Saturday, January 26, 2008

Savannah - Day 1

Last weekend I went to Savannah for the second annual girls' trip with Neera and Janet. Since we all live far apart, we plan to take a trip once a year to get together and catch up. Last year we went on a cruise to the Bahamas. This year we decided to stay in a bed and breakfast in Savannah. Overall, it was a really great experience. The bed and breakfast was beautiful, relaxing, and comfortable. Savannah is a gorgeous city - perfect for wandering around. It was great hanging out with Neera and Janet, and I feel like we chatted for three days staight, which is exactly what the trip is about. We talked about everything from politics to fashion, from future plans to favorite teas. They're both really intelligent, interesting people, so it was great to spend all that time with them. I think we all go away feeling refreshed and ambitious.

So, now to some specifics. The trip didn't start out as smoothly as we hoped. Neera and I were supposed to get in at 10:30am on Saturday, but this was the weekend of the surprise snow/sleet storm in Georgia, so Neera got stuck in Atlanta. Janet wasn't supposed to arrive until 2pm, so I decided to leave the airport and go to the B&B on my own.

I arrived at "The Dresser-Palmer House" and they let me check in early to our room - we stayed in the Wesley room, which had a fireplace and large windows opening onto the veranda (front porch). My plan had been to put down my things and then go out to a coffee shop, but decided to try out one of the very comfy looking beds, and ended up taking a 2 hour nap. When I woke up, Janet was landing in Savannah, so I got myself together and went for coffee in the common room of the bed and breakfast. The common rooms were beautiful, and there was coffee and tea available 24 hours a day, something we all really enjoyed over the course of our stay.

Janet arrived, dropped her things off in the room, and joined me for coffee while we waited for Neera. Neera's delayed flight finally got in at 3:30pm and she met up with us at 4pm. She planned to take a shower or a nap before the evening social (she had had to leave at 4am that morning to get to the airport). However, setting the pace for the rest of the trip, we found ourselves talking for the hour and half until the social, so there was no time for anything else.

At 5:30 pm was the social hour at the B&B. This is a time that they have wine, fruit and cheese, and all the guests are invited to meet each other and hang out in the common rooms. It was very nice. We ended up talking to people who had been here for a day already and getting suggestions on what to see. We also met a British couple who were very funny. The British guy asked if a social was a common thing to have at bed and breakfasts. He said that in England you'd go to a bed and breakfast and try to avoid eye contact with anyone so that you don't need to talk to them. Another couple we talked to lived in New York City, and the woman had a masters in Library Science. I hadn't realized all the training that went into being a professional librarian. She told us about interesting developments - with all of the new information and search possibilities available, some librarians were feeling less needed, but she said she thinks it makes librarians even more important, because there is so much more to learn about how to effectively search and find things now that there are so many options.

The social ended at 7pm, and at 7:30, Janet, Neera, and I had dinner at "Firefly", a cute cafe near out B&B.
After dinner, it was still fairly early for a Saturday night, so we decided to wander. We went down to River Street, but didn't see much going on, so we continued to wander to Central Market. There, we happened by a club called Club One, that was having a show that started in 15 minutes. The star of the show was the Lady Chablis. If you've read "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" (which I have), or seen the movie, you'd recognize that she's one of the main characters. In fact, she plays herself in the movie. So, we decided to be spontaneous and go see the show. It was a really entertaining show - very funny.After the show, we'd had enough excitement, and headed home. Of course, we were up til 3am chatting - that's what we were there for!

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