Greetings from The Sunshine State! Also know as Florida! So, as promised, here’s my post about Savannah!

What is Savannah most known for? Well, it is a little town with some a southern charm, they have twenty-two squares, and amazing oak trees! As early as 1891, trees were planted in an organized manner along streets and boulevards, and in parks and squares. It is very pretty and it gives lots of shade on hot days. One of the oak trees is two hundred years old! Its trunk was super wide, I could probably fit… ten of me inside it standing side by side next to each other! The tree was all fenced off, so that means that they are going to protect it for years to come! Savannah is also the birthplace of Juliettte Gordon Low the founder of Girls Scouts USA! I’m sure that if I wasn’t a world traveler, I would probably be a Girl Scout, because my dad used to be a Boy Scout. Are you familiar with the movie Forrest Gump? It was filmed in Chippewa Square. There is a scene where he is sitting on a bench waiting for the bus, and he said: “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Unfortunately, the bench isn’t in the square anymore because the city of Savannah took it out and put it in the museum.

City of Savannah:

Let’s take out the Forrest Gump bench out of Chippewa Square, redo the entire square, and make everyone pay to see the famous bench and not even be able to sit on it anymore!

Tourists: 😑

Soooooo, really, it’s better just to go to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., a restaurant inspired by the Forrest Gump movie. I just went over and sat on the bench there 🤷🏽‍♀️ My picture below was taken at Universal City Walk in Orlando. On the bench there is a suitcase and a box of chocolates, and you can put your feet in the shoes that Forrest used to run across America in. Fun!

Sooo, like a said before, Savannah had twenty-two squares, each of them named after an influential person that has contributed to the establishment of Savannah. This city was founded in 1733 by General James Oglethorpe. According to Wikipedia, the first squares were originally intended to provide colonists space for practical reasons such as militia training exercises. But now they are just places where you can hang out or sit and relax. We arrived around lunch time so we checked in at the hotel.

We stayed at the Andaz Hotel, which is located close to the Savannah River. What we love about this hotel was it has a swimming pool and they give complimentary snacks and drinks! Savannah is a very walkable city, so we walked to the waterfront to eat lunch. It was nice around the riverfront because the buildings are made of bricks and the roads are cobblestone. The perfect balance between old and new! We walked around to visit the shops, and we bought some food made in Savannah, like the cookies from Byrd’s! They have different flavors of cookies, and they have been making cookies since 1924! I loved all the little free samples they gave out! (Everything’s better when it’s free!) My mom loves tea so she bought tea made in Savannah. And that’s really all we bought in Savannah… just food. Because y’ know I realize now that I don’t need stuff, as fun as having things is. I find myself happier when I’ve giving my toys away to other kids who might not have any! 😄😊

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Top left: Andaz Hotel, Andaz Hotel Pool, cobble stone street close to the waterfront, Whitefield Square, sidewalk with oak trees.

My parents booked a trolley tour after we ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant. We wanted to learn more about Savannah, so we took a trolley tour. The trolley had fifteen stops, which totaled to one hour if you just stayed on the trolley for the whole time and didn’t get out. It took us to the historic district, the waterfront, around the twenty-two squares, and to Forsyth Park. There is sooooo much history in Savannah… Some of the attractions in Savannah are:

Julliette Gordon Low’s Birthplace. As I mentioned earlier she’s the founder of Girls Scout USA. Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters. Back in the eighteenth century, Georgia relied on lots of African slaves to work in the plantations. Good thing that’s not the case anymore!

A building that stood out to me was Telfair Hospital. It was built by a wealthy woman named, Mary Telfair. The tour guide told us that she built the hospital only for women, a place run entirely by women, for women. She said that the only way a boy could get in her hospital is, if he was born there. And even then, she would only give him three days to get outta there! I have nothing but respect for this lady. (Just to be clear, I DONT hAtE men, but the fact that Mary Telfair started this hospital just for women is pretty cool 😎) The pictures below are of the Telfair Hospital, Cathedral of Saint John, some random beautiful buildings, and my mom’s shrimp and grits breakfast. I like grits. Do you like grits?

We hopped out at Forsyth Park to take picture of the beautiful fountain. Also in this park, is a monument that pays tribute to the Confederate army. The interesting story about this monument is, it was made in Canada. After the American civil war, the tension between North and South was still high. So the Ladies Memorial Association commissioned a Robert Reid a Canadian sculptor. He used materials from Canada. And from Canada it arrived in Savannah through the Atlantic Ocean. They really don’t want the monument to touch any northern part of America. The monument was dedicated on May 24 of 1875.

You can watch my YouTube video at the end of this post to see more of Savannah! The pictures below are the Forsyth Fountain, Oak trees in the park with lots of Spanish moss hanging on them, Confederate Monument, Riverboat Cruise. When you’re at the riverfront, those freighters passing by carrying precious cargoes were so huge to look at.

Okay, one last thing! Ice cream! Our last stop was at Leopolds Ice Cream! Their specialty flavor is tutti frutti so of course I tried their tutti fruitti! It was delicious, it’s a very frutti fruity, and there were some nuts in it. Leopolds ice cream was founded in 1919, and it gives the people of Savannah super premium ice cream because it is made in small batches using French pot process! I’m not sure how that works, but it’s really, really yummy! Definitely a must if you ever visit Savannah!

Over all, I had a great time visiting Savannah, Georgia! There are lot’s more things I haven’t done in Savannah, so I might visit it again in the future! After Savannah, we headed to our final-but-not-so-final destination in Orlando Florida! Yay! Oh, and you can click here to read my post about finally coming home to Florida! Stay tuned everyone, exciting things are yet to come to arielaonthego!

Take care, bye for now!