Savannah, GA

We drove from Charleston to Savannah in the late afternoon. I had a meeting the next day with Mr. George Perez, Associate Director of the furniture program at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design). The person I pay to be my friend and PR agent, Gabbi Anastasio (designmouth.org), has helped to set up meetings for me at various retailers, galleries, museums, and in this case art schools all over the country in order to shake hands with people and show off my new collection of furniture. It's our hope that face-to-face meetings with the people who make it possible for me to have a career will give me a "leg up in the industry," as they say... Anyway, it's because of this meeting that Savannah would mark our first hotel splurge of the trip. I was looking pretty haggard with a scruffy beard and a couple day old layer of sweat still glistening on my forehead.

We stayed at the Thunderbird Inn. A super cute refurbished 60s motor inn. On first glance it might look a bit sketchy, but it was the total opposite. We were psyched to be there. We did not get a chance to try the moon pies, however. :( That night we had a mediocre dinner on the river with all the other tourists. Everything looked cute, but, as is usually the case in these situations, I couldn't shake the feeling we were eating a scam meal for dumbo tourists like us.

The next day we woke up to Gabbi's text telling me the meeting with Mr. Perez would be in a little over an hour. Ok. See ya later beard, stop pouting Freddie we know you wanted to live here forever and never see the van again, bye bye Thunderbird. We jetted across town, I had my meeting, Michelle studied in the heating up in the morning sun van. The SCAD furniture program has amaaaaaaazing facilities and George was super nice to talk to for an hour or so. I didn't get to meet any students, but the work that was out in the lobby was pretty solid. I was overall really impressed with what they had going on, made me want to go to grad school. On George's recommendation we parked at the south end of Forcyth Park and the historic district of Savannah and just started walking. It was silly hot out but the shade of big trees with the spanish moss hanging kept it tolerable.

Freddie chased squirrels off the leash and could not have been happier.

Then! We had lunch at Zunzi's. Gaaahhhhh! Soooo good! My guess is the South African guy slinging hummus that day was the owner. We ordered something called "Oliver's Lunch" and it was GD incredible. It was smoked sausage and chicken on a bed of mashed potatoes covered in the most amazing secret sauce ever. We also got a plate of hummus, so delicious, and some rooibos tea, also spectacular. No, it wasn't fried chicken or biscuits or grits or whatever other soul food we're "supposed" to have eaten at Mrs. Wilkes, but I wouldn't have traded this really simple but amazing meal for anything else in Savannah. I don't think. Bellies full and tea refilled, we loaded into the van once again and decided to drive out to Tybee Island. We didn't manage any photos on Tybee. We were extremely cranky. The A/C in our van is a bit...temperamental. The engine had heated up enough sitting out in the sun so that it just did not want to kick on. We got to the beach, sweating like Georgia pigs already, and decided it was just too damn hot out to not have an umbrella. We were also bummed to find no dogs were allowed on the beach. Before Michelle and I got in a misdirected argument about nothing, I pulled the van down a side street with some parking for the beach. The lifeguards were off to the south, so we suited up, jammed Freddie in a canvas bag and marched North. When we got far enough away I scooped Freddie up, then continued our trek straight into the ocean. Freddie was panting like a maniac so I told him this was for his own good and dragged him to his salty nightmare. He absolutely hated every second. I was trying to help him avoid the small shore break, but he was climbing and clawing up my chest leaving a few good marks on me and Michelle. We laughed and laughed, though Freddie found none of this funny. Saturated, spiteful, and ugly (a wet Freddie is an awful thing to look at, he resembles an underfed swamp rat and we do not claim ownership when he's in this state) we rescued him from the awful situation we put him in in the first place, made our way back to the van, and started our long hot drive to Orlando.