The G.A.R.

7:32 pm

Air Conditioning

Watching an Independence Day thunderstorm from the Williamsburg Hospitality House

Writing on July 4, 2011

On our last morning on Ashland Farm, we packed and ate another delicious breakfast. We got a tour of the micro green house! Well, I guess it’s a micro green greenhouse. They grow tiny versions of the herbs, flowers and plants we eat every day. Teeny tiny arugula and teeny tiny endive, etc. The woman who tends the garden let us nibble everything—we had a verifiable salad by the time we left the greenhouse. It was awesome! Before we left, we sat on the porch, drinking Lucy’s delicious coffee plus hot milk and chatted about the family. I’m so glad Teddy got a chance to connect again with Lucy and Clay and that I got to know them better. What a welcoming and happy home they have. It was wonderful to stay with them, and if they’re reading, THANK YOU GUYS! And snuggles to Rusty and Regalo.

We had a fairly long drive to Savannah that day. We got through a lot of Lord of the Rings, though, so that was good. We’re on to the second book! I was so excited to get to Savannah—I had heard it is the cutest place ever. Which it is. But first, the Matrix. Oh the faithful Matrix. So the hood doesn’t open or whatever and we needed to get the oil changed. We dropped our million pounds of bags off at the hotel—The Marshall House—got back in the car and drove to the shop outside of town. We called a cab to pick us up. We waited twenty minutes. Troy from the taxi company, whose cab smelled like a pack of cigarettes, picked us up and swung us back around to the hotel.

The Marshall House is gorgeous—it was the first establishment to be built as a hotel in the city of Savannah. It was also our first taste of Colonial American history. I know that the hotel itself has very specific connections with our early history, but I can’t remember the specifics. There are, however, tons of stories about the Founding Fathers going to this tavern in Savannah and that church, etc. I do know that the hotel is most renowned for being haunted! Teddy and I cracked up reading the stories of sightings during “Ghoststock 2006”—of course you’re going to see a ghost when you go to “Ghoststock 2006”. I do believe in that stuff though and I was a little creeped out to hear stories about clacking high heels on uninhabited floors and little children playing in the halls in the middle of the night. Teddy may or may not have heard the high heels…

Anyway, we decided to cohabitate in peace with the spirits and thoroughly enjoyed their bed and breakfast. Our room was so gorgeous and so southern. There was outrageous crown molding and beautiful wallpaper, etc etc etc. We really cut a deal on this hotel too! Free breakfast included.

Our mascot, Yoda!

Teddy is a Hobbit

I Yelped some dinner and found what I could only imagine to be the best place to eat in Savannah for Erica and Teddy: The Pirate’s House. We were not disappointed! We learned so much about pirate history in America. The restaurant is housed in the oldest building in Savannah, right by the water. There were tunnels underneath the tavern that led out to the water. There are stories of men getting drunk, hit over the head and dragged to work a pirate crew without their consent! This was called getting “shanghaied”. Love it—never knew where that expression came from. This all happened right underneath our dinner table. There was also a gift shop where we got a mug for our collection. I also got a mug with the restaurant’s signature pirate drink: “The Skull Crusher”. We asked them to make it as virgin as possible so my skull wouldn’t get crushed. Captain Flint died in the bedroom of the tavern…I mean even though Captain Flint was a fictional character in Treasure Island, that doesn’t mean he didn’t die in that bedroom!

Oldest building in...America? Savannah? Can't remember.

ARRR!

Sure crushed my skull!

I just drank out of this mug last night. Still awesome.

Original prints from Treasure Island

We ate the best chicken ever—it was a brown sugar fried chicken with pecans. Despicable. Also, crab dip. Delishable. After dinner, Teddy wanted to walk by the water. Last time he said that, we got “robbed”, so we laughed a little and knew we would have better luck this time. We did! Savannah is SO much fun at night. We both wished Teddy could drink, because this sure is a drinking town. It’s also a family town. There were hundreds of people all over the boardwalk: listening to live music, drinking beer sold on the street that you can drink on the street and just people watching. It felt like the most happening place in the south! All the shops were still open at 9 or so, including a massive candy story where everyone was eating their prawwwwlines. All of this action is set to the backdrop of historical buildings, cobblestones and historical taverns repurposed to …taverns.

We walked up some old, mossy, steep cobblestone stairs to more dancing, music, drinking and cigar smoking. I can’t wait to go back and see more nightlife in Savannah. We grabbed a much needed orange sorbet at the hundred year old ice cream shop, Leopold’s (line was out the door at 10 pm), told each other Marshall House ghost stories and went to bed.

6:24 pm

Air Conditioning

Williamsburg Hospitality House

Writing on July 4, 2011

We woke up and were ready to start our morning at the farm! Ashland, the Calhoun’s farm, is an equestrian park and micro-green farm. We’ll explain later about the greens. After a lovely breakfast of toast, eggs, yogurt and fruit, it was time for our tour of the farm. Clay rolls up in an open Suzuki Samurai with the other dog, Rusty, in the front seat. We jumped into the open trunk of the car and held on with straps. It took about an hour to drive all the way around the farm—with short stops along the way to pick wild blueberries, see natural granite formations and spot vestiges of the olden days. The farm was once a cotton farm—you can still see the raised terraces of soil (now forest) where they grew.

Rusty boy in the front seat!

You can also see a big bathtub-sized ditch dug in the ground—Clay tells us it was used for moonshine. We had told Clay about our Jeep tour in Canyon de Chelly, and about the mandatory “vending” our tour guide had set up. Clay cracked us up when he told us we would be stopping to “do some vending and meet my cousins who are gonna get you some moonshine”.

After the tour of the grounds, we headed over to the barn that Teddy’s cousin Libby designed. It is so gorgeous—clean and airy and bright. The horses look so happy—I think they’re very pampered. One horse has some sort of illness where he can only drink beer—not bad. Another has TMJ so he has to have his food chewed for him. I think it’s so precious and great. They were such sweet animals—I always forget how big they are. After playing with the barn cat, Minnie—(all barns need a cat)—it was time to go to Marietta.

Fresh blueberries off the bush!

Southern magnolias!

Minnie Mouser!

I had two reasons for going to Marietta: one—Gone With the Wind; two—Leo Frank. I have been a GWTW buff for years. I couldn’t wait to see the museum dedicated to the movie/book housed in Marietta, GA. My favorite play that I participated in Princeton was undoubtedly Parade. It was the spring of 2006. Our cast was so close and it really was an awesome production. I really wasn’t that affected by the story at the time—I was pretty caught up being a college kid. Recently, by best friend Spencer played a baddie in a production of the show off Broadway—(off Manhattan, really J ). Two of my old castmates from ’06 (we’re still close friends) joined me to watch Spensie in this cool little blackbox theatre in Queens.

Somehow, I really felt the message this time around—I was so affected and devastated by this story. The show is truly heartbreaking. It would take me forever to explain the story and I would probably get upset about it, so please check it out on Wikipedia. Basically, Leo Frank, a Jewish businessman from Brooklyn, moved down to Atlanta to work at a Pencil Factory in the 1910s. A girl was murdered at his factory late one night. Long story short, he was accused and sentenced for the murder. There was no evidence, the trial was a circus/witch hunt crafted by the press and it was a political football for the bid for governor. Ultimately, when some sensible person finally reduced Leo’s sentence, a mob stormed the prison, kidnapped Leo and hanged him in Marietta.

Before we headed to GA, I decided to look up what I thought would be the obvious Leo Frank Memorial Park or the Leo Frank Something. It took me forever to find anything online. It’s not a happy part of Marietta’s history, I know, but I was shocked when I couldn’t find anything on the city’s website, visitor’s guide or maps. I FINALLY learned that a plaque hangs in his honor at the site of his lynching. We drove a bit out of our way to see what are actually three plaques: two on the side of a building and one historical society memorial sign. It was really emotional to go visit—I thought about how this memorial is tucked on the side of a highway, next to a dentist’s office, hidden from view. I also thought about the fact that he was only pardoned for the murder in 1986 and that the plaque was only set up in the late 1990s.

We took this pic for Molly :)

Onto something more fun—for me anyway. Teddy has been a trooper going around with me to my “I’ve always wanted to see this place! Since I was like 6!” spots around the country. One of these is the GWTW museum. (I chose the Marietta one over the Jonesboro one.)

(DISCLAIMER: One quick comment to straighten up something I just thought of as I was writing this. I just wrote three paragraphs about human rights—which I am so strongly passionate about—and now I’m about to tell you how much I love Gone With the Wind—which some feel is a work of patent racism. This is also a huge topic that I love to discuss. There are so many interesting viewpoints from critics, African American scholars and people like Hattie McDaniel herself. (I’ve read a lot of books about GWTW). I do not denounce that there are racist elements in the novel. But, my love for the book and movie started when I was about ten, long before I had any concept of the book’s themes and undertones. It has since remained mostly about the costumes, the love story and most importantly, Scarlett O’Hara. Vivien Leigh is the goddess of my life and she portrays the fiercely independent antihero Scarlett perfectly. I really hope that explains it! Anyone who wishes to discuss further, let me know.)

OK—so, the museum was SO not as exciting as I wanted it to be. There were a lot of pieces of international memorabilia: like the book published in every possible language. If I could have spent all day there, I would have read every article and every telegram—but alas (mostly to preserve Teddy’s sanity) I wanted to push through. I saw Vivien Leigh’s signature and handwriting first hand, which I was so excited about. There were a view snifters and a carafe with VLO (Vivien Leigh Olivier) etched onto them. I so wanted to pull a smash-and-grab on that glass case. Also, her New Orleans wedding costume (the real one, not a repro) was displayed! EEK it was so exciting. At the gift shop, I bought the DVD box set—a must have—and an old poster. The gift shop was seriously lacking, though.

After torturing Teddy with my constant swooning and ceaseless question—“Do I look like her in this picture? You do think I look like her don’t you?”—it was time for lunch. We ate at a funny little restaurant over a gift shop, had some not good cupcakes and drove back home.

Absolutely gleeful!

AH! So excited to see this sign

My mom has this doll!

Fellow Marymount graduate, Bonnie Blue Butler

Que Bueno!

Talking to myself.

THE hat that Rhett gives Scarlett before proposing!

THE New Orleans wedding dress

Me and Teddy

I want these rocks glasses

Viv's address in London. I'll make a pilgrimage one day

I loved that Viv and I got to share a role :)

She's a cat lover!

Script

Found these ads hilarious

We were planning on doing a whole day in Atlanta, but the roadyssey finally caught up with us I believe. We really hit the wall. All I wanted to do when we to back was pass out on the hammock by the lake. But, Teddy and I were on our own for dinner, so we dragged our weary selves to the market. Teddy and I like to have grilling fests where we grill everything we can possibly imagine. This time, we bought chicken breasts, jalapeno cheese La Brea loaves, onions, garlic and some Georgia peaches. Grilled peaches are to die, if you didn’t know. At the house, we gathered our items in a picnic basket, bribed the dogs with some treats and headed to the lake. It was so beautiful to eat outside under the misty sky at dusk, surrounded by trees and little creatures. It was all so calm and peaceful: a peace suddenly broken by my intrusion upon a couple of bullfrogs. One screamed to the other in “frog”: “HUMAN!” and I screamed: “FROG!”. It was actually terrifying. After another swim in the gorgeous lake, the little fireflies were already out and we walked back to beat the dark.

We had a nice chat with the Calhoun’s upon their return and then it was off to bed!