Savannah Chronicles - Days 4 & 5

July 3, 2012
So today was quite a bust!!!  Let's see where I should begin. Ok, so we slept in a little late. One thing that immediately brought me joy was my wife's smile.  I married an angel!

We went to a Mexican restaurant on Bay Street. It was called Cilantro's Grill and Cantina. It was pretty good, but nothing worth taking pictures and posting about.  Anyway, we made our way to the Oatland Island wildlife center. It was a zoo.....NOT!  It was pretty much a long path with a few pens with an animal here and there. Nonetheless, I still found a reason to make a video.  Thank God the thunder saved us. 

We left early and tried to go bowling. Let's see....place #1-shut down. Place #2-a residence. Place #3-located on an army base, and we couldn't find the entrance. So much for bowling. Next stop, Paula Deen's famous restaurant, THE LADY AND SONS'. We took some pictures in the lobby and chatted with some other patrons who were waiting. 

 

So we go inside and take a peek at the "famous" buffet. Uhmmm, we were not at all impressed. We asked the server if any of the sides were NOT made with pork. In short, the answer was broccoli, Mac n cheese, and potatoes. Get this; even the beef stew was made with pork stock!  Where they do that at?  (Paula Deen's of course). So we decided to order off the menu. Tahira got the crab cakes. Let's just say they were more like crab croquettes. But that wasn't the kicker. So after all the questions about PORK, the black beans and rice were cooked with PORK. At this point I was pretty much fed up. We got the manager over and I told him that we couldn't eat anything because of the pork issue and the general lack of satisfaction with the crab croq.....cakes. He agreed and we paid for our drinks and took off. Overall impression of Lady and Sons: premium selection prices for Piccadilly food. Not impressed!  So we went to Outback Steakhouse and kept it simple. 

But wait....there's more. So we get back to the hotel, ready to press the reset button and try again tomorrow. When we turn on the light, a roach was eating a toothpaste dessert off my toothbrush. That's when my wife became the head of my household. She ordered me to kill the roach....because he didn't chip in on the hotel bill. Then she said bring it to the front desk. I will spare you the details of that roasting and just give you the highlights. There was a really young guy on duty with no manager. Tahira expressed her disappointment and instructed the young man to place us in another hotel. Not another room, another hotel. He had no clue what to say. So he said, "ma'am I can't do that.” In my mind I said, "awe hell; he bout to get it now!” So she said, "sir would you wanna sleep with roaches?” Here is the classic wrong answer of the night. He replied frustratingly, "well ma'am, this is savannah and we have roaches. I am used to it."  Tahira realized that she was playing chess and he was playing checkers. She told him we are checking out immediately and we would get our refund through other means. So we did. We checked into a SPRINGHILL SUITES BY MARRIOTT. Always go with the chain guys!  Always!  We had a drink and fell asleep in each other’s arms knowing that Marriott requires their hotels to go the extra mile and hide their roaches and feed them properly before bedtime and they teach their employees how to say, I'm sorry and let me help you.

July 4, 2012
Although we were supposed to stay in sunny Savannah one more day, we decided to end it on a high note and hit the road today. All in all, we had a blast because we had each other. Here is my summary of Savannah: it's the French quarter on Valium. It's probably a good weekend getaway from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. More than that will have you wondering if you have mental problems for even considering staying longer. Don't do that to yourself.

Savannah Chronicles - Day 3

July 2, 2012
Good morning!  We slept a little late and missed breakfast. We went to the Goose Feathers Cafe. It was awesome. I had an Eggs Benedict Croissant with Pesto. DELICIOUS!!! T had the veggie Panini. Of course I didn't try that, but I take her word for it. 

 Then we took a river boat tour cruise. It was pretty boring but informative. That is if you like hearing Georgia history. 

 Now we are off to the city center to shop and eat. So we went to see the Movie "Ted". It was crazy. The theater was definitely not AMC, but it got the job done. For dinner we went to "Vic's On the River". Oh my god!  That was by far the best overall dining experience I have ever had. Ruth’s Chris....KILL YO SELF!  I had a Ribeye that had to be 16 ounces. It was perfectly medium rare and fork tender. T had the crab cakes. All crab; no filler. That is going on the must visit list every time we come here. I give them 10 out of 10. No kidding around. 

So after dinner we walked through downtown Savannah. It is really beautiful. It was peaceful and progressive, very similar to the atmosphere is Virginia Highlands and Midtown in Atlanta. We went to a local bar called McDonough's to do Karaoke. It simply just didn't happen, at least not in the hour we were there. So we left and went back to River Street. We stumbled upon a lively Karaoke session going on a Wet Willies. So we went in and TURNT UP! Tahira sang "you ought to know" by Alanis Morissette. She rocked it! Then I sang the usual party spark "Copacabana". Check me out on Youtube.  I wanted to put T's video up, but she hasn't given me permission just yet.  Stay tuned.....

The highlight of the night was this white dude who sang bump n grind by R Kelly. He absolutely owned that song. I have never heard it done so well. We stayed, we drank, and we sang some more. T did Killing me Softly and I did Play that funky music. We were gone out all day long, so needless to say, we passed out when we got back to the hotel. That's what vacation is all about!

Savannah Chronicles - Day 2

July 1, 2012.
We woke up this morning and had breakfast at the hotel. It was a zoo!  It felt like everyone was eying their last meal before some extinction level event. But we made it happen. Off to the beach we go!  Today is Tybee Island day. 

We chilled on the beach for a couple of hours before the dolphin tour. Here is a little video from that excursion.

Ok, we got a little cooked out there sunbathing. But we are good. We went on the dolphin tour with Captain Mikes dolphin tour. We saw about 25 dolphins and a family of rude ass people who had no regard for instructions or safety. I think it is safe to say that the people on the boat were bothered by them. Anyway, the breeze was nice and it was well worth the few bucks. Then we went to the famous Crab Shack. 

I will sum up the experience like the Cameron Crazies at Duke U. "O-ver Ra-ted...clap clap, clap clapclap". No seasoning, trash can set under the table, NOT IMPRESSED. Don't get me wrong; they give you a ton of seafood for a pretty low price.  But let's just say that I have had better and quite a few places.  

Anyway, we went back to the hotel and took the most awesome nap ever. We woke up and ordered some food from Loco's and watched the BET awards. Great night to be shut in with the storm outside.

Savannah Chronicles - Day 1

Hey everybody. It's the other half of Cooking With The Chandler's, John.  I have hijacked my wife's blog to add my two cents.  Seriously, she thought it would be a good idea for me to post my thoughts from the trip we just took.  This is my first posting on our blog, so I hope you enjoy it.  Tahira and I just reached our first anniversary last month, but we had to wait until now to take our vacation together.  We decided to share our vacation chronicles with you.  With that said, here we go.

Saturday, June 30, 2012
So Tahira and I decided to leave a day early so we could really make the most of this time. We stayed up late last night and prepared for the trip. We got underway and headed for Savannah. The devil was busy!!!  First, we hit some debris on 75 south, and the windshield got cracked. No problem. We patched it up and kept it moving. 30 miles outside savannah, I took off the cruise control. I got pulled over for speeding. And yes, I was speeding. The officer gave me a ticket. He took it down 1 mph so I wouldn't get the super speeder fine. I was happy, said thank you, and kept it moving. Nothing can shake my happiness!!!  We were worried about the hotel because we got it on Hotwire. We stayed at The Inn at Ellis Square. The room was cool.  It had it's flaws, but none were deal breakers.  It's cozy and pretty clean, so no complaints here. I just found out that Savannah has legal open container law as long as it's in plastic. So you already know it was my duty to evaluate my tolerance level. Yeeeee haaaaaaaa! 

We began the night with a walk down River Street. I ate my first plate of oysters Rockefeller at Fiddler’s Crab House. Check out the video to see how we popped it all off.

It was off the chain!  T had the crab cakes. They were good but not the best I ever had. We walked River Street and enjoyed the sights and sounds…and smells. I couldn’t resist stopping in River Street Sweets and get one of my favorite candies, WHITE CHOCOLATE PECAN TURTLES.  I know, I know…I developed an acute case of hyperglycemic shock immediately (not for real though).   

After about two more hours of walking and exploring, we ate a slice of pizza at Sweet Melissa's. It was pretty good. After that we called it a night.