An ideal Saturday

I have probably written about this before.  Despite the fact that for 17 years I was involved fulltime in parish work and rarely had a weekend off, during those years I continued looking forward to Friday's arrival just as I had before going to seminary.  I'd laugh at myself and the juxtoposition of those feelings of welcome anticipation and the fact that the hardest days of the week for a priest are Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

And, I remember seeing television shows like "Mad About You" and feeling sad and sort of resentful.  Jamie and Paul sat and drank coffee, read the newspaper in sidewalk cafes or on the front steps of their apartment building.  How did they have time for that and I didn't?  Of course, it was a half hour situation comedy and an idealized view of a couple's daily life.  But still.

Today I got my turn.  Today was what I would call an ideal Saturday.  Tal and I were up early for coffee.  Tal's son arrived for fishing with his dad.  It rained.  I love rainy days.  A good friend and I had lunch in Ridge Spring at Juniper, an amazing local restaurant.  After we'd eaten we wandered through an antique shop.  Then we went to the Art Center of Ridge Spring where we enjoyed a reception honoring watercolorist Gwen Power and where I saw folks I'd not seen in months.

That's what I'm talking about.  Just being -- with no other purpose.  Just being -- letting that be accomplishment enough.

What a good day.      

High, thin clouds

Rain was suggested for today.  I didn't go to bed counting on it last night, but whether our little part of the world was wet was the first thought I had when my eyes opened this morning.  As I wandered around the house doing the coffee and breakfast routine, I was struck by the light in the dining room.  I stepped out onto the front walk to feel the day and to determine the source of the light.  It was not raining and the sun was not out, but the morning was luminous, the clouds thin and very high.  The air smelled damp.

I wasn't through with the dining room.  The shamrock had begun to bloom while we were in Savannah.  Its fragile-looking, pale pink-to-purple blossoms were bathed in that wonderful, magical light.  I put the macro lens on the camera, man-handled the tripod into submission and spent some enjoyable time in a 1:1 world, looking very closely at those flowers.

Enjoy.

Such a lot of world to see

What a true line that is -- such a lot of world to see.  It sets my heart to singing.  Tal and I -- "two drifters off to see the world," especially in the years since I retired, are doing what we can to get as much seeing the world in as we can.

My menu and a view of
the table from our meal
at the Moon River Brew-
ing Company last night

We have learned alot about Savannah since Sunday afternoon, from those who founded Savannah and those who are today's leaders to unique geographical features and architectural landmarks.  The fact that has delighted me the most, though, is learning the name Johnny Mercer and its wonderful associations. 

I had been wondering about the references I'd seen to Moon River -- a restaurant, an actual river, a bike rental enterprise.  Every time I saw one of those references I heard Andy Williams' voice.  Johnny Mercer wrote Moon River (which, contrary to my long-time misguided belief has nothing to do with the the Mississippi or Huckleberry Finn) and more songs than I can grasp.  I grew up on many of them.  Sweetly, his wife's grave marker includes the words "you must have been a beautiful baby."

The newly reclaimed Ellis Square, the heart of Savannah's downtown and an increasingly popular gathering place for locals and tourists alike, includes a charming statue of this favoite son.

Heartwarming.  And, appropriate, I'd say. 

Alarmed, but not by a clock

Our hotel room this week was very pleasant, something of a suite, a half wall separating the bed and sitting areas.  The heating/air conditioning unit, however, is a bit of a design flaw.  It's hard to adjust the temperature and blows directly on the bed, the trajectory of the air not adjustable.  Blessedly, the window will open.  Problem solved.

We wanted an early start home this morning, so I had set the cell phone to wake us at 5:45.  With the window open during the night I could feel that the weather had changed, a cool dampness that made drawing up the comforter just the right thing to do. 

Shortly after 5:00 I came completely out of the bed, very nearly in a panic.  What?  What?  Tripped at the end of the bed trying to get to the phone.  The most ungodly, outrageous sound.  No, not the alarm.  Outside.  With a pounding heart I peered through the drapes into the socked in dark.  To my left I saw the outline of a huge container ship's load slowly moving up the river -- intermittently sounding a fog horn.

I did turn off the alarm before crawling back into bed.  But, I didn't go quite back to sleep after that.

Breakfast in the hotel dining room, boisterous goodbyes until next year, heading over the bridge shortly after 8:30.  Home, with stops for fuel and milk, before noon and back into our normal routine.           

Even a blind hog ...

It's one of Tal's favorite sayings, one he teases me with when I've done something about which I am feeling particularly proud.  The end of that phrase is "finds an acorn now and then."  Our route through parts of the historic district helped us to do just that during the early afternoon.

Mosaic in bottom of
holy water font
in the cathedral

We set out for a walk after breakfast to take in a site or two from the ground as opposed to yesterday's trolley view.  Several churches (the First Bryan Baptist Church and surrounds near our hotel, the Lutheran Church of the Ascension, the Independent Presbyterian Church and the Cathedral of St John the Baptist) gave us pause.   And, we spent time in three squares the names of which I can remember (Ellis -- more about that one in another post, Johnson and Chippewa).  Savannah is, indeed, a beautiful city.  Its ongoing revitalization does my historic preservation heart good. 



Steeple of Independent Presbyterian Church



Approaching Johnson Square
on West St Julian from Ellis Square



View through Johnson Square along Bull
looking toward Forsyth Park



After an early lunch we decided to return to the hotel via the riverfront hoping to sit on a bench and watch a container ship moving up or down the Savannah.  No such luck.  As we headed toward the bridge, Tal noticed a man holding a camera with a very long lens looking down stream.  When we looked more closely ... a sailing ship, its sails furled, flying a New Hampshire flag, moving toward town, obviously powered by a small engine.  We walked back to meet it, the Lynx.  

We learned from people in the crowd that it will be in Savannah for a month.  It'd been in all the papers -- which we'd not been reading -- and on the local news -- which we'd not been watching.  Lucky for us we'd wandered back to the bluff when we did.  Even a blind hog ... 

Stroll on a mild evening

About half of the "reuning" group went to dinner together within waking distance of the restaurant this evening.  It was dusk when we left the hotel and full night as we made our way back.  I had the camera with me which meant that poor Tal was stuck walking much more slowly than he might have liked -- especially since my efforts at night photography are rudimentary at best.  The image of an empty courtyard is the attempt I liked the most.

Squares and stairs

We did not get an early start this morning.  Neither of us could get comfortable during the night -- not enough cover, too much cover, AC blowing too hard when it was on, the room stuffy when the AC was off.  Generally fitful.  Both of us.  Although we went down to breakfast shortly before 7:00, it was after 11:30 before we left the hotel.

Our major activity for the day was an overview of historic Savannah from an trolly/bus.  Old Savannah Tours even came to the hotel and picked us up, a real plus for me since it meant I didn't have to move the car.  Our driver was clear and informative, told really bad jokes and introduced us to at least half of Savannah's some 24 public squares.  In my heart of hearts I'd like to explore each one, but settled for catching glimpses.  An on/off tour with 15 stops and with an all-day pass, had we wanted to we could have gotten off at any of those stops, explored a bit and caught another bus to continue the tour.  But, it was a sense of Savannah we were after, so we stayed aboard.

We did get off the bus at its next-to-last stop -- Factors Walk, an intermediary level on the bluff above the river, named for the brokers (called factors) in the Cotton Exchange, Savannah's long-time major commercial enterprise.  I was fascinated by the bluff, its architecture and how the various levels were used.  On the river side the buildings are six or so stories high, the lower levels used back in the day as warehouse space.  From Bay Street the buildings look two stories high are are reachable by foot bridges over Factors Walk, which serves the middle floors.

There are multiple sets of steps and ballast-paved ramps leading from one level to another along the bluff, some of them more spacious and less treacherous than others.  The one pictured here at the extreme east end of the plaza along the riverfront is among my favorites.  Another one that I especially liked is a double set accessible from River Street under the Masonic Temple, the left side being the image I posted today on my Flickr page.