March 18th, 2017 (Written by Jason)
The next morning was like recovering from one particular scene in the exorcist (you know the one). I forgot that taking Lexapro cuts my alcohol tolerance in half. It was a day full of working, driving, eating very little, drinking, and staying up very late. I was so hung over that the light burned me like garlic on a vampire. We sat up in our bed and ate some more of the soda bread that I had made for the trip. I had countless glasses of water and we both took our showers and got ready to head out for lunch.We walked down to River Street. We were greeted by the horn of a river boat.
We had decided that we wanted to go to the Cotton Exchange on this trip as we do most times we visit Savannah. We walked into the door and were greeted by the hostess. A waiter led us upstairs where we had a nice view of the water and the street outside. We however do not have a photo of this... deal with it. I ordered some fried chicken with potato salad and DaNae ordered a grilled chicken salad.
If you like fried chicken and you are in Savannah, you would be doing a disservice to yourself if you don't try it at the Cotton Exchange. While we were eating, the waiter told us how annoyed he was with all of the completely trashed people coming into the restaurant. He explained that it wasn't even the customers, it was a particular co-worker that he was really frustrated by. It was precisely at that moment, a very familiar face walked up the stairs. I noticed that this person was wearing an apron and carrying a notepad to take orders on. It was the very sketchy guy before that we had seen at a number of bars and on the streets. I have to admit, I was impressed that this guy was able to peel himself off his mattress and make it in to work the next day. As we finished our meal, we decided to do a bit of people watching. The crowds slowly began to thicken and we noticed a stark contrast to the composition of this group. These were all working class people, they must have been working and unable to make the trip last night. It was probably wise of them to wait and not exhaust themselves trying to make it the same day. Our waiter came back and brought the check and with a wink he warned us not to get into too much trouble. We handed him our card and after all of the business was taken care of, we headed downstairs and out into the fray. One of our favorite things to do in Savannah is to go look at all of the antique shops to see the interesting things that they have. There is one store there that has sort of a hidden door on the floor. If you know me then you know, I have a problem with doors that are closed. The last time we were there however I think I glimpsed some water through a crack in the door. After we left I wasn't really sure if that was totally accurate so during this trip I just had to find out. We walked up to bay street and we soon found out that not a single antique store in town was open. I was heart broken, but after thinking for a moment I realized that I would never have let a mass amount of drunken jackasses in my store either. After this we decided to go back down to river street and try some free candy samples at River Street Sweets. The candy was amazing as usual, but we ended up not buying anything. We decided to head back up to bay street to see what sort of trouble we could *not* get into.
After browsing shops for a little bit we decided to walk around the town. Savannah has a number of squares in the area so we set out to see them. It was a nice breezy walk and the further away we got from River Street, the more the peaceful and serene features of the city started to stand out. There were a number of fountains, all of which had been "greened" for the season. There were also quite a few SCAD students chilling out in hammocks and either relaxing or reading. We decided to sit down in a park where some art students were painting and enjoy the day. While we were sitting a small dog ran over to me and jumped into my lap. I petted him and his family apologized and got him down. I told them that it was fine and that they have a very cute dog. We snapped a picture of the dog as they walked away.
While we were enjoying the sound of the wind in the trees and the sights of families and friends playing in the park we heard some growling and barking off to the side. We looked and there were about four people with two pit-bulls. The pitbulls were going at it. One would attack the other and then a counter attack would mount. The four people were just laughing at the dogs. Everyone was visibly angry and a few people ran over to them to tell them to break up the fight. They were very mad that not only were they letting these dogs attack each other but they were presenting a bad image for pit-bulls. Everyone thinks of them as such violent dogs because of displays like this. They shouted at the people to make them get control of the fight and finally they did.
After a bit we decided that we wanted to go back to the action and see how Day 2 of the festival was going. On the way back we couldn't help but to stop in Colonial Park Cemetery. We have mentioned this place before, so I won't go into all of the details but it was nice to get one last moment of peace before jumping back into the chaos.
Upon retuning we noted that there was a little coffee shop on Bay street and my head was still a little fuzzy from the night before. We agreed to go in and get a cup of coffee for me and a couple of pastries that caught our attention from the glass. We ended up with an almond pastry and a macaron. We have a wonderful macaron shop in midtown so I was a little curious how this place would measure up. I ordered a black Americano and the pastries and we sat down.
After our late day snack we decided to walk along the water front and feel the cool air brush across our skin. We waded through the throngs of people and made our way to the edge. Right or left? That was the question. We decided to take a left and walk as far as we could. That turned out not to be very far so we turned around and walked the rest of the way. After a bit we decided that with the crowds it would be best to put in a reservation because we knew that there was a good chance that we would want to go eat in the next hour and a half. We walked over to Huey's on the River and placed a reservation for two. We felt completely justified when we heard that our wait time was going to be an hour and fourty-five minutes. We decided that any place around the area was likely to be just as long so we confirmed the reservation. We went out into the bay area to sit and wait. There was a lot of fun people watching for sure.
I much preferred waiting with this group of people, they were there to have a good time but not to start shit like so many other people the night before. You could tell that these people had families and responsibilities and they just needed a break. We sat there for almost an hour and fourty-five minutes exactly when my phone went off and we were alerted that a tables was ready. We made our way in and there was quite possibly the loudest table in the history of restaurants diagonal to us. We kept waiting on them to finish eating and leave but we had no such luck. Occasionally the women at the table would flash some of the other women at the table to mess with them. I guess that is some kind of game they had going on. The waitress came over and took our order and we both ordered gumbo. Mine came with grits and DaNae ordered hers with rice. She also got some sort of lemon sorbet mixed drink. The food was fantastic, in fact the food was so great that we decided to get an order of beignets with praline sauce. They were fluffy and delicious. It was like eating a sugary cloud.
While we were eating the other table grew more and more obnoxious and our waitress came over and said "I am so tired of this fucking shit." we agreed. She then went on to say that it is always those kinds of people who will dine and dash. At first we agreed, but then we realized what she had meant. She was talking about the fact that they were Black. It was very uncomfortable for the rest of the time we were there and I am ashamed to admit that I didn't say anything to her about it. It is honestly one of those moments of weakness that will likely haunt me forever...
After dinner, we walked around a little more and decided to go back to the room. DaNae put up some photos on facebook and not too long after that she got a response that one of her old friends was staying in Savannah at the same time and they were there for her birthday. We eventually found out that we were literally staying in the same hotel and they asked if we wanted to meet up for drinks. We were both into it so we relaxed for a bit and got ready to head out again. We met them in the lobby and headed across the street to Churchill's. We got a couple of drinks and waited for some room on the balcony. We talked about random cool things and just kind of hung out. Finally some space opened up and we headed upstairs. We traded off buying rounds of drinks and generally having a good time. We mentioned on more than one occasion how unlikely it was that we were all there at the same time and how well it turned out. After the night started winding down, we were exhausted and decided to head back to our room at 12:30 a.m.
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