Happy Monday all! I think one of the things I absolutely LOVE the most about the East Coast is that you can take day trips to different states. Today we decided to head over to Savannah, Georgia for a day trip to check out River Street, take the historic walk, and of course, eat some delicious Southern Food.
A HUGE Thanks goes out to all ~ you all are awesome, seriously! I posed the question on Facebook and Twitter yesterday and in less than an hour, we had a huge list of places to visit, sites to see and foods to eat. You all made our Day Trip to Savannah AMAZING!
Today started off just like yesterday ~ We headed to Starbuck’s for Blueberry Scones (13 points+)and a Venti Iced Coffee with 2 pumps Pumpkin Spice (1 points+).
I think I have decided I am not a fan of pumpkin spice ~ it tastes kinda like burnt coffee lol.
Our first stop was River Street. You can instantly see all the history in the brick buildings. On one side of the cobblestone street you have all these great shops and restaraunts.
Then, on the other side, you can see the bridge and walk along the river checking out all the boats as you go.
We pondered catching the Trolley ~ $15 allows you to get on/off all day long and each trolley includes narration explaining all the sites you are seeing.
If stop by the visitors center (next to the Hilton), they give you a map that shows you the 51 points of interest in downtown Savannah that you can walk too. I think he said it was a 1 x 1.5 square miles that you can walk checking out all the cool history, old homes, buildings and memorial statues.
We knew were stopping for Homemade Pralines & a tasty Southern Lunch so off we walked!
Stop #1 Savannah’s Candy Kitchen for Homemade Pralines!
They let you sample fresh pralines made that morning and check out how they are made in the kitchen.
It’s pretty cool to watch them being made.
The Candy Maker said that they cannot make them fast enough each day before they sell out.
These are Gophers….double the nuts & topped with chocolate!
We bought some pralines for the road ~ they are like super soft caramels but with the consistency of fudge with pralines. They literally melt in your mouth. The good thing ~ they are so sweet a little goes a long way ~ LOVE!
It was a tough choice between The Lady & Sons and Mrs. Wilkes, but, Mrs. Wilkes received the most votes and the reviews are pretty darn awesome. I have to admit I sorta fell IN LOVE with the concept at The Wilkes House.
We arrived at 1 PM thinking the line “might’ve died down a bit”, but, there were still a ton of locals and visitors waiting in line.
Everyone was saying you can totally tell you are in the right place by the line that is ALWAYS there between 10 am-2 pm.
The concept is pretty cool. Basically you make friends with all your neighbors in line that are from all around the world. Then, you all sit down at one table together to enjoy one of the BEST SOUTHERN MEALS you will ever have in your life.
All of the dishes are served family style with sweet tea. We all created a passing circle like it was Thanksgiving dinner scooping a little of this and a lot of that. We all joked because NONE of us could pick out our favorite things to go back for because everything was absolutely delicious.
Let’s see if I can remember everything that was served:
- Super crispy melt in your mouth fried chicken
- Smokey, BBQ Pulled Pork (my FAVORITE protein!)
- Beef Stew
- Super Dense buttermilk biscuits
- Black Eyed Peas
- Baked Beans
- Green Beans
- Butter Beans
- Okra (nope, didn’t touch it)
- Creamed Corn
- Mashed Potatoes & Gravy
- Greens (I doubled up!)
- Cabbage (the best cabbage you will ever eat ~ I could’ve stole the bowl from everyone!)
- Cinnamon Mashed Sweet Potatoes (totally creamy, butter, cinnamony, mapley-delicious!)
- Cinnamon Turnips
- Mac N Cheese
- Squash Casserole
- Cucumber Slices (The Husband’s favorite ~ totally refreshing!)
- Coleslaw (a little Cajun spiced with dill pickles ~ definitely unique, but, absolutely amazing!)
- Peas and noodles (nope The Husband wouldn’t touch it LOL)
- Red Rice & Sausage (I WANT this recipe ~ I had 3 servings of it!)
- DESSERT ~ Banana Pudding and Cherry Cobbler (I was too full to eat it)
The part that is crazy ~ everything is all you can eat for $16 and the servers are totally on top of their game. As soon as they see a dish getting low, they are right there with another fully loaded dish to replace it.
Believe it or not, here is my plate with 1 scoop of everything and I didn’t even get it all.
Once you have finished eating, you have to bring your plate, drink cup and silverware to the kitchen to be washed.
If you are ever in Savannah, Georgia, go to Mrs. Wilkes ~ hands down some of the BEST FOOD I’ve ever had in my life.
After lunch, we needed to walk…..This is going to sound funny, but, I still wanted to check out The Lady and Sons because I heard there was a Paula Deen Store (no, I couldn’t possibly eat another bite for the rest of the day LOL).
Her restaurant is super cute inside….maybe next time Paula!
I actually managed to walk out of the store buying nothing 
On our walk back The Husband and I were totally chatting about how we could live in Savannah too.
I LOVE brick buildings and wish we had more of them in California…..
Everyone here is just so friendly, the town is super cute and I LOVE Southern Accents….what can I say….California people do not have cool accents like people in the South 
All of the trees and parks give the town such character and totally remind me of scenes in movies like A Christmas Story and stuff. You know the neighborhoods with beautiful houses and tons of old trees…..Yup, I will forever think of Savannah when I see movies like that.
Since we still had some daylight to burn, we decided to head over to the Lighthouse. Across from the Lighthouse was this storm shelter which is an old fort built in 1898.
The Tybee Island Lighthouse was actually built in 1736 and was one of the first public structures built in Georgia.
It’s 90 feet tall and is one of the earliest lighthouse in American history. It was constructed originally with cedar pines and brick.
It is still a working lighthouse for ships at the port of Savannah
One last picture for the day ~ CHEEEEESEEEE! Next time we should not stare into the sun LOL.
I am not sure what we are up to tomorrow but there are talks of taking a long bike ride around Hilton Head and maybe checking out the Stoney-Barnyard Ruins or Daufuskie Island.
Ohhhhh and we received a list of must try restaurants so I am sure there will be some fantastic eats in there too.
Night all!
It all looks so fun and ooh the candy shop is where I’d be.. We miss you guys. Enjoy..
I LOVE Savannah. I was just down there in July and I will be spending Thanksgiving there because that’s where my boyfriend is from. (I actually met him while I was down there visiting his sister, whom I’ve been friends with for several years, so I am especially partial to the city now.) I LOVE River Street and Tybee Island, and I’m so glad you guys made it down there and had such a great day. 🙂
You have to go back to Lady and Sons – Glen says it was the best pecan pie he has ever had and the gooie butter cake I cannot even tell you how good it is but I definitely am going back just for the desserts at Paula’s.
Isn’t Savannah awesome? Now you have me wanting to take a trip there soon! Mrs. Wilkes was definitely the right choice for lunch IMO, but Aunt Vickie is right, Lady and Sons has THE BEST desserts. The butter cake is to die for! And easy to make, you can find the recipe on the internet.
This makes me want to go to Savannah in a big way! I love southern food (went to college in Atlanta and have been to similar family style restuarants in the north Georgia mountains) and your descriptions and pictures made me hungry. I lived in Atlanta for years but never made it to Savannah – next time we visit, we’re definitely going to have a day trip!
sigh… I’m pining for my Savannah. I’ve been twice for St. Patrick’s day – they do a HUGE celebration, and I fell in love!!! I’m DYING to go back, but not for St. Pat’s. I want to enjoy the city without all of the commotion. But March was a great time to go. I’m a New Englander, and by March I’ve had enough of winter. It seems when I go away for St. Pat’s, I leave winter behind and by the time I come home Spring is saying hello. SIGH. I MISS Savannah. lol
We went to Savannah/Tybee in July for vacation. You hit up almost all of the spots we saw (except we did do Lady & Sons instead of Wilkes, glad we did but the food was not that great, I’m sorry to say. Even our taxi driver shunned us for passing up Wilkes!). Your descriptions of Savannah were exactly how I felt – a perfect little town with TONS of character! Glad you had a great time 🙂 It was so nice to see recent pics of Savannah again!!
It sounds like you had a wonderful time in my hometown. We love it so much we’ve never left! Maybe someday we’ll get to see California….
Thank you so much for this recap! You know…I would’ve done exactly the same thing: eat at one restaurant, and go to check out some others for future references afterwards! 🙂 I also love the Southern feel and brick wall…we need more of that in Cali! Enjoy the rest of your trip!
We just went to Savannah for the first time on Tuesday and took a Trolly tour it was a 90 minute tour for the best $12 each ever spent. The driver was excellent and we tipped him also because he was so informative as well as entertaining. We couldn’t get it all in during one day so we had to return on Thurs and the Trolly was only $6 and would pick you up and drop you off at any of it’s points around town. Just had to save our ticket from Tues to prove we purchased one that week. Unfortunatally we weren’t hungry enough to go to Mrs. Wilkes but we will return again. We also talked about how it would be nice to live in there. I have lived in several states including California and I now live in Southern Indiana where my husband has lived in the same county all his life. When he retires he says he wants to move south. He said people are just friendlier and he loves the climent and the ocean close by. I think he would retire in Savannah. I know I would move here in a heart beat. I loved it and didn’t want to leave.
Just want to thank you! I came across this post while researching for a very short visit to Savannah and it was so helpful! We had a great time and went to Mrs. Wilkes.
Thanks so much for your post! My husband and I are planning an anniversary trip to Charleston and Savannah. We are coming from Los Angeles. Your tips are great and we’ll definitely visit Mrs. Wilkes! Thanks!
Thank you so much for the post. We are taking a group of senior adults there tomorrow and only have one day to spend there. Your posting was just what I needed to make wise choices.
I will be there Dec 29 and am glad I came across all this information. I will definitely be eating at The Wilkes House and checking out the sites recommended.
Thank you!