February 7, 2005

The first part of this week's Weekly Mail was originally written in Savannah:


SAVANNAH, GA-  When we decided to come down here for a couple of days of R&R,
all we were really asking was that it be warmer here than at home. People said
that the weather was tricky down here, that it could actually get quite
chilly. But there wouldn't be any snow, and that in itself was going to be a
relief.
   When we arrived here on Wednesday, it was a bit chilly and rainy, but at
that point we were just happy to be there.
   When we first got to LaGuardia, they asked us for our ID's, and we both
gave in our licenses. The baggage claim guy looked at Tara's and said that it
had expired. She had taken the wrong ID. She tried explaining that she had a
licence in good standing, but because of her ties to Al-Qaeda, they wouldn't
let her on the plane. I asked if they could take our bags anyway while we
straigtented this out and he said "Only if you want to go without her." Thanks
Jackass.
   So we went in and talked to a service rep. She told us we could call from
their courtesy phones and try to get a later flight. There was a flight at
9:50 direct or one at 6 with connections. Either one of them would have shot
our first day straight to hell. So that's when we stopped panicking and
realized that we had actually made very good time getting from her apt to the
airport.
   The service rep had said we probably wouldn't make it back for the 2:15
boarding time, which is why I went to find her when we returned at 1:57 PM. To
paraphrase President Bush, they misunderestimated us. When you're dealing with
Tara and I, that's a big mistake.
   And you can see now why we weren't going to let a little bad weather get us
down. For one thing, Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport is probably
the nicest airport I've ever been in. It looks brand new. They had these
chairs that for 2 bucks would massage your back for 5 minutes while you
watched CNN. It was really cool.
   A cab took us to our hotel in midtown Savannah. This place is great,
everyone is friendly. We settled in, then headed down to Lady and Sons for
dinner.

RESTUARANT REVIEW    RESTUARANT REVIEW    RESTUARANT REVIEW

LADY & SONS 102 West Congress Street, Savannah, GA

   Tara went for the world famous chicken pot pie and I had the all you can
eat Southern buffet. They also brought over "hoe cakes"  which were basically
silver dollar pancakes. The waitress told us to "put some maple suurp" on
them. They were outstanding.
The whole thing was outstanding. It was the best mac and cheese I ever had and
some of the best mashed potatoes ever as well. We both just over did it. I had
fried chicken and roast beef as well. Too much. You could just fill up on the
spuds and macaroni alone. It was that good.

4.5 Patties

   I was so stuffed after dinner, that when I got home to the hotel, I passed
out. Missed the State of the Union address too. Oh, well I was on vacation.

   Now Thursday was another rainy day in Georgia, but we comforted ourselves
in the fact that there was no snow. We headed downtown to River Street, which
oddly enough, was the street that ran along the famous Savannah River. We
wanted to take a river boat cruise, but the lousy weather postponed that till
Friday. In the meantime we went to Grits Gift Shop.
   Now this was the first place where I noticed something very peculiar, and I
noticed it all over the place down here. They have all sorts of Civil War
stuff. Hats, shirts, statues, and of course, guns. Correct me if I'm wrong,
but didn't WE win the Civil War? Not with all the stuff you see around here.
Georgia is not simply a Red State, it's a Red state with a big blue star
studded X through it. Forget the 21st Century, these guys are still finding
their way to the 20th century.
*********************************************************  
    That's not to say that they aren't friendly. On the contrary, they were
really nice. The cab drivers, the waiters and waitresses, the shop owners,
they all chatted us up.
    The one guy I didn't find overly friendly was the guy who took us on our
pub and tavern tour. It looked like it was going to be alot of fun. A tour
guide would take you to a bar, and he would tell a story while you got your
drink on. Sounded good to us.
    But there were some problems. First of all, we were freezing our butts off
waiting for Dave, our guide to show up. We were in some dark rainy park, and
he was late. Then when he finally got there, you could just tell he was hoping
to get the night off. It was only me and Tara, and who the hell goes on a pub
tour on a cold night.
     But once we started drinking, he loosened up and got a little friendlier.
We went to 5 bars. McDonnugh's, The Rail, Moon River, the Buccaneer, and
Mercury Lounge.
     The Rail was great because they had PBR on tap. Moon River was ok, they
made their own beer, which was actually pretty good. The Buccaneer had a
concocction that was similar to an Alabama Slammer.
     We were minding our business at the Mercury Bar, but folks kept coming up
to us buying drinks. "Y'all here from New York?" They'd ask us. They also made
me do a shot called a "Car bomb" They'd drop a shot of Bailey's into a half a
mug of Guinness.It wasn't too bad, but it went right to your noodle. One of
the guys we met, worked for International Paper, where my dad's cousin works.
    We managed to get up early on Friday and head in for our Riverboat cruise
along the Savannah River. It was finally a nice day down there. Bright sun,
close to 60. We walked around River Street then took the cruise. It was pretty
cool. Not much to look at, lots of factories mostly. But the port of Savanah
is the 2nd busiest port on the East Coast. Historically, the port was famous
for exporting cotton to the British, one of the reasons that the South thought
they could survive seccesion from the Union.
    After the cruise, we went to lunch at the Exchange Pub. We each had the
1/2 pound burger, which was a huge mistake. Not that it wasn't delicious, but
I spent the next several hours with what felt like a ton of bricks in my gut.
The food in Savannah is unreal, some of the best I ever had. I would go back
just for the food.
   We came back on Saturday, rested up, and headed to the Super Bowl Dance.

The Super Bowl Dance.
  The night before the Super Bowl in Woodside is one of the times that it
feels like a small town. It's always a classic night and Saturday night was no
exception. We had at our table, McGrath and Frankie, Bernadette and Eddie,
Michelle and Bernard, Cindy and Pete, Anne-Marie (sans Gary) and Krissy and
Steve.
    Tara also got to meet Pete and Margaret McGuinness, Jimmy Jakes, Craig
Leahy, Craig Gherrity, Buck Ludwig, Brian Anderson and Chris Santangelo. She
got the full Woodside experience. And she still hasn't cut me loose. :O)

As for the Super Bowl itself (which I didn't get to watch) not enough bad
things can happen to Bill Belicheck or Tom Brady to make me happy. They've had
too much good luck. They deserve some heartache.

It took me to get back here to realize how out of the loop I was when I was
down South. It was nice to get away, but now I have some catching up to do.
Anyway that's all from here.

Have a Great Week
Bill