Letter 5: Savannah, Hilton Head
Thursday, April 2, Happy Birthday Teenya
“Rain Rain go away,
Come again another day
Little Freddie wants to play.”
It rained most of the night and there are only a few puddles. This sand really absorbs the water. Guess this is why we are in a lush jungle of vegetation.
We left about 9:30 am driving to Savannah (about 60 road miles or 30 air miles from our campground) for our girls and friends who insisted we eat at Paula Deen’s. It took us until noon to get there. It poured down rain all the way. We took the wrong road once - forcing us to double back several miles. With these islands, swamps and marshes sometimes there aren’t alternate routes—so we were forced to backtrack. In fact as we write this entry it is after 8 pm and the rain continues. It hasn’t stopped all day.
We had read her web site about getting in to eat. It reads, “Because y'all have made us so popular and to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to eat with us, we cannot accept reservations for parties smaller than ten persons most days of the year. We do however have a priority seating system and this is how it works:
Every day of the week, our hostess begins to take names at 9:30 am for lunch and dinner on a first come first served basis. Our hostess is located at the podium on Congress Street in front of the restaurant. You must appear in person to receive a priority seating time.” This door is not far from Barnard Street.
We figured by the time we arrived all the seatings for the day would be filled, but we were lucky and got a 2:30 seating, as we requested. Eating early allows us to have plenty of daylight to as we traveled home, as well as time to digest such a heavy meal before retiring. Plus the lunch prices were slightly less.
We took a self guided scenic drive around downtown Savannah. It is very pretty with lots of square parks which are used as round-a-bouts. Each one has lots of big hardwood trees with Spanish moss and flowers. The buildings of course are old and picturesque, only the trees and the RAIN reduced our view! The Old Harbor Inn looked like a good place to stay, if you were needing a room. The harbor was unexpectedly large. It accommodates a tremendous commerce. In many ways, it reminded Fred of New Orleans. Later we will visit Charlestown and sure we say the same for Charlestown.
We showed up a little early for lunch and were taken right in. This restaurant is in an old three story warehouse type building with tables that remind us of spaghetti warehouse tables. We were seated on the THIRD FLOOR! All floors were near capacity and when we left at 2:30 they were still full.
Angie, these pictures are for you as requested!
We started with
fried green tomatoes even though we had ordered the full buffet. Fred thought they were tasteless. We each ate one half a slice of green tomato and took the rest home. They also served corn meal hoe cakes 
and cheese biscuits before we ordered.Harrington’s Critique and Review:
Fred enjoyed the greens best and we both enjoyed the potatoes with brown gravy. Olivia liked cream corn, lima beans with okra, and the hoe cakes with maple syrup.
Fred enjoyed the greens best and we both enjoyed the potatoes with brown gravy. Olivia liked cream corn, lima beans with okra, and the hoe cakes with maple syrup.
We thought the fried chicken was greasy and Granny’s macaroni and cheese beats Paula’s, however both were very edible. We took home our desserts of banana pudding and gooey chocolate butter cake. Both were good when we ate them for supper.
The lady making hoe cakes and cheese biscuits on the floor near the serving table was
pleased to have her picture made.As we were leaving via the gift shop we saw Paula and
couldn’t resist having our picture made kissing her for her good cooking y’all!We drove 135 miles round trip just to eat with her.
For those of you that do not have the Food Channel, Paua Deen has a very successful show, where she cooks southern food in her huge diamond rings. She uses lots of “butter” and says y’all all the time. If you have a chance to watch a show make it a point to see her.
What a goldmine! We didn’t count the tables and I’m sure we aren’t accurate in reflection, maybe there were 150 chairs per floor. With three floors, that 450 patrons every 2 hours from 11 am until 4 pm. That’s more than 1,000 lunch meals at an average of over $10 each. The noon buffet is $14.
When we arrived back at the campground about 5pm the ranger said they thought we had already had 3” of rain today and it hasn’t stopped since and it was 9pm when we typed this.
Friday, April 3 The sun is shining! Yeah! The campground looked so fresh.
Isn’t this a great looking campground? It is only about 100 yards on the left to the beach. We took off to Hilton Head. Everything looked clean and bright. Even an old trailer looked nice with wisteria all around it.
As we neared Hilton Head all the stores were behind the trees with only a small sign on the road. It appeared they had all the big chains of a big city. Most of the subdivisions are gated communities so we didn’t get to see any of those homes. We decided the business to be in there is vacation rentals. We finally did find a small street we could drive down where the homes are facing the beach. All the homes we saw had a rental sign on them. There is very little public beach on this island. 
We did find one where we walked between condos. Their whole beach looks like this. Thank you Jo Adkins for saving Padre Island as a National sea shore. So, we went, we saw, we left! Been there don't that. Scratch this off our list. Hilton Head isn’t our “cup of tea.”
The crimson clover was in full bloom along the divided highways.
We had saved the city Bufford for last. It is so pretty. It is old (founded in 1711, second oldest city in NC) and has lots of grand houses. It is on the island leading to our campground. . Our first glimpse of the old homes was on Bay Street,
These homeowners could look out their front windows to see the beautiful bay. We also enjoyed their boardwalk.
We found the old historical neighborhood and enjoyed slowly driving around the approximately six square blocks seeing the 
50 plus old homes. We have included a few for you to see as examples and to entice you to see this little city. Several had vines growing 
across the steps. They were very well manicured to stay on the riser part of the steps. The streets were so pretty with 
Spanish moss from all the trees.
Most of the homes were
three stories as they were elevated to protect from flooding and it looked like they all had 
good attics or another floor. We crossed Harrington Street as we left he area. Hummmm!
It is amazing these homes have withstood many hurricanes as they are very close to the Atlantic, but as we know the old homes were built much better than the ones these days.
We found the recommended
“11th Street Dockside” restaurant in Port Royal and enjoyed she crab soup, crab cakes, fried shrimp and oysters. Now enough eating out. We are on a more simple diet until we reach Charleston in a few days. What will we find there?
Five miles across the bay from the restaurant is Parris Island. The entire island is a US Marine base. Although it is possible to tour the island, we didn’t. Those with Marine connections know it is one of several site in the US for basic training. From a distance it is very enticing. For a 20 year old in boot camp in the summer, it must be very hot and humid. We talked with a local at the restaurant who regularly plays golf in Parris Island. He says it is beautiful.
Speaking of golf. This part of NC is big on golf. Most of the new gated communities have a course. Hilton Head has several dozen.
Love to All and
Friday, April 3 The sun is shining! Yeah! The campground looked so fresh.
Isn’t this a great looking campground? It is only about 100 yards on the left to the beach. We took off to Hilton Head. Everything looked clean and bright. Even an old trailer looked nice with wisteria all around it. As we neared Hilton Head all the stores were behind the trees with only a small sign on the road. It appeared they had all the big chains of a big city. Most of the subdivisions are gated communities so we didn’t get to see any of those homes. We decided the business to be in there is vacation rentals. We finally did find a small street we could drive down where the homes are facing the beach. All the homes we saw had a rental sign on them. There is very little public beach on this island. We did find one where we walked between condos. Their whole beach looks like this. Thank you Jo Adkins for saving Padre Island as a National sea shore. So, we went, we saw, we left! Been there don't that. Scratch this off our list. Hilton Head isn’t our “cup of tea.”The crimson clover was in full bloom along the divided highways.
We had saved the city Bufford for last. It is so pretty. It is old (founded in 1711, second oldest city in NC) and has lots of grand houses. It is on the island leading to our campground. . Our first glimpse of the old homes was on Bay Street,
These homeowners could look out their front windows to see the beautiful bay. We also enjoyed their boardwalk.We found the old historical neighborhood and enjoyed slowly driving around the approximately six square blocks seeing the 50 plus old homes. We have included a few for you to see as examples and to entice you to see this little city. Several had vines growing across the steps. They were very well manicured to stay on the riser part of the steps. The streets were so pretty with Spanish moss from all the trees.Most of the homes were
three stories as they were elevated to protect from flooding and it looked like they all had good attics or another floor. We crossed Harrington Street as we left he area. Hummmm!It is amazing these homes have withstood many hurricanes as they are very close to the Atlantic, but as we know the old homes were built much better than the ones these days.
We found the recommended
“11th Street Dockside” restaurant in Port Royal and enjoyed she crab soup, crab cakes, fried shrimp and oysters. Now enough eating out. We are on a more simple diet until we reach Charleston in a few days. What will we find there?Five miles across the bay from the restaurant is Parris Island. The entire island is a US Marine base. Although it is possible to tour the island, we didn’t. Those with Marine connections know it is one of several site in the US for basic training. From a distance it is very enticing. For a 20 year old in boot camp in the summer, it must be very hot and humid. We talked with a local at the restaurant who regularly plays golf in Parris Island. He says it is beautiful.
Speaking of golf. This part of NC is big on golf. Most of the new gated communities have a course. Hilton Head has several dozen.
Love to All and
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANNY!
To contact us email olivia@bobheck.com or fredharrington@yahoo.com
