St. Patrick & Count Pulaski

The overnight temperatures here in Savannah plunged to near freezing Wednesday night, but we were as "snug as two bugs in a rug" as my mother used to say.  There is just something about that first cup of hot, steaming coffee on a morning like this. I'm really liking our new spot here at Red Gate....it's like we have our own private RV park with this uncluttered view.  

We got an earlier than normal start on the day as we had made plans to meet our niece, Katie Parker, for dinner at 5:30 pm.  Before that date we wanted to run out to Tybee Island to see the beach town, and to tour Fort Pulaski National Monument....another one of those places we get in free with our Goden Age Passes.  Since Fort Pulaski was on the way to Tybee Island we stopped off there first.  

Fort Pulaski was built as part of the U.S. Coastal Defense system begun after the war of 1812.  It was named for Count Casimir Pulaski, the Polish hero of the Revolutionary War who died in a failed attempt during the American Revolution to lay siege to Savannah.  The fort took 18 years to build at a cost of $1,000,000 back then, and was not totally completed at the outbreak of the Civil War.  Before the U.S. could even occupy the fort they had to to conquer it as it had been appropriated by the Confederate Army.  The fort was considered invincible, and it may have been except for the new technology the Union Army had access to....rifled cannon which could shoot shells 3 times as far as the then conventional smooth bore cannon, with a lot more force at impact.  These rifled cannon were able to breach the wall (see below) in just 30 hours of bombardment, and thereby cause the Confederate Colonel Charles H. Olmstead to surrender before a shell might pierce their powder magazine thereby obliterating the fort and the soldiers defending it.  The breach was repaired within 6 weeks of the surrender, but the damage to the rest of the exterior walls was never repaired, and stands as mute testimony today of the devastating bombardment.

 There are a couple dozen examples of the kind of smooth bore cannon being used to defend the fort.  They were just no match for the rifled cannon being employed by the Union Troops.

TLE's panoramic shot of the interior of the fort

You can see an uexploded shell in the center of this picture!

The unrepaired damage from the shelling

Picture of the breach taken just after the surrender of the fort

The red arrow points to the repaired breach

We spent a couple of hours at the fort in 56 degree temperatures, and finally had to retreat to the warmth of the car.  We arrived in downtown Tybee Island around 1:30, found a place to park....by the way, every single parking spot in town requires you pay...$3.00 for 2 hours in our case.  We were in search of a place on the beach with outdoor dinning and we found a place called Fannies on the Beach with a few tables outside, so we plopped our collective "fannies" down and ordered some lunch.....a Caesar Salad for me, and some Thai Spring Rolls for TLE.  They had no beer on tap so I got a bottle of Shock Top and TLE ordered a Samuel Adams Winter Ale.

Traffic was pretty good except for the stretch coming through Savannah, which is just bad all day long every single day.  On our way home we stopped off at the local Walmart to cash in a coffee cup full of dimes and nickles I had been accumulating for a few years.....that cup yielded close to $30......we needed to convert them into quarters so we can use the odd laundromat here and there as the need arises. We arrived back home around 3:45....our date with Katie was at 5:30 at Moon River Brewing Company on Bay Street.....I'm a native Californian, and where I come from specifically in Ontario, CA St. Patrick's Day is a one day event.  This is not the case here in Savannah, GA, the home of reputably the 2nd largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the USA, where it is a week long celebration.  As a result, even on a Thursday, many streets in downtown are already blocked off for the upcoming parade, and all the revelers bar hopping each day and night.  Due to the many barricades already up, we had to park about 5 blocks from Moon River and walk the rest of the way....fortunately, after 5 pm parking is free in downtown Savannah.....if you can find one, which we did.  

We had a lovely dinner with Katie, and her roommate Julia......TLE and I both had a pint of their Captain's Porter, and were not disappointed.  Katie and Julia are both Juniors at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design), and are both very bright, poised young ladies, who will both be graduating next year.  Katie is the daughter of TLE's younger sister, Laureen.  The food was excellent, as was the service....Yelp gives it a 3.5 out of a possible 5 stars, but this for us was at least a 4.5 experience.  My Filet Mignon was cooked to perfection as were the broccoli, and smoked scalloped potatoes, and TLE loved her Chicken and Sausage Creole entree. 

We arrived back "home" around 8 pm...it was a full day, but we enjoyed every single moment of it.....except for the lousy traffic!

Thanks for stopping by!