Drron's Do Disney.

[drron]

Next it was back to town and have a very touristy horse drawn carriage ride.A tip.We accidentally found a parking lot at St.Phillips church which has all day parking for $10.at least $6 cheaper than commercial parking most of which was full as was street parking.Only a small lot but nearly empty.People must assume it is just church parking.So to the church.The oldest congrgation in south Carolina.The first church was blown away in a hurricane,the second burnt down and this is the more substantial third church.

.

.

Our healthy looking and clued up horse Yamassee.

.

.
Once loaded all carriages must stop at the office and get a lotto ball to say which route to take.You cant pick your route.

.
Found out not too easy to take pics from a carriage with a fringe on top.Some were OK.

.

.
At least we found out what those round circle thingies were.After the big quake of 1886 most couldn't rebuild as little money.So repaired by these metal rods.The experts say if another big quake,which is overdue,these repaired buildings will disintegrate.

.

.

.

 

[drron]

The last of our carriage ride.

.

.

.

.

.

The guide gave us a good tip for lunch for good southern food.normally not open on Mondays except if the Monday is the first of the month as it was today.

.
Lunch next.

 

[drron]

So lunch was at this place-

.
This place gets some incredible reviews including an FT reviewer who rated a dish here as one of the 5 best he had had in 2014.Now normally the lines are out the door at lunch but probably because it was cold and people didn't realise it would be open today we only had a short wait to organise a table of 7.So to the food.2 of the grandkids had simple toasted sandwiches the other a fried shrimp sandwich.

.

.
I had the traditional New years dish-pot roast with collard greens and hopping John.Hopping john is 3 kinds of rice cooked with ham hock and apples.Traditional at New Year as a pig never looks behind so you will be positive for the New Year.Collard greens because green brings good luck for the New Year so we will see how that goes.Hopping John was quite tasty,the beef very tender but I really dont take to collard greens.

.

Our D.I.L had the fied chicken and mrsdrron a fried oyster basket.

.

.
Our son had the fried shrimp Po boy with fried okra.

.

Certainly cheap.Without drinks food for the 7 came to just over $100.As well as the mains 2 starters,a shared plate of salad and 4 desserts.
Good,simple comfort food.So when in the South give it a try.

 

[drron]

After lunch our family went and did their thing whilst we drove around the residential old town and then Patriots Point before getting back to the hotel.So the pics.First the museum at the markets run by the Daughters of the Confederacy.Unfortunately closed.

.
Now the Calhoun house.

.

.
Calhoun was VP under both John Quincy adams and Andrew Jackson.He fell out with Adams and switched support to Jackson.However fell out with him.On both occasion the problem was high Tariffs the North wanted which hurt the Southern states economies.He resigned as VP but towards the end of his second term and he led talk of secession in 1832.Both in Charleston and Savannah a lot of the locals feel this was the real cause of the Civil War.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

 

[drron]

A lot of money tied up in real estate here.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.
The front corner apartment in that last holds the highest sale price in the area-18.5 million.

.

 

[drron]

The last of our drive in the old town.First rainbow alley then the old cigar factory.

.

.

The drive over Ravenel bridge.

.

.

Then to Patriot point marina where we caught the early stage of the sunset-too cold to stay longer.

.

.
Good views also of the USS Yorktown.

.

.

.

 

[drron]

We thought New years day was cold but Tuesday was even colder.We awoke to the setting on the moon.

.

.

.

Time to checkout of the Springhill suites.Basically the only recognition of status you get is the welcome and points amenity.At both the Courtyard and here we noted we were in one of the smallest rooms on the floor.In our son's room they had a bath but no bathplug.He went to reception to be told we dont keep bath plugs,bad luck.So he bought a cheap one.

Today's plan was to do a Fort Sumpter cruise and then drive to Savannah.The cruises didn't run on New Years Day.We went to visit a park to see the Pineapple fountain.An interesting little stop with this sign at the entrance.

.
But why would you wade when this was the water's edge.

.
There was another fountain that reflected the cold.

.

.

.
The wind had blown water over the steps and it was now ice.An interesting demonstration when I walked back to the car.I waited for a car to pass before I crossed the road.The car hit a grate and water splashed over the road.by the time I got across the road that water had turned to ice.
A nice waterfront park with the Pineaple fountain.

.

.

 

[drron]

It was also a spot to view Fort Johnson.Fort Sumpter is a little further out.

.
Now we thought New Years Day was cold but at 1030 when we left the car to go to the ferry the temp was 26F.
On board the ferry and a good spot to see the Yorktown and the bridge.

.

.
Nearby a car transporter.

.
We passed Fort Johnson on our way to Fort Sumpter.At this point an escort from 2 dolphins-mother and youngster by the look of it.Too quick to get photos.Also because of the cold the camera at times refused to work until it had warmed up.

.
Also passed the Crystal Serenity on the way in.

.

About half an hour before we reached the fort.

.

.

.

 

[drron]

The view from Fort Sumpter back towards Charleston.

.

.

.

.
Charleston and Fort Sumpter after 2 years of Union Bombardment.

.

.

.

.

.

 

[drron]

During the Spanish American war they placed a large battery here.

.
People playing with guns.

.

.

.

.
The large gun was the largest produced during the Civil War but never placed at Fort Sumpter.The smaller one is from Fort Sumpter.

.

.

.

.
And on the shore Fort Moultrie wher the Union force was based but moved to Fort Sumpter the night South Carolina seceded.

.

 

[drron]

We then set off to Savannah.A detour to Beaufort where our son wanted to take the children to a kazoo factory.Poorly signposted and when we got there decided it was just for kids so whilst they made their kazoos we went on and checked into the Fairfield Inn Downtown.For once we did get upgraded to a ;larger room.
.

.

.

.

.
The view.Well.....

.

 

[Katie]

So lunch was at this place-

.

We had a tasty southern meal at Jestine's. I had shrimp and grits - I think for the first time. Yummy!

 

[drron]

Don't worry the shrimp and grits is coming.
But first it is dinner in Savannah.It was now literally freezing.Temp 30FOnly about 18F below average for this time of year.So it was Corleone's Italian restaurant a block from the hotel.I had the mussels linguine.For $2 extra I had a soup.The chunkiest tomato bisque but excellent.Really wasn't a soup but no worries-

.

.
Mrsdrron had the veal marsala with fettucine and D.I.L the lasagna.

.

.
Son had penne marinara with Italian sausage.

.
One granddaughter had pizza and finished the lot.

.
The others chicken tenders and fries.

.

 

[drron]

Well if we thought it was cold on Tuesday night we were in for a surprise.On the 11am weather report the temp was 26F with the wind chill at 9F.The view from our room at 1115,1140 and 1330-

.

.

.
So our activity for the day was a very slow drive around the city.Everything basically was closed.No public transport,museums closed and the vast majority of restaurants closed-even McDonalds.Some pictures.

.

.
So a memorial to the 500 freed Haitian slaves who fought with the Continental army in the battle for Savannah.It only took 228 years for them to get a memorial.

.
Savannah – Haitian History
Note in the photo in that link there are only 4 figures.Now 6.They hadn't raised enough money when the memorial was first unveiled to complete it.Sad.
Nobody wanted a rental bike-

.
Then again the power source to free them probably wasn't working.

.

.

 

[drron]

The monument for Nathaneal Greene the commander of the Continental army in the south.His remains are her in Johnson Square-

.

.
This is the Memorial in Wright sqare to William Washington Gordon who was president of a local railway and bank.He had created controversy in life when the railway but a line through the Creek Indians primary burial site and in death when this monument destroyed the Burial site of the Creek cheif who encouraged the original settlers to have the site of Savannah.His granddaughter in law was aghast and had a new memorial to the chief,Tomochichi,to be built in the same square.A granddaughter of George Washington who founded the American Girl Scouts was born in his Savannah house which is now the Girl scouts museum.

.

.
Then this one-

.
But some of the plants were not appreciating the weather-

.
It certainly came down.the following pics all taken in the main shopping street.

.

.

.

.
Probably not the best day for an ice cream.

 

[drron]

Now scenes taken by mrsdrron on our drive.

.

.

.
But we did see a dinosaur throwing snowballs-

.

.

.

.

.

 

[drron]

The last of the Savannah snow.

.

.

.

.

.

.

And a tip on parking in Savannah.if you have a rental car all the hotels in Downtown savannah have a pretty high parking fee.However for $8 for 1 day or $14 for 2 days you can park at any meter or some parking garages for the 24/48 hours.You can get the pass from the Savannah Visitor's Centre Downtown.
Savannah, GA - Official Website - Visitor Parking Passes

 

[drron]

During the day ourson found an open ice cream place so the kids had ice creams.We found an open donut place-the best dang donuts in the South.So mrsdrron went in and bought a selection which we shared with family.Which meant by dinner time we were all hungry and all close restaurants were closed.So our son went for a walk and found a place near the City Markets which was open-Sorry Charlies oyster bar.A wait of an hour at 1700 so he put his name down and came back and told us.Mrsdrron and I decided to start off early as we are a little slow.About 40 metres from the restaurant we saw our family come from a different direction running.Aparently they text you and you have 10 minutes to turn up or the table is given away.They made it by 20 seconds but we still had about 20 minutes wait before seated.The place was jumping.
My son and I shared a pimento cheese on corn bread.I liked it.

.
Mrsdrron had fettucine with blue crab and our D.I.L had salmon on rice pilaf.

.

.
The kids all had a burger with a shared bowl of cheese fettucine.

.

.
My son and I had shrimp and grits and I had a side of hoppin John-not as good as Jestines.

.

.
So it turned out to be a quite reasonable night.With a bottle of wine,a couple of beers and tip it was $200.

 

[drron]

Thursday and the family wanted to go to the Girl Scouts museum-the home where the founder was born.However they could only get in at just before midday ans we really didn't want to wait as the transit to Orlando was probably going to be slow for the first bit.Indeed it was in town and on I 16.
A couple of vehicles in the ditch at unusual angles.When we got to I 95 the conditions were a bit better but still ice on the bridges.Another vehicle of to the side and then a slow section caused by 2 snowploughs colliding on a bridge.A lot just drive too fast for the conditions.I always slowed down for the bridges.Nearly witnessed another accident when a car had a wobble going over a long bridge and compounded it by braking hard.Very lucky nothing else around her.
After about 50 miles the snow and ice was gone so back to normal.The obligatory stop at the Florida welcome centre to get our free orange juice.

.
You dont get much!

Soon after turned off on highway 17 south until it reached I 4.Lots of police out.The fellow I had just overtaken was pulled up.But because he didn't change lanes passing a fire engine beside the road-it is a rule that you must give emergency vehicles a wide berth so move left.
I 4 was busy and stop start through Orlando due to a couple of rear enders.
Finally got to the HGVC Tuscany Village.
When I booked it I successfully got a 2 bedroom unit for the family but when I put in the senior and AAA rates for our booking only an accessible unit came up on both the resort's page and on Hilton.So I felt i had to take it.The prepaid rate was ~ half the cancellable rate so I took that thinking in this situation rates wouldn't go down.I rechecked about 3 hours later and then all unit types were available.So I rang Hilton who said i had to ring the resort so I did.They wouldn't let me change.
So the room-

.

.

.

.

.
To add insult to injury the room is in the middle of the ground floor with the lifts right outside so very noisy.

 

[drron]

The rest before the storm.A couple of days to brace ourselves for 4 days of Disney.Friday the family went to Universal Studios and mainly the Harry potter experience.The adults thought it a chore.7.5 hours in queues,0.5 hours on rides and 2 hours walking around.General admission $165 for adults(over 10)Children 3-9 $160 and if you want express passes an extra $90 each.Express passes halved the waiting time.
Rated value for money-2/10.
Now to our meals.Early dinner on thursday was at Longhorn Steakhouse-closest restaurant.Mrsdrron had a half rack of ribs,I the pork chops.We both had a sweet potato + 1 other side.

.

.
Reasonable quality at a reasonable price.

Friday and a walk out the side gate to the Outlet mall.Not much bought but met up with mrsdrron's sister and our neice.They wanted to go to Red Lobster.I had the south west shrimp tacos.the girls shared plates of king crab legs.

.

,