The Chilly South

Last week’s vacation in Florida, with an overnight in Savannah, was really nice but not exactly what we expected.  The areas we went to were beautiful and, except for one day, the sun was bright.  Unfortunately, it was also downright cold in Florida.  Well, cold compared to what Florida should be like in the winter.

A Square in Savannah

In Savannah, we took the trolley tour around the old town area.    Brought back memories of when I went to Savannah with 2 other ladies and 12 12-year-old Girl Scouts way back in the Dark Ages.

Savannah City Market

Our trolley was the

automotive type, not the horse and carriage.  Maybe we’ll do that next time.  Great food in Savannah, by the way, at Tapas by Anna and at Molly MacPherson’s Scottish Pub & Grill.  The latter had a sandwich to die for.

Indian River, Jensen Beach

Jensen Beach was the prettiest part of that section of Florida but we were not impressed by the beach road.  We’re used to actually being able to see the ocean from a beach road, not one high-priced mansion or highrise condo building after
another.

Then there was St. Augustine.  Now, I have no idea what it’s like to live and/or work there but it was just as cool for a

Old St. Augustine

tourist as it was when I was a teenager all those many moons ago.  It was cold and rainy the day we walked around the Old Town so we didn’t see it all and the return trip on the open-air trolley was pretty nearly pure misery but we survived.  We had taken the full trolley tour the day before when it was sunny and were glad we’d done so.

Never got to see the beach at St. Augustine so that’ll have to wait for another trip, hopefully when it’s much warmer.  Another surprise (to us)—there’s a vehicle fee to get to the beaches.  Not a stiff fee and you can get a season pass but still… The beaches in Virginia and North Carolina, the ones we’re so used to, are free to everyone.  Then again, maybe if our mid-Atlantic beaches did charge a fee, they could afford to re-sand more often, a continuing necessity.

And St. Augustine has this, perhaps the most spectacular example of a live oak  in the whole southeast—the 650-year-old, + or -, glorious tree in the middle of a Howard Johnson’s parking lot.  Awesome piece of nature.

Old Senator

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March 5, 2010   Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller

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