Flashback Friday: Sweet Savannah

Have you ever been to a city and just knew you belonged there?  While most of me belongs in Nashville, a small part of my soul lives in Savannah.  I love the Spanish moss, the pretty city squares, the shopping the friendly people, the history, the culinary heritage, and the pirates.  You can walk from one end of town to the next over cobble stones that have been their for hundreds of years.  You can feast with family and pass the Lady's biscuits or you can dine with your loved one over candlelight and stuffed crab.  It's quaint and romantic and quirky.  Kinda like me.

I first visited Savannah in 2001.  During my fall break at Vanderbilt, my two closest college friends and I drove nine hours through podunk Georgia on my very first road trip.  My dear friend Diana picked Savannah because she was up for the quirky and I was up for the cheap.  We walked around town posing for picture in front of pretty houses and pretty trees, reading guidebooks and listening to Tim McGraw's greatest hits on repeat.

Fast forward six years.  I had found a fiance and a deep love for the Food Network.  My parents were coming to terms with the fact that our little family of four was about to change for good.  So, we squeezed in one last family vacation between the dress fittings, the cake tastings and the bridal showers.  I appreciated the fact that it coincided nicely with my brief love affair with Paula Deen.  It was freezing cold but that didn't interrupt our long walks for ice cream, our pirate hunting or shopping.  And like my parents generations' memory of where they were when JFK was shot, I will forever recall where I was when Britney shaved her head - feasting on biscuits and gravy.

I couldn't wait to bring Rocky back.  Tours of haunted mansions are certainly special with your dad but carriage rides with your husband beneath the moss-covered trees truly carves out a place in your heart and soul.  We enjoyed hoe cakes at Paula's and scallops at the Pink House and a glass of champagne at the Mansion on Forsyth Park.  It was a perfect weekend in the perfect city.  I've been three times with different people each time.  Who's next?