The Week in Review

I went down to Tybee last Monday to meet with my friends Barb and Judy from Ohio. On Tuesday I was supposed to meet the gals for lunch at The Lady & Sons in Savannah, but due to crossed wires, I lunched at The Lady, and the gals lunched at Uncle Bubba’s. Right family, wrong place. On Wednesday we did a little sightseeing, visiting Bonaventure Cemetery. It was a gorgeous, sunny, afternoon, with a breeze blowing off the river, which the cemetery overlooks. We visited the gravesite of Savannah native Johnny Mercer, which I’d seen before, but you always notice something new. This time we noticed the granite bench with the names of some of his more than 1,200 songs, and the fact that he earned four Oscars for his movie work. My favorite, of course, is MOON RIVER, from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but SKYLARK, is so lovely, too, and what about BLUES IN THE NIGHT, and COME RAIN OR COME SHINE, and ONE FOR MY BABY (AND ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD.) Also fascinating is the fact that the county commission re-named a portion of the Back River Moon River, in honor of Mercer, who grew up at Isle of Hope. In fact, after we left the cemetery, we went out to Isle of Hope, and drove along Bluff Drive, which has to be my favorite street in Savannah. Over-looking the river, the gorgeous white-painted homes on Bluff Drive speak to lazy, langorous summer days spent watching the world drift by. We each picked out our favorite homes–all three are close enough that we could wander over to borrow a a cup of gin in case of a gin and tonic emergency. That night we three cooked up a yummy dinner of grilled greek chicken, inspired by this recipe in the June issue of COUNTRY LIVING, which we proceeded to pimp out with the addition of artichoke hearts and green onions, served over orzo. On Thursday, we went shopping in Savannah, stopping by to visit my buddy Liz Demos of @Home Vintage General on Broughton Street, as well as The Paris Market. We lunched at Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House, which I hadn’t done in many years. You don’t know Mrs. Wilkes? Located on West Jones Street, the only way you know you’re there is by the line of people waiting on the sidewalk to get inside. Once you’re in, you are seated family-style and served with an astonishing 21 different dishes–always fried chicken, collard greens and rice, but last week, there was also chicken and dumplings, beef stew, sausage and red rice, stewed cabbage, creamed corn, barbecued pork, sweet potato casserole and on and on. We literally waddled out of there and over to E. Shaver Bookseller’s, another of my favorite stops in downtown Savannah. Thursday night we were joined by Mr. Mary Kay, who drove down to spend the weekend with me. On Friday, everybody headed off in different directions. The girls headed over to Beaufort, S.C. where they had a date with a shrimpburger at The Shrimp Shack on St. Helena Island, before catching their flight back to Ohio. Mr. Mary Kay went fishing with a guide, and I drove up to Newnan, GA. for a program at the gorgeous new Newnan Central Library. On the way I had an unfortunate run-in with THE LAW, resulting in a very unfair speeding ticket. I mean, if you’re going to a library, shouldn’t you be exempt from speeding tickets??? We missed Tybee’s infamous Beach Bum parade, but Mr. Mary Kay caught a veritable butt-load of fish–trout, redfish and flounder, which made him a very happy man. Boomerang Boy, er, Andy joined us for the weekend too, which was our last time to complete work on The Breeze Inn before our first paying guests check in for Memorial Day weekend. Somehow, we managed to check off every last item on my 17-count “honey-do” list. We got the sign hung on the fence, put up new house numbers, got my new porch glider painted lime green, and hung a bunch of my vintage framed black and white beach snapshots. In fact, we were so busy, I never made it to the beach a single time the whole week, which was just as well, because the weather was kind of chilly and rainy. In fact, the weather forecast for Atlanta’s Memorial Day Weekend is also for rain. Maybe I’ll stay in and write. Maybe.