Merry Christmas from South Carolina!

We went to Bluffton, South Carolina to spend Christmas with my folks and took in a few sights while we were there...

We went downtown Bluffton to take a walking tour of the Heyward House.  We got there pretty early so we took a walk around the block and landed here, at Vineyard 55. 

Having a pre-tour refreshment...

On to the tour...  This is the (back of) The Heyward House, built as a summer home for a local plantation owner, was constructed CIRCA 1840 and is one of only eight antebellum homes remaining in the Low country coastal town of Bluffton.

In the sitting room the mirror on the wall is etched with the following:

JW Co. E

115th NY

Flee Rebels

Hell Is Here

12 July 1863

The original slave cabin built in 1841.

The outdoor kitchen.

The Church of the Cross built in 1857.

The view from the side yard of the church... Beautiful!

Pizza, pizza, pizza...Stu and Dad put the finishing touches on their masterpieces!

Yummmmmmy!

On the 23rd we went to Savannah, Georgia for the night, we got there early and took a walk around and saw this on a 3rd floor balcony...  Here in Cosby the locals put couches and appliances on their porches! 

A few shots of the beautiful live oak trees draped with Spanish moss (you'll see lots more of these...along with several random beautiful old buildings all decked out for Christmas).

We took a walking tour of the historic district, and got lucky, we were the only ones on the tour!

Wright Square and the William Washington Gordon monument.  Gordon was the founder and president of the Central of Georgia Railroad.

The original Tomo-Chi-Chi Monument, which paid tribute to the Chief of the Yamacraw Indians, and friend and ally to James Oglethorpe and the first Georgia colonists, was a pyramid of stone which was placed over his burial site in the center of Wright Square. Some 150 years later, it was decided that his burial site was the most fitting place for the monument to William Washington Gordon. . Tomo-Chi-Chi’s grave site was bulldozed in the early 1880s, and the monument to Gordon erected in its place.


It is said that Gordon’s widow felt bad about the desecration of the Indian Chief’s grave, and worked with the Colonial Dames of the State of Georgia to obtain a granite boulder from the Stone Mountain Monument Company to memorialize the life and death of the man who was indispensable to the founding and success of the Georgia Colony. This massive granite boulder stands in the southeast corner of Wright Square.

Juliette Gordon Low was the founder of the Girl Scouts.

Chippewa Square is at the center of the downtown historic district. The Square is also known for the famous park bench scenes from the critically acclaimed film Forrest Gump. In the opening shot of the film, a feather floats high above the trees, then sweeps down past the Independent Presbyterian Church and makes its way toward Chippewa Square, eventually landing at the base of a park bench. Tom Hanks, who plays the role of Forrest, sits on this park bench for about 80% of the film telling his life story to anyone who will listen. The bench that he sat on has since been removed and placed in the Savannah History Museum.

A drain spout in the shape of a dolphin which were said to be a sign of good luck and prosperity, pretty neat!

Savannah, Georgia, is America's first planned city. General James Edward Oglethorpe and 114 settlers arrived from England and founded Savannah in 1733. He designed his new capital as a series of neighborhoods centered around 24 squares.

Kind of looks like a pirate doesn't he??

The Green-Mildrim Mansion - "Sherman's Headquarters"
General William Tecumseh Sherman used this house as headquarters from Dec 22, 1864, until Feb 1 1865.  Charles Green offered the use of his home to General Sherman and his staff.  The house was built for Green, a British subject, residing in Savannah prior to 1854.  Cost of construction of this house in the 1850's totalled $93,000.00.

General Sherman presented President Abraham Lincoln with the city of Savannah for Christmas in 1864.

The Savannah Volunteer Guards organized in 1802.  As infantry the Corps fought in the War of 1812, Indian Wars and as a battalion in 1861, serving with distinction in defense of Savannah and Charleston.  In the spring of 1863 joined Lee's Army at Petersburg.  On April 16, 1865 serving in he rear guard on the retreat to Appomattox having been reduced to 85 men, 23 were killed, 35 wounded and the remainder captured.
 


These two cannons were found buried near by.

General Count Casimir Pulaski was memorialized for his loyalty to the cause of liberty during the American Revolutionary War. Pulaski, who was born in Lithuania, began his military career by rebelling against Stanislaw II, the last King of Poland. Having been condemned to death for his actions in Poland, he escaped and made his way to Paris. In Paris he was recruited by Benjamin Franklin to join the American cause for liberty. After arriving in America in July 1777, Pulaski was commissioned a brigadier-general. Before organizing his ow legion in Maryland, he fought with General Washington in Brandywine and Germantown.


General Pulaski was mortally wounded on the 9th of October 1779 while fighting with the Pulaski Legion in the Siege of Savannah.

The Mercer House (from the movie/book Midnight in the garden of good and evil) was designed by New York architect John S. Norris for General Hugh W. Mercer, great grandfather of Johnny Mercer. Construction of the house began in 1860, was interrupted by the Civil War and was later completed, circa 1868, by the new owner, John Wilder.

In 1969, Jim Williams, one of Savannah’s earliest and most dedicated private restorationists, bought the then vacant house and began a two-year restoration. This house is one of the more than 50 houses Mr. Williams saved during his thirty-year career in historic restoration in Savannah and the Low country.

The trim work around the windows of this great old house looked a little different...  Our guide told us that is is iron that is now rusted!
Now that's different!

Heading into Forsyth Park, with the Forsyth Fountain in the distance.

The Fountain was created in 1858 and received extensive restoration in 1988.

The Fountain is a large, ornate, two-tiered cast-iron fountain topped by a classically robed female figure standing holding a rod. Water comes from this rod into the top basin. At the base of the pedestal, jutting out from every other octagonal side, are four blocks on which stood originally, four tritons (half man and half sea serpent) each with his left hand on his waist and his right hand holding a shell-horn, through which water is spouted in an arc. Four spouting swans were also added to the pool; they are located farthest out, around the pool.

Our guide walked us over to see one of the oldest live oak trees in Savannah.

Pretty impressive!

I think we need one of these in our front yard!

Off to the Bayou Cafe for lunch!

Fried pickles to start...

Oh so Southern!

Walking on the river front...

Ellis Square

We stopped in to see the Savannah Historic Museum which owns more than 10,000 artifacts and showcases the city’s fascinating history from its founding to the present day.
 

This canoe was carved out of one piece of wood!

The Cotton Gin.

A local dental office from 1919.

The more things change the more they stay the same!

One of the prop benches used in the Forrest Gump movie.

A 1902 Crestmobile, I wonder if Jay Leno has one of these?!

Christmas Eve morning we took a walk through the Bonaventure Cemetery, by the way anyone looking for the "bird girl" statue from the cover of the book "Midnight in the garden of good and evil", she's not there anymore...  She is in the Telfair museum of Art, in the historic district.  Fortunately it was a beautiful day for a walk and the cemetery was a great place to do it, right on the water, great old trees, interesting grave stones and of course, very quiet.

Back in Bluffton, another beautiful day!  We had great weather, most days were in the 70's...nice!

We met my folks for lunch at the Squat n Gobble...

One of the local fancy joints...

A couple of shots of the "lake" and golf course behind Mom and Dad's house.

Christmas Day we had Larry and Sue, join us for dinner.  They are old friends and ex-neighbors from Upton (Maine) of Mom and Dad's they now live in Bluffton.

And of course the family shot...