November 21, 2009 cont'd

We're back and what a night of celebration it was! After a drink at our room in the Mulberry, we walked the 30 or so minutes to the Chipawa Square (it should have only been about 20 minutes but we overshot the cross street by a couple of blocks so a little backtracking was required). From Chipawa Square (the Forrest Gump park), we located Billy's Restaurant where we had dinner reservations. Shrimp & Grits was my choice tonight as we're fast approaching the end of our visit and I still haven't had any grits. Linda went for the Atlanic Salmon and what an amazing meal it was. Our waiter, Tan, is from Sri Lanka. He is attending the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) to earn his Masters Degree in Costume Design. (SCAD has so many campuses here...they're scattered all over the city and students are everywhere). Tan took great care of us and as we feasted on our meal, we were serenaded by an amazing man, Lavalle, who sang all the golden oldies. The ambiance made us feel like we were on vacation and all in all, it was a great meal.

From Billy's we made our way around the corner to the Savannah Theatre. This Theatre is the oldest continuously operating Theatre in all of America and tonight was our turn to experience it in all it's glory. The rogue's gallery that lined the walls of the stairway was like a who's who of theatre. There was WC Fields, Barrymore, Oscer Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Woodrow Wilson and too many more to recall. All had performed on the very stage that we'd see tonight! Our seats for the show were in the centre of the second row.....some of the best in the house and the show was "The Beat Goes On". Tickets had been $35 each so we were hopeful of the quality we'd heard the show provided. It was a medley of music from the 60's, 70's, and 80's and OMG - it was fantastic! From the fact that there was not just one star on the stage.....there were at least a dozen.....to the costumes and the crowd we were a part of....it was a night to remember. The audience participation was amazing! I'm sure it is part of the culture here that people are so inclined to engage in the performance...they were loud and appreciative throughout the entire two hours. The performers didn't miss a second of time during the two hour show. They worked so hard and the level of talent of every one of the performers was so high that we could easily have been watching a high end professional performance in any major city around the world. We were glad to learn that it's an equity troupe so they're all being paid for their abilities. Both Linda and I want to bring the troupe back to the Okanagan with us...the show was that good!

After the theatre we set out on our walk back to the Mulberry but just a couple of blocks down Bull Street we came upon some kind of impromptu party that was definitely underway so we joined in the fun. It was as though all of Savannah was celebrating with us tonight!

There are a couple of things that we've noticed are a little different in Savannah and one of them is that you're allowed to have open liquor on the streets here. If you still have 1/2 a beer when you're leaving a restaurant or a bar or your house....you just get a plastic 'to go' cup and take your drink with you. It's not unusual to see people walking along the sidewalk with a drink in their hand but neither Linda nor I have seen anyone under the influence. And tonight was no exception, there were about 100 young people gathered for this street party and most had a beer in hand but not a soul had had too much to drink. We both wonder if we have too many rules at home??!!

After about 1/2 hour at the street party we continued on our way back to the Mulberry where we spent the next little while talking to Trenton from Virginia whom we had met at the Conference. Trenton gave us a couple of good ideas to take back to the office with us so even though we were in celebratory mode tonight...we were still trailing our toes in Conference mode too.

It's late now though so time to call it another day.

till tomorrow,
L & L