Day 2.50: Savannah, GA to Charleston, SC

We got up in time to have breakfast at the hotel, which wasn’t terribly impressive. We drove into Savannah to get to Congregation Mickve Israel in time for the first tour at 10am. We parked on a meter right by this still-functioning synagogue, which is the third-oldest congregation in America. Our tour enabled us to see and learn about the history of this neo-Gothic synagogue, and how it started as Orthodox before a sermon delivered by the rabbi helped move it to becoming Reform. There was also a wall of letters from United States presidents, including Washington and Trump. The tour was informative, interesting, and worth the $8 cost per person.

We drove a few minutes to park and walk through Forsyth Park, which reaffirmed that Arielle was already in love with Savannah.

We decided to stop by the Conservative synagogue, Congregation Agudath Achim, which was open, and we got a brief tour of the building from an administrator and the executive director.

We may have driven around the neighborhood looking at what houses near the synagogue were like, and encountered some beautiful flowers. We weren’t sure where to go for the lunch, and the place that was recommended by the synagogue had apparently been closed for three years. We ended up driving about thirty minutes to the nearby Tybee Island, stopping first at two lunch places that weren’t what we were looking for before settling on a perfect choice right by the water: The Deck. Arielle got fish and chips and Abe got the market fish, both of which were delicious. Afterward, we walked onto the sand towards the beach and then sat on a bench swing for a while, taking it all in.

We eventually got up and left for Charleston, crossing immediately into South Carolina. It only took us about two hours to get there, and we went straight into town, parking at a meter along Market St. We opted to have dinner at a highly-rated place called Swig and Swine despite the fact that we knew that we would have neither of those two things (the signs and shirts were very entertaining). We had been told by the hostess that we could order a half-pound of the “meats by the pound,” but the waiter said that wasn’t true, so Abe got a pound of burnt ends with collard greens and corn pudding on the side. He liked the meat but didn’t touch either side after a brief sample. Arielle liked the fried pickles appetizer and the sweet tea, but did not like the mac and cheese. Our waiter never came back to check in on us, but a manager who was circling was very nice and took off all of the items we didn’t eat, making it a decent value.

We returned to Byrd’s Famous Cookies for many more samples and a few purchases, then drove a bit to park near the Pineapple Fountain, which we walked around even though it was already dark.

It took us about twenty minutes to reach the home of Daphne, a former USY colleague of Abe’s, who had hosted him last time he was in Charleston back in 2015 after his flight was cancelled on the way out from a USY convention. She had graciously offered to host us for this visit, and we had a nice time catching up before heading to sleep in her lovely home.

Approximate number of miles covered: 124