Day 2: SAVANNAH , GEORGIA

Day 2: Savannah-April 13th 2017

Having travelled around 36 hours to get to Savannah, we spent our first day there just recovering from jetlag.  While Roger slept heavily all day, I tried to do bits and pieces to keep myself awake. 

Robyn and Damien live in a leafy suburb of Savannah, quite close to the city centre.  Their home is a poorly maintained rental, but they have made it into a cosy, welcoming home. 

  

A walk to the local park where the children played gave me my first experience of the Spanish moss and iconic houses for which Savannah is well known.  In my opinion, the Spanish moss, which is neither Spanish nor moss, is really quite creepy.  At the moment it is dead-like lacy brown tendrils hanging off the branches, but Robyn says that the minute it rains, it springs to life, covering the trees in a verdant green lace.

Savannah has the honour of being the first American city actually laid out. Consequently, it is grid formation.  The particular area of the city where they live was built in the early 1900s, the first to accommodate the motor car.  Consequently, the streets are wide, which is just as well, because each street is lined with cars both sides. The original town planners did not consider that cars would be privately owned to any large extent and so every house has been built without a garage or driveway.

What a wonderful opportunity this trip will be for us to get to know our youngest pair of grandchildren in their own environment. 

Thomas at 4 is developing a cute southern accent.  He is a wise and inquisitive little fellow, not a risk taker but one of great general knowledge, especially when it comes to knowledge about space and dinosaurs.

Isabelle (Belle), on the other hand, baulks at nothing and her parents have had to become quite inventive at preventing falls from great heights and other disasters.  She is slow to warm to any apart from Mamma, Dadda and Thomas, but once she does, she has a sunny nature and the cuteness that every (nearly) two-year-old has.