Discovering Savannah

There's never enough time to explore. I had a day and a half to myself to discover Savannah. I parked my little chocolate chip Fiat and set out on foot to see what I could see, quickly realizing it was much bigger than I'd thought. 

On the advice of a friend I made my way toward the riverfront, where ancient warehouses and shops had been made into restaurants, bars, candy stores and more shops. I bought myself some odd garments from Nepal at half price. If you want to know what Zickstyle is, this is it. Talbots material I am not. I suspect that twenty years hence I will still be wearing odd gaudy hand-pieced things, and still not caring whether anyone thinks it's age-appropriate. 

Litmus test: Walked into an Apple store upon returning to Columbus. Twenty-something "Genius" helping me stops, stares, says, "If I may say so, that hoodie you're wearing is AWESOME."

Well, all right. Thank you. That vote counts.

I lost myself in an antique mall and bought two busted up old ceramic toads. Unfortunately I somehow lost one of them. My bag was unzipped when it came out of planeside gate check, and the smaller one had fallen or been taken out. Thanks again, TSA. You suck out loud. Now you've lost or stolen a hand-made pennywhistle and a little ceramic toad I treasured. But I still have the big one, busted toes and all.

The antiques mall.  Yes, I was having loads of fun.

A late lunch at Crystal Beer Parlor. Crab stew and a Greek salad. Mmmm.

While we're on food, one of the best meals I had: snow crab and shrimp with grits and Cajun cream sauce at AJ's Dockside on Tybee Is. GA. Ohhhh my gawwwd. I ate nothing but crustacean for ten days and lived to tell about it. I was like Tom Hanks in Castaway, except that I was loving it. And didn't have an abscessed tooth I had to knock out by moonlight with a rock. Or only a soccer ball to talk to. 

Hit an art gallery and took an illicit photo of a superb folk-art osprey. I wanted it, but didn't have $1500 extra to spare. Look at that glare. Love it. He had lots of other water birds, all superb, all made by listening to the woodgrain. So good.

I walked downtown to one of the zillion parks and found a human-dog party of epic proportions.

 The dogs were milling around, and an old arthritic black Lab (yes, Floridacracker, this is for you...) was galumphing painfully around the outside of the pack, smiling at everyone.

Tons of butt-sniffing going on amongst the dogs.

I marveled that nobody was gettin' up in anybody's grille. Reminded myself that these were city dogs, used to socializing, unlike my country Boston terrier. He'd have been lining them up, taking names and kicking butt. Chet. You are such a heathen.

A beautiful pale boy was reading.

He got up, yawned and stretched, not knowing that I was admiring his long ivory arms through my telephoto lens. Sorry. No asking your name, not offering a release for you to sign. Just stealing a little  of your beauty.

More dog action. This pitbull mix was so adorable. Love that expressive tail!

The statues don't mind my taking their picture.

This city, this city. Why can't Ohio have just a smidge of its beauty?

It probably has something to do with our foul climate. Nobody has time to create beautiful public spaces. We're too busy surviving our disgusting winters.

No such problems here. It was 65 this day. Everybody was hangin' out in the park.

His guitar was well worn around the soundhole.

There's that swaying Spanish moss again. Ohhh.

An untimely bloom from a star magnolia. The people I spoke with said the end of January was a wee bit early for this to be blooming. That's OK. I'll take it. Oh, I'll take it.

A sweet presage of spring. Mmmm. More more more said the Zick.

I want to go back. Preferably arm in arm with someone I love, to stroll slowly down Savannah's myriad avenues. It's a  dreamscape for dreams like that.