Savannah: Part Deux 4: Barbecue, baby

Vacationing is amazing. Amazing.

Last night after lounging, Joey and I took a ride on the Savannah River Queen and saw some river life and landmarks.

The Waving Girl statue was pretty nifty. The boat captain/tour guide gave us the whole spiel behind the statue. Including the Waving Girl's abnormally large feet.
It's quite a story, so I'll tell y'all when I get back.

One half of the river, past the downtown district, is part of an island and still looks like there's a good amount of grasslands around. The other side is full of industries: ship builders, import/export businesses, etc...
I think my favorite was the exotic wood importer that also happened to export scrap metal.
I feel like it's going to end up on a House episode featuring Typhoid fever combined with tetanus.

For dinner we headed up to Vic's on the River for some (more) delicious Southern Cookin'.
I had shrimp & grits with andouille sausage and a ham gravy.
Best. Grits. Ever.
And I usually don't really like ham, but the ham gravy was surprisingly delicious. Really, really light with just a slight kick to the aftertaste. The shrimp were fresh-caught and were completely, utterly fantastic and have probably ruined me for shrimp for at least the next 3 months.

I will learn to make grits.

Joey had grouper with a Parmesan risotto and succotash. I had a bite...which was good, but not quite as good as his duck from the night before.

Dessert: Sweet potato creme brulee.
Oh sweet southern god of desserts!
Melt-in-yo'-mouth perfection. (And our Mint Juleps were pretty smashing too.)

We were going to try to go on a "haunted" carriage ride around town, but by the time we got to the take-off point the area had been commandeered by a four-foot, three-inch, crazed, middle-aged gestapo lady with "lists" of her "party members" that she was trying to subdivide into "groups."
The poor "haunted tour" attendant looked like he was ready to throw off his ye-olden-day cap and grab a scotch. He took the time to tell us they were all booked for the night, though. Oops.
Maybe tonight? Or next time?

We decided to head to Stogies, a cigar bar, for some drinks and such. After our first drink, both Joey and I confessed to gurgling, unhappy stomaches, so we came back to the hotel and watched the Discovery channel. We're totally hip.

We went to bed kind of early (the heat wears us out and Man Vs. Wild wasn't on...) and got up by 8:30, even though we said we were going to sleep in.

After shopping around for some stuff and peeking in the windows of the Savannah College of Art and Design's windows, we headed back to Sweet Leaf for lunch.

You know, I don't think I have ever liked a restaurant as much as I like Sweet Leaf. The atmosphere is incredible, the customers are always all over the board and the servers are really friendly.

And then there's the food.
Ohhhh, ohhh, the food.

Joey ordered the sampler platter, which had smoked ribs, pulled pork, chipped beef, and smoked chicken breast. On the side, he got the devil's eggs and the smokey baked beans. I took lots of bites.
Everything. Rocked. Hard.

I had the chipped beef plate with potato salad and the collared greens. I can't get enough of their collards. The beef just fell apart the second my fork touched it and melted away in my mouth. I want to ship a giant barrel of their food home. I even like the potato salad, and I rarely like potato salad. Mmmm.....

So after lunch we went back to meandering and sightseeing and galavanting and such.
After coming back to the hotel, taking a quick dip in the pool and showering off, we're ready to head back out for dinner at The Crab Shack.

Rachael Ray went there on $40 a Day, and Captain Ron and the Mrs. Wilkes' crew all recommend it, so it has to be incredible.

I think we're planning on heading back out to Tybee Island to watch the sun set over the ocean... mmm, romantic evening!

I love y'all, and I can't wait to see you!

We'll be flying back tomorrow at noon and spending the night in Indy, retrieving our pups early Friday morning. I miss the boys! I hope Porter doesn't think he's been re-abandoned...

Friday afternoon and all day Saturday will be spent mooooving. Ugh! There's so much to pack! So much to unpack! So much to clean! Eek! But then Sunday we'll be back up in NWI for a few days.

I can't believe it's already August.

xo!