I'm BACK!

Didja miss me?

Okay - Savannah. I need to live there, at least part-time, and soon. It is beautiful. Linda, I ::heart:: you for making sure I didn't miss out on River Street Sweets, which is quite possibly the happiest place on the planet. It's certainly the best smelling. I enjoyed yet another bit of praliney goodness last night, just to remind myself how much I love Savannah.

Homemade ice cream and candy stores lined the blocks of the historic district. Oh. My. GAWD. So. Good.

Who knew there was that much pirate action in Savannah? Mike and I ate at The Pirate's House (more pictures to come, honest), which, according to some other folks we overheard while on the buffet line, has better food than my pal Paula. What a Southern buffet - Southern fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots so sweet they melt in your mouth, and pecan gravy. And do I need to mention that the biscuits were amazing? Seriously, it's the South. It's a law; if you don't have good biscuits, I think they can revoke your license to operate a business.

Anyway, The Pirate's House was quite the hotspot back in the day - it even inspired Robert Louis Stevenson as he wrote Treasure Island. Which completely speaks to the book and history nerd in me. So check it out for the food and the atmosphere, because apparently, there's even a ghost that haunts one of the rooms - as we found out when we took the Hearse Tour.

Yes, you read that right. We loaded ourselves into a hearse and toured haunted Savannah, and it rocked. The customer service, to start, is fantastic - Mike called while we were at lunch, but no one was at the phone. He hung up, and no less than 10 or 15 minutes later, someone called saying that they saw on the caller ID that they had received a phone call and could they help us? Within 5 minutes, we were booked and were going to be picked up at 9 that evening.

The guide, Nathan, was GREAT. From his very cool Linda Blair in Exorcist tee-shirt to his encyclopedic knowledge of haunted Savannah (he needed to pass at 380-question test to score the gig, folks), he kept us laughing and gave us a couple of good old-fashioned jump scares to remember the trip.

We ate at a Moroccan restaurant, Casbah, that made some fantastic food. The belly dancers tried to get us up on a few occasions, but we politely declined. I don't think that needs to be exposed to the public, ya know? I'll leave it to the professionals. We were all set to eat with our right hands as Moroccan families do, but when the saffron rice came out, we looked at each other, looked at the rice, and asked for utensils. Hey, if they had thrown some bread in, I would have given it the old college try. I had chicken kebabs, so I was all good without utensils on that end, at least...

And I would be completely out of line if I didn't talk about our anniversary dinner at Alligator Soul. Mike made the reservations a few weeks in advance, and told the folks it was our anniversary. We got there, and were treated to seats in a beautiful little nook in the restaurant, plus a champagne toast and a complimentary taste of what I think was a new dish the chef is working on - it was delicious; basically (to my very untrained palate) a Cajun chili that had the perfect amount of kick to it. The steaks were awesome, and I burst out laughing when the gentleman I believe was one of the head chefs (I just checked, and it's not head chef Chris Dinello) came over to Mike holding the "Little Eddie" steak, clapped him on the shoulder and said, "That's my steak. You're going to sleep." He smiled at me and said, "Sorry."

It was just a wonderful atomosphere, Southern hospitality in full effect, and it never felt forced. The staff came over to us to make sure we had everything we needed and that we were enjoying ourselves. And when it came time for dessert, my personal-sized cheesecake (ahhhhh... cheesecake) came to me with "Happy Anniversary" written in chocolate. It was just a great ending to a great meal.

All in all, Savannah is beautiful. I can't wait to get back there and bring the kids. I think Will is going to dig the hearse tour - in fact, he doesn't even know I went on it this time. Because I would be in some serious hot water. So let's keep that our little secret, okay?