We have been home for a week now; I have some additional thoughts on the trip. The last day in Savannah was incredibly hot. It was normal weather for the season but our Yankee blood was not ready for it. The temperature was 100+ and the humidity was very high.

I got up and walked to The Lady and Son (Paula Deen's restaurant) to make a reservation for dinner. It was early enough that the temp was probably only in the low 80's and I did my best to walk in the shade where possible. The line stretched 2 1/2 blocks at 9:10 in the morning. Although we had to stand in the sun part of the time, it turned out to be fun getting to know the other people around me. After about a half hour in line, I walked away with the reservation.

We had decided that we would see the Mercer-Williams house, where Jim Williams of 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' fame lived, and where the movie was shot. We walked around the historic district for several hours, toured the house and took a number of pictures. I would have liked to see a few other things up close, but the heat was just oppressive. So we walked back and spent a little time in the hotel cooling down.

Dinner at The Lady and Sons was good, it is a fairly informal place with a really friendly staff. We all chose the buffet so that we could get a good sampling of her good old-fashioned Southern cooking - fried chicken, ribs, green beans, mashed potatoes, biscuits, grits, corn cakes and more. Definitely Southern!

The most fun part of the day was the 'Ghosts and Gravestones' tour in the evening. It was on a black trolley, suitably decorated with draped cloth, flowers, a skull etc. And Miss Violet, the tour guide was a delight. She was dressed in a black lace dress with hoop skirt (remember the temperature), hat with feathers tickling her forehead and a fan which she used in true Southern Belle fashion. She was in love with her stories and made the tour a lot of fun. Savannah is considered to be one of the most haunted cities in the United States, so she had plenty of stories to share. Perhaps it is the heat, perhaps it is the Low Country landscape - but Savannah has a dense, brooding Southern Gothic feeling that makes it one of the most interesting places I have visited. The tour ended inside a chandlery on River Street, blessedly air conditioned. It was truly a nice way to end the visit.

The absolute highlight of the trip for me was seeing several container ships on the Savannah River. They were heading from the Port of Savannah out to sea, and were loaded about 10 stories high with shipping containers. It was an awesome sight to stand by the riverfront and watch this behemoth pass by. I do have some pictures that I will post.

Gloria and I capped off the hot day in Savannah with a 10PM swim in the hotel pool, cool water has rarely felt better than it did that night. We had the pool to ourselves for a while, which made it delightfully relaxing.

The next night on the way home, we