Bradley and I decided to take a trip for our anniversary this year.  I was a little over long distance vacations after Yosemite and Cancun, so I asked if we could choose a local destination that we could drive to easily.  Savannah was one of the places we had talked about going for a while now, since neither of us have been since we were very young.  We are also excited to take a trip to Charleston at some point in the future.

Savannah is a slow town with most stores and attractions closing by 5PM.  We visited the Davenport House, Wormsloe Plantation, climbed the Tybee Island Lighthouse, walked River Street and generally wandered around the historic downtown district.

The lighthouse has 178 steps and tours are self-guided.  My thighs felt those steps for days!  The Wormsloe Plantation has a 1.1 mile drive back to the site that is lined the entire way with live oak trees covered in Spanish moss.

The Spanish moss is so iconic of Savannah.  Pictures simply cannot capture the magnificent beauty you get in person.

There were 24 original squares in Savannah, and we saw most of them on our trolley tour the first day.  This is the large fountain at Forsyth Square, the largest square.

All of the squares had large old live oaks draped in Spanish moss.

A big part of our trip was all about the food.  Savannah has some of the best southern cuisine around.  We used Yelp to help us find the best and brightest places to try.  Besides our very favorite meal of the trip (mentioned yesterday), we visited Vic’s on the River, the Olde Pink House, and Alligator Soul for dinners.  We did happen upon Paula Deen’s Lady and Sons without much of a wait, so we tried it for ourselves.  The food was very southern and very good.  If you did not grow up on this food, it would blow your mind.  Same goes for Mrs. Wilkes’ Boarding House – the food is served family style at 12 person tables that you share with those in line next to you.  Just like a southern family reunion or church potluck.  We had hummus and a sandwich at Zunzi’s that was very good – it is considered South African cuisine.  I got my seafood fix at The Pirate House.  We also tried the pizza at the highly recommended Vinnie-Van-Go-Go’s.  I was a little underwhelmed due to the fact that the pizza place next to our house, Big Pie in the Sky, is so amazing that nothing can hold a candle to it.

For anniversary number 6, Bradley and I took a little trip to Savannah.  I will post more about it tomorrow, but I wanted to share how we celebrated on our anniversary.  We like to watch Georgia Traveler on GPB to get ideas of things to do around the state, which is where we came across Chef Joe Randall’s Cooking School.  Lucky for us, they were offering a date night class on our anniversary, so I signed us up.  The class was amazing and Chef Joe was made to do this type of thing.  He was so nice and inviting, answering any questions we had, and making sure he was thorough in explaining everything he was doing and why.  This was by far the best meal we had in Savannah.  I would recommend this class to anyone planning a trip there.

Traditionally, the 6th anniversary gift is iron and the modern gift is wood.  I didn’t follow those guidelines at all this time.  Bradley likes nice, polarized sunglasses so I gave him a Sunglass Hut gift card that I scored on ebay before we left for the trip so that he could have some new glasses in Savannah.  I tucked the gift cards into this awesome card I found on Etsy.  A side note is that we found out at the store that we can send in his old glasses with a scratch on the lens for replacements for a fraction of the cost of new;  so once we do that he will have a nice pair for both of our vehicles!  He chose a pair of Maui Jim’s, which evidently is his favorite brand for sunglasses, seeing as how it is his third pair in a row.

Bradley was amazingly sweet and did a great job sneaking around to get my gift.  (Since I handle all of the bills, I would see anything on a credit card.)  I don’t tend to wear much jewelry and feel self-conscious about it, but I have been interested in getting a right-hand ring.  Something nice, but not too flashy, that I could feel comfortable wearing anytime.  I thought I found the perfect one online at Jared.  I love the wide, open criss-cross feel, with only a few of the bands set with diamonds – an overall more casual feel so as to not compete with my wedding bands.

Pretty right?  Bradley ended up buying one that was a little different – and because it had been returned, it was a lot more ring for the money.  He loves when I want jewelry over some gadget for the house because it is more romantic I guess, and more diamonds means a girl should like it more:)  But it felt too flashy, so we went back to compare the two rings.  I was so disappointed.  The ring I had picked out online for shape and aesthetics looked nothing like the picture in person.  It was dull, seemingly no stones to speak of, certainly no sparkle.  I am not good at predicting what 1/4ct. will look like in different settings.  After returning the ring, we looked at all the mall stores when we went to buy his sunglasses, but to no avail.  Obviously, the average woman wants a lot more bling than I do, so we decided to postpone our search until Savannah.  Unfortunately, there was only one jewelry store in historic downtown, so we came up short.

Ultimately, I decided to hold off on the ring and get something for the house.  Surprise, surprise!  Ever since we got the hand-me-down couches from Bradley’s parents, I have been dissatisfied by the size of our end tables, especially in the corner.  We got the tables and our old coffee table for our wedding when we lived in a one-bedroom apartment with a smaller sofa.  They are now dwarfed by the oversized sofas.   I thought a round end table would look very nice and soften the corner between the sofas.  I found this table by Paula Deen (which is especially funny since we visited her restaurant while we were on our trip!)