The night before, I had taken all the dog gear over to Lisa and Ryan’s and had set it up. Such a good idea! We just brought them over, popped them into their crates, grabbed some breakfast and started out trek southward. The drive was status quo – long and uneventful. About 4 hours in, we made the final decision to push back our arrival time in Tampa and take some time to explore Savannah after determining that it really is only 10 minutes off I-95. What I didn’t know was the route we were taking took us over the scariest, highest bridge!! It probably would have been better had Jim been driving, but we made it over safe and sound.
We pulled into the welcome center, grabbed a map, and talked with the trolley operator to find out where was good to eat. He suggested The Pirate House, a converted house from back in the day where they would Shanghai people (yadda yadda yadda – Jim would not let me keep my place mat with all the info on it…)
So anyways, we made our way along the main road and into the historical part of Savannah. I was totally expecting the city to be more like Charleston, but it had its own kind of feeling. The thing I really loved most were the trees. They were just so cool looking and I can imagine how spooky this place could be at Halloween!
We finally arrived at the Pirate House, got ourselves parked and put our names on the waiting list. We had just enough time to look around outside and listed to some poor girl dressed in pirate gear give some background on the place. We sat down about 20 minutes later and put our order in. Food was mediocre at best, but the she-crab soup was awesome (I said that a lot about meals that following week…)
We left full and took a walk along the riverfront – killing another hour or so before heading back to the car. I would definitely like to spend more time in Savannah, and really, it’s not that far from Charlotte.
So we got back in the car to finish up the remaining 5 or so hours of our trip.
Everything was going smoothly until we got to 301, where we were warned to stick to the speed limit. What people did not tell us is that the speed limit would go from 65 to 55 to 45 to 30 in like a mile span. It actually became comical at some point. But anyways, car trip details are boring and we did, in fact, make it Tampa around 8pm to check into the Intercontinental Tampa for the night. They had a fantastic park and cruise deal and the hotel was beautiful. The location was perfect with restaurants directly across the street and Panera and Walgreen’s down the road. The bed was huge with the most comfortable bedding mattress ever. I would not hesitate staying there again if in Tampa (no plans anytime soon for Tampa…sorry…not my ideal vacation spot!)
By now, we had not had dinner, we were tired, hungry and wanted nothing to do with extended sitting. Our choices at this point were PF Chang’s, Maggiano’s, Palm, or some fancy fish place. Everywhere at a 1-hour wait (at 9:00 people??? Come on!!) We decided to just share some food at Maggiano’s, hit up the free internet at the hotel and go to sleep. All in all, day one of our honeymoon was nice, if not exhausting!
Photos of the IC Tampa:
All day one photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimandjulieacuna/sets/72157622005312010/
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