected. The decor was great. The location was authentic (kind of) There really are tunnels under the place that may have been used to kidnap unsuspecting sailers and force them to work on a ship.

 

2. The food - Gotta say average at best. I enjoyed mine ok…nothing to write home about. My parents shared a meal and hated it so bad they sent it back. Luckily they had appetizers so they decided they weren’t hungry enough to wait for something else. My oldest thought the ribs she order were too “tangy” I blame her for that. We’re from Texas. The first rule for Texan’s is: Don’t get BBQ somewhere else… You will be disappointed. My youngest like her Shrimp N grits… Well she liked the Shrimp part anyway. What the hell is a grit anyway! My wife ordered their famous fried chicken. She was left wondering why it was famous.

 

3. The tiny after tour - So they do have a few ladies dressed up in pirate outfits to give you a brief 10 minute tour of the place and our tour guide Ann Bonnie I believe was very friendly and a bit piratey. But she kind burst the pirate house bubble by talking about the fact that Savannah didn’t even exist as a settlement during the golden age of piracy. So much of the legend of the Pirate House is just good marketing… (Can I get my money back from dinner now?) Don’t get me wrong. There are some fun facts about the building and it was a place where sailers gathered. Just not a lot of real history known about the place.

 

 

4. Nice Gift Shop - To build on that great marketing scheme you gotta have a great gift shop. They don’t disappoint. Plenty of cool piratey stuff to spend money on. I bought a hat!

 

 

After dinner we walked the short distance back to our hotel. This time along the very touristy area of Bay Street. As I was sitting down to type this up my girls reminded me that I had promised them ice cream so it was one more quick trip down to the river front candy store where I had seen a little ice cream area earlier. A couple of scoops later we were headed back to the room. Both ate their ice cream, showered, and in bed. I look up and it 1:17am and I’m still typing. What in the heck is wrong with me.

 

Anyway today was a very fun filled day - More cool stuff tomorrow. Good Night!

 

Alan

Edited June 30, 2016 by bajadahl

[bajadahl]

because that scooter trip down to Savannah would've been rough. :rolleyes:

 

Now that was funny!! Haha You should see her driving this thing on the cobble stone streets of Savannah...... There could be a movie..Crazy Grandma!

 

oh yeah - ummm - don't tell her I said that. :)

[Clarea]

Enjoying this very much.:)

[jimbri]

Fantastic review - looking forward to the rest!!

[stacynray]

I must admit. I was reading with surgical precision quality of concentration here, until the second act....the beignets. These mysterious creatures have me mystified. What are these delicious sounding items you speak of? I must Google them immediately.

 

Will Google now.

 

Okay, I'm back. So, in my in depth research I found these delectable items are none other than glorified donuts. I also found these beignets actually have nothing to do with bayonets, like I originally thought. No weapons here people. Just delicious looking little square shaped fritters. I now understand you better. There's not much I wouldn't do for a fresh donut, but a fresh donut dressed up in a fancy name? Stalking strangers is child's play when we're talking about fried dough and powdered sugar. I pity the fool that stands between me and that.

Edited June 30, 2016 by stacynray

[bajadahl]

Enjoying this very much.:)

 

Thank You Bob! That really means a lot coming from you. I know you see everything on these boards - the fun and useful stuff as well as the you've got to be kidding me stuff. I prefer to be in the fun and useful camp.

 

Alan

[bajadahl]

I must admit. I was reading with surgical precision quality of concentration here, until the second act....the beignets. These mysterious creatures have me mystified. What are these delicious sounding items you speak of? I must Google them immediately.

 

Will Google now.

 

Okay, I'm back. So, in my in depth research I found these delectable items are none other than glorified donuts. I also found these beignets actually have nothing to do with bayonets, like I originally thought. No weapons here people. Just delicious looking little square shaped fritters. I now understand you better. There's not much I wouldn't do for a fresh donut, but a fresh donut dressed up in a fancy name? Stalking strangers is child's play when we're talking about fried dough and powdered sugar. I pity the fool that stands between me and that.

 

 

Know this about beignets. They are not all made equally. If you find an establishment that makes great beignets you've probably found someone who makes great Louisiana favorites. Everything at Huey's was a hit with our family.

[bajadahl]

Day 3 -

 

Plan for the day

Brunch at Mrs Wilkes Dining Room

A stroll down Jones Street (One of the prettiest Streets in North America)

Then a ride out to Tybee Island for some site seeing and a lighthouse!

 

A few omissions from yesterday's post and then I am out for the day (Yes I am still waiting on the girls to finish getting ready)

 

1. The skies threatened more rain right at the time of our walking tour so our family came armed with rain gear. Apparently the rain gear was seen as a gift to the gods and the rain stayed away from the downtown area. It stayed cloudy and cool and it rained all around us but we stayed nice and dry.

 

 

2. When I mentioned the path we took to the Pirate House "off the beaten path" that was code for my wife yelling at me that we were walking through an unsafe area. Not really yelling but you know giving me that "where in the heck are you taking us evil glare" I know what the real problem was though - We walked almost a mile from the end of the tour back to the Pirate House and didn't pass one gift shop! Score one for the wallet!

 

More later...

Alan

Edited June 30, 2016 by bajadahl

[RoeC]

I can't recall a time when I enjoyed a review more. Love your humor and your family adventures. I can't wait for the next installment. Hope you are enjoying your day.

[JessandLevi]

I am really enjoying your review. I also love Savannah so I get to relive some of my memories from the times I have visited!

 

I also had to google beignets. They look delicious! I must find a place that sells them nearby.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[PattiHere]

Thoroughly enjoying your report and following along. Love your writing style, you keep me laughing!

 

 

I will be cruising on Oasis in September, so looking forward to your photos and point of view.

 

Thank you for taking the time to write your report and bringing all of us along on your vacation.

[stacynray]

It's 12:30 Chicago time, 1:30 Savannah time, and all I can think about is how Bajadahl is probably at some fancy restaurant, eating something I can barely pronounce, let alone know. But what is it? I guess I have to wait until tonight to find out....

 

In the meantime, I''ll look harder for that life I must've misplaced. Lord knows I need one. :rolleyes:

[potatotomato]

Loving this review. I keep checking to see if you've posted anything else. We sail Oasis in May. Cant wait until you are actually on the ship.

[KiwiGal117]

It's 12:30 Chicago time, 1:30 Savannah time, and all I can think about is how Bajadahl is probably at some fancy restaurant, eating something I can barely pronounce, let alone know. But what is it? I guess I have to wait until tonight to find out....

 

 

 

In the meantime, I''ll look harder for that life I must've misplaced. Lord knows I need one. :rolleyes:

 

 

Seriously... I think mine went to find yours...[emoji15][emoji848][emoji14]

[JamesEM]

Following along, agree 100% about valet parking, Grits to me is the kind of like a mystery vegetable.

[Coralc]

Grits to me is the kind of like a mystery vegetable.

 

It is something like that, I would never eat them.

[Emdancer11]

Loving the review! I went to college in Savannah (SCAD) and miss that town so much! The crime in Savannah is dotted all over the place, in and out of the historic and Victorian districts and all around even the touristy parts. Savannah continues to improve, but still has issues with crime and the proximity to the most beautiful areas downtown. Have a great time! Avoid Broughton St if you want to protect your wallet! 😂

[EllaDuChien]

Okay, I'm back. So, in my in depth research I found these delectable items are none other than glorified donuts. I also found these beignets actually have nothing to do with bayonets, like I originally thought. No weapons here people. Just delicious looking little square shaped fritters. I now understand you better. There's not much I wouldn't do for a fresh donut, but a fresh donut dressed up in a fancy name? Stalking strangers is child's play when we're talking about fried dough and powdered sugar. I pity the fool that stands between me and that.

 

One other important part about the Beignets at Huey's is the praline sauce that they serve with them for dipping. That is not to be missed!!

 

Bajadahl - Since we drive from NC to FL for cruises, Savannah is our halfway and we NEVER miss an opportunity for brunch at Huey's!!! So glad you stalked that woman and found it. Can't wait for more!

[bajadahl]

Day 3 -

 

What? Were you beginning to think I had been abducted by ghosts? Despite my best effort last night, I had no such luck. Oh… but I am skipping ahead. Let’s start at the beginning of the day.

 

Mrs Wilkes House

 

We started today with the plan to get in line early at Mrs Wilkes Dining Room. Mrs Wilkes is a very famous dining room that is about as southern comfort as you can get. It appears to be just another house on Jones Street with the only hint that there is a business there being the small sign by the street. (Yes I missed it the first time I drove by) The dining room seating is family style on 8 top tables with all food also served family style. Bring your appetite because they basically serve just about all the different types of comfort food you can imagine (All at the same freakin’ time) Meat loaf, fried chicken, pot roast, pork loin, every vegetable you could imagine (including some you can’t) finished off with dessert. (blueberry cobbler ala mode or banana pudding) I am told the menu changes daily but I am not sure how… If you cook everything under the sun what exactly do you change each day? Maybe they change dessert…who knows.

 

Anyway, Mrs Wilkes is only open from 11am till 2pm each day and the line to get in starts forming at around 9am. I dropped off Mom, Dad, and Denise at the Mrs. Wilkes at 9:45 to save us a spot in line. There were already about 10-15 people ahead of us. I then went back to the hotel to pick up my girls who have absolutely no comprehension about what it means to get ready quickly. (but you already knew that) I finally coax them out the door at 10:30 and we make our way back to Mrs Wilkes.

 

We took the car because we planned to drive to Tybee Island after lunch. Otherwise it would have been walking distance from our hotel in the historic district.

 

We arrive back at Mrs Wilkes (10:40am) and the first thing I notice is the line. It now stretches down the block probably 300 people deep at least. Parking on the street has also gotten more scarce so I drop the girls off to join our family and I drive off to find parking. Around the corner on the next side street up there’s a spot right near the corner. I feed the meter with a few quarters (30 minutes per quarter) I had thought ahead an gotten $2 in quarters from the front desk at the hotel. I go ahead and shove in all 8 quarters for a total of 4 hours time. Apparently I am going to really enjoy my lunch. I walk back an join my family.

 

For the next 15 minutes we discussed how many people this small house could serve at one time. I half heartedly tried to google for the answer but quite frankly since we were in the first 20 people I wasn’t worried.

 

When the doors opened they immediately start seating people. It came to our turn and they stopped us. No freakin way! 15 people at a time. (Not quite but I’ll get to that in a minute) I look back at the mass of people behind us and I’m thinking… those people are going to starve. I ask Denise what the door man said to her. She says she didn’t quite hear him but something about setting up more tables… um ok, were they not expecting more than 15 customers today? Turns out (because it’s family style) they just stagger entry to let the kitchen get hot food on the table before you sit down. After about 2-3 minutes the doorman was back to get us. The main dining room had 4 tables (all 8 toppers) and there was a doorway to another room with more tables although I didn’t see how many. I was too busy staring at all the food on the table to actually see how many people ended up being directed to the second room. I am guessing they can only serve somewhere between 50-75 people at a time.

 

I am not going to try and name every dish that was on the table. Please just understand the table was completely full edge to edge with bowls of everything you could imagine. There was barely room for 8 empty plates and a 8 glasses of sweet tea. (water and unsweet tea available on request) (There will be pictures - maybe finally tomorrow once we get back to Fort Lauderdale)

 

My youngest, Lindsay, had a field day. She is the adventurous type who will try anything. And she did! My oldest, Ashlyn, is quite the picky eater but she still had a very full plate. The food was very good. My suggestion is to take small amounts of each dish as it comes by. The real-estate on your plate disappears long before the bowls stop coming!

 

I started to offer Ashlyn more chicken only to look towards her end of the table and seeing her biting into her 3rd or 4th chicken leg. She thought that was very funny.

 

We all agreed their fried chicken was just about the best we’d ever had. Denise commented that the cooks over at the Pirate house might want to come take some notes. (Tell us how you really feel honey)

 

I couldn’t help thinking that there was no way they were going be able to feed all the people waiting in line. But then I thought it really goes a lot faster than you would think because when you sit down the food is pretty much already there and you just start passing the bowls around.

After eating we delivered our dirty dishes to the kitchen. I don’t even do that at home but apparently it’s tradition at Mrs Wilkes. We then lined up to pay. $22 per person plus we bought a cookbook and t-shirts for the girls.

 

I walked our souvenirs back to the car and noticed the meter had only ticked off an hour and 5 minutes. I imagine we were only sitting down to eat for about 30 minutes of that time. So their line probably moves a bit faster than you would think.

 

Jones Street

 

After Mrs Wilkes we walked down Jones Street which has been name one of the most beautiful streets in North America. Not much to say here except yes it’s beautiful street with many mature oak trees with Spanish moss hanging down.

 

 

Tybee Island

 

We then took the 30 minute drive out to Tybee Island to visit the the Tybee Island Light Station and Museum. We spent a few hours exploring the Lighthouse, Museum, and Beach around Tybee Island. If you are into light houses then this site is a must see. My dad loved it, my wife and mom…. not so much. At least these was a small gift shop. We spent about 2 hours at the light house and exploring Tybee’s North Beach before heading back into town.

 

I turned the rental car back into the valet and we decided to try out an ice cream shop the tour guide had told us about the day before.

 

Leopold’s

 

Leopold’s is supposed to be the 4th best ice cream parlor in the country (Or maybe it was 4th best on this street) I can’t remember and I have no clue who decides these things. It was a very nice little shop with friendly people and good ice cream. About the same as all the other ice cream shops I’ve ever been to.

 

My receipt for Leopold’s is time stamped 4:04pm This means we have about 4 and a half hours to kill before our last tour in Savannah. Anyone want to guess how my wife and girls want to spend this time? That’s one of those - the answer is in the question type of things. You guessed it… SPEND…. Time to go shopping again!

 

 

River Front

 

We get back down to the riverfront shops just about the time the skies open up… Ahh saved by the rain. No one wants to bounce from shop to shop during the downpour. We are contemplating our next move and thinking we will probably need to eat a little something prior to our 8:30 ghost tour when we realize Huey’s is right next door.

 

 

Huey’s Part Deux

 

None of us are all that hungry due to Mrs Wilkes for lunch and Leopold’s Ice Cream but we need to eat a little something before the tour or we’ll be starving just about the time everything is closing down. We decide to get out of the rain and have a light dinner at Huey’s.

 

This was a terrible mistake…. We all ordered small plates of this or that and then I had to go and do it…. I ordered a dozen beignets for dessert. I just couldn’t help myself. Last time we had no problem polishing off the 12 beignets. (everyone ate two) This time it was a struggle for my girls to eat just one. So here I am, struggling myself, trying to eat the two in my personal allotment and staring at the leftovers that are just going to be dumped in the trash. Oh the horror, I can’t let that happen. I’ll eat one more…then we’ll just be throwing 1 out. (No one else was willing to help me stave off the embarrassment of leaving un-eaten beignets on the table) So I ate the third one…. and then… I ate the last one…. I think I’m gonna die. My girls are laughing, they say they’re proud of me. Little do they know they’re going to have to help carry me back to the hotel.

 

We sit there for a while in the hopes that I won’t die from a sugar coma. When we realize we only have about an hour to get to the meeting location for our last tour. The Ghost Tour! Luckily the rain has let up so it should be a good night for another tour.

 

 

The Ghost Tour -

 

This was not a tour that I picked out. You can call me a skeptic, non-belieber (Sorry Justin), or what ever you want. The only thing mystical about the ghost tours is their ability to make my money disappear. My wife and girls really wanted to do this tour… At least they aren’t shopping! Ok - so now you know how I feel about that, let’s get on with the tour.

 

Our tour guide, Patrick, was a nice enough fellow. His style of tour was one where he takes you around some of the haunted buildings in downtown Savannah and explains the history behind the building and why it’s believed to be haunted. He then gets out some electrical gizmos (technical term because I’m still in a sugar coma and having trouble paying attention) He explains this one device allows spirits to communicate via EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) So this EVP just randomly spits out words that are floating all around us presumably from spirits trying to communicate. He let’s each of us take a turn holding it for a while over the course of the tour. Everyone once in a while the thing would randomly spit out a funny word or phrase and then we would see if we could figure out if there was any context to the words from our surroundings. (I say we - I mean they - I am pretty sure I was passed out on a nearby bench for a portion of the tour) There were 28 fools… I mean customers on this tour and it was funny to watch them try to figure out what the words coming out of the machine were referring to.

 

Finally - it was my turn to hold the EVP for a little while. Immediately the thing blurted out BEIGNETS. I dropped the thing faster than you can say….Bleep!

Ok - that didn’t happen but you gotta admit it would have been hysterical if it had! lol

 

The last thing he did on the tour was pull out a device that looked just like a cell phone…. because it was just a cell phone. He started to explain that it was a device for communicating with other beings. No Duh - Is he listening to himself talk?

 

He has a voice recorder app on this phone and he records himself asking questions then he pauses for a moment presumably waiting for an answer and then plays back the recording. You get to hear him ask the question and then listen as there are very faint responses. I don’t pretend to know how this is done and not going to speculate on whether or not there is some trickery going on. Nothing happened that made me go - oh so it’s all true. I am still a skeptic.

 

I will say it was entertaining. Some people really got into it and it looked like everyone was having fun. My girls enjoyed the tour and I will include their thoughts about it….If they would ever wake up. I swear it seems they are forgetting we need to get to Fort Lauderdale today!

 

Tomorrow we finally CRUISE!!!

 

It was another long but successful day.

 

Again please forgive any typos. I enjoy putting my thoughts out here, and I attempt to quickly proof read before posting but I am prone to mistakes especially after the beignet sugar coma.

Alan