Georgia & South Carolina

We are now at mile 4572 / kilometer 7358 in our trip.

We decided to visit Savannah, Georgia on our way up the east coast. We did a trolley tour of the downtown historic district and saw some grand old homes that were surrounding beautiful parks every few blocks.

Armstrong House.

I loved the verandas.

Cathedral of St. John.

Stopped for lunch at The Olde Pink House and had some fried green tomatoes. Kinda overpriced, but still tasty.

This is the house where Juiliette Gordon Low (founder of the Girl Scouts) grew up.

Live Oak Trees covered in Spanish Moss.

Chippewa Square is the place where Forrest Gump was waiting at the bus stop with his box of chocolates. 

This is a still from the movie. The bench and bus platform were added just for the movie the movie. 

Forsyth Park.

We then drove further north to visit Charleston, South Carolina. We ended up taking a walking tour around the downtown historic district. It was interesting to learn that a lot of the peninsula that is now Charleston is landfill (~40%). It is also on a fault line, so some of the multi-million dollar houses near the tip of the peninsula are starting to sink a bit into the ground!

Church and courthouses.

In the 1800s, a slaves uprising was foiled; but the event scared the residents so some protected their property, for example this one added a security fence.

This is called a Charleston Single House, a long and narrow style house where the door that opens to the street actually only gives you access to the porch. All of these style houses were built with the porches facing the breeze.

Our tour group.

Marc liked this house because its street number was "0," which makes sense in programming where counting schemes start from 0.

Old remnant of the city wall.

One of the more famous streets with the multi-colored houses. Our tour guide was emphatic that there was no interesting story behind why these houses were these colors. But we did learn that nothing on the exterior of a house could be changed. Not a shutter, paint color, or add anything. If you wanted to replace a pane of glass, you would have to buy a matching old antique glass!

We also visited the Nathaniel Russell House, which was a historic home that our tour guide recommended. It was interesting to see, but overpriced tour in my opinion.

Formal dining room with bright teal walls.

Loved this staircase.

The formal sitting room, where you can only access the balcony by climbing out of the windows :)

At the end of the day we drove out of Charleston and camped near Lake Wateree. Next stop: North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia!