Tybee Time

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes!  After an incredible Christmas, Tim and I woke up to sunshine in Savannah.  Sunshine means the temperature drops about 10 degrees but we didn’t mind.  We ate a breakfast of seafood and beignets, while we waited for Tim’s sister, Christy and her husband Dylan to arrive for the weekend with their daughter Ellie.

Captivated by Huey's Beignets

We then all climbed aboard a Savannah trolley for a tour around this historic city.  We discovered that Savannah is a city of superlatives.  Every building is “largest….”, oldest…”, “first…”, or “most…”.    We heard history, ghost stories and architectural facts that enriched the exploration we’d been doing on our own.

Christy, Dylan and Ellie in front of Forsyth Fountain

Mid tour, we hopped off the bus and went to lunch at the Pirate House.  Here we dined on Southern cuisine in the same tavern that inspired Robert Lewis Stevenson to write Treasure Island.  This large rambling building included it’s own series of superlatives including oldest free standing  building in GA, most pirate haunts, and definitely best Southern lunch buffet.

Our next stop was the less historic, but possibly more infamous Wet Willy Daquiri Bar where we laughed at Dylan’s tales of his trips overseas as a Navy seaman.   Dylan and Christy then returned to their hotel with Ellie and Tim and I went out shucking.  We settled into our favorite oyster bar, Bernies, and proceeded to perfect our shucking skills as we worked our way through 3 dozen barnacle covered oysters.

Oysters by the Bucket

While we shucked, we started chatting with our neighbors.   There we met Scott and Tim from Minnesota who were in Savannah on their way to a wrestling tournament.  Though family men and wrestling coaches, they were there to party.   Scott decided that our next stop should be Savannah’s famed Dueling Piano Bar – Savannah Smiles.

Once inside the bar, we leaned back and enjoyed the show.  For those who’ve never been to a Dueling Piano Bar, it’s hilarious.   Dancing on stage, bawdy tunes and golden oldies are all on the agenda.  Somehow our 55 year old, Minnesotan, college wrestling coach, father of 3, friend Scott snuck up on stage twice where he break danced until the bouncers escorted him out of the bar.  I never guessed that you could actually be kicked out of a Piano Bar, but this guy was one of a kind.  Savannah Frowned on Minnesota Scott.

Jones Street

This morning we woke up early to meet Dylan, Christy and Ellie for breakfast.   After a morning of more exploration, Tim and I said good bye to Savannah and drove out to Tybee Island.   15 miles from the City, Tybee is where the Savannah River meets the Atlantic.   Here we drove into our campground and met Bob the camp host.

Bob was the first to introduce us to the concept of Tybee Time.  On this island, time matches your agenda.  For some it’s fast, for some it’s slow, but don’t count on others’ time to match your own…that’s Tybee Time.  He also recommended we head out to the beach on our bikes.  We were eager to follow his advice.

Tybee Beach

Within 15 minutes of parking Frank, we’d dressed in bike clothes and began our first real exercise in the last 4 days.   We rode past Tybee’s charming beach residences out to the sand.  Here the surface is so packed down that you can easily ride your bike down the beach.  Just don’t chase the birds, we were warned, but everything else is fair game.

Biking the Beach

We then pedaled down the coast line.  Tybee isn’t a beach town that empties out in the winter.  Here residents live full time and the beach is their playground.   Even at 50 degrees we saw surfers, swimmers, horseshoe players, and shell hunters everywhere.   It’s got great energy.   We finished our bike ride with a final bucket of oysters while we watched football at the local beach bar.

Tonight we gave Frank a cleaning in preparation for houseguests.  Tomorrow we pick up Jimmie and Keri Shell and drive down to Key West…we’re ready for warm weather!