Ya'll Come Back Now, Ya' Hear?

We got up early today--6:30 in fact, to get to The Lady and Sons by 7:30--we made it by 7:45. They open the doors at 9:00 (Slowvannah time--9:10ish) to give you a reservation time--well, they give you some choices--ours--11:00, 12:30--and we were the fourth in line to get a reservation. It's a good system so you're not standing in line waiting to eat, and you know exactly when to be back. We were there in time to hear them ring the dinner bell (triangle), which was fun. We were one of the first ones in the restaurant, three stories with a buffet on each floor. I contemplated the asparagus sandwich and the crab cake burger, but couldn't pass up the buffet to get a taste of everything. Ooooh, it was good. My mom is a great cook--a lot like Paula Deen--she can do butter beans, black-eyed peas, greens, cornsticks (cornbread in the shape of little corn cobs--cast-iron mold that you preheat in the oven so the cornbread is crispy on the outside), mashed potatoes (never instant), fried chicken, fried corn, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, fried-fill-in-the-blank, pot roasts, veggies seasoned with some kind of pork fat, and of course, sweet tea, just to name a few--she grew up in the South and while she's picked up some "gourmet habits," she's still a down-home, Southern cook. Many of these dishes are time intensive and not-so-very-good-for-you; therefore, my mom doesn't cook like this very often anymore...but Paula Deen's restaurant does. I had black-eyed peas, butter beans, green beans, okra and tomatoes, creamed corn, mac and cheese, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, fried chicken, cheese biscuits, and hoe cakes, and for dessert--banana pudding and peach cobbler. I had about two bites of everything (okay a chicken leg is more than two bites, and maybe three bites of mashed potatoes). It was delicious--all the veggies seasoned with most probably ham hocks and butter. The hoe cakes were cornbread poured on a griddle and fried crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. The fried chicken may actually be the best I've ever eaten. (Mom, you may have to make it for my birthday dinner--chicken legs, fried--just so I can compare since you haven't made it in so long.) It was juicy and well seasoned--mmm.

After we ate, we made a quick stop at the hotel then headed out to explore again. I can't say enough about the squares in Savannah. Each has its own personality. All of them have an abundance of live oaks; in only one, the trees are not dripping with Spanish moss--supposedly because of some of the deaths that occurred there. Each square is a respite in a place where the heat is worn like a coat in July and August. The shade makes walking the town just barely tolerable; it's just that hot.

This particular square is located within Forsyth Park--the largest green space in the city. Many of the others are small and intimate. Each has a few benches, one of them always occupied.

The number one money-maker in Savannah is shipping--when on the river front you can watch the gigantic freight ships cruise down the Savannah river to unload whatever products they're carrying. The number two industry is tourism. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Forrest Gump made that happen. Oh there've been a few others, but these two brought all kinds of revenue to Savannah. As a former English teacher, I'm a little ashamed to say I haven't read "The Book" as they call it in Savannah. I'm going to try to before school starts, though. Anybody have a copy they can loan me? I digress. Tourism is the number two industry. I'm going to assume that in the middle of the day, many of the people occupying those benches are tourists, or homeless, or people taking a break from work--it was hard to tell. Aside from the one or two homeless people packing everything they own in a shopping cart, it's hard to tell who is who. I'm going to have to assume that many of them are tourists. No one is in any hurry, no matter how they're dressed.

We had 8:15 p.m. reservations at The Olde Pink House--one of the nicer restaurants in Savannah--we're so glad we ate later, so we were actually hungry.

This is actually in our hotel lobby. : )

This is the best of two worlds--a crab cake sandwiched between fried green tomatoes--and both were the best of what we've had on this trip. The tomatoes were lightly breaded in a combination flour cornmeal batter. The crab cake had huge lumps of crab and very little filler. My entree was the crispy, scored flounder, Tim's a scallop dish. Both were excellent! When we finished dinner, we walked straight home--a whole block away. It's 10:43 here, and we're still not sure where we're headed tomorrow.