Early to the I-75 for a New Years Eve trip to Savannah. We were on the move early as we'd seen a scary enough sampling of traffic in Atlanta to want to be proactive! Worked out excellently as we swooped southbound out of the city and towards central Georgia. We were happy with our decision to visit Atlanta and learned lots through selecting this southern hub as a destination.

We had one scheduled stop prior to Savannah, Andersonville National Historic Site. Andersonville was the site of a major Confederate prisoner of war camp, which hosted some 45,000 Union soldiers over its short life span of 14 months. The National Historic Site now hosts the American Prisoner of War Museum as well as the Andersonville Site and National Cemetery. At the Museum, we toured the exhibits as well as viewed the solid video that took narratives from POW's of all America's wars who put words to the experience. Hardly an "upbeat" stop, but holds some important reminders in regards to man's cruelty to man!

Outside the Museum, we walked the top part of the stockade site, near a small palisade reconstruct. Period artillery were placed in earthworks outside the palisade and mock lean to / log structures, known as "shebangs", have been recreated to give visitors a sense of how those captured lived at Andersonville. After the grounds we also meandered through the cemetery, with its numerous state monuments and specific headstones of those that served during the Civil War, as well as subsequent national conflicts. Pretty quiet trip back to the I-16 post visit... I'm hoping everyone was thinking about what they saw.

Roughly 3 hours from Andersonville we broke the city limits of Savannah. First destination, as we were ahead of check in time, was Wormsloe State Park at the southernmost edge of the city. Wormsloe is the locale of the eerie oak lined street, all seemingly covered in the Spanish Moss (of which is ironically neither Spanish nor is it moss), seen in pics of Savannah. It was cool to see and many others were also doing the photo bug at the gates. We wandered about and managed a cool family snap that you can see in the gallery.

Then heavy into town towards the Hampton Inn... Just in time for a wee change in events. While checking in Janie was asked if she'd like to upgrade... In fact, the upgrade was for a newly built Embassy Suites next door. Big room, fancy lobby functions with complimentary drinks, tons of staff and big morning breakfast. So... We grabbed that and set up shop for New Years in Savannah. The customer service folks here were so friendly... Pretty Darn nice y'all!

With a short stay and our desire to see as much of the city as possible, we opted for Old Savannah Trolley Tours to fill the gap... Coles Notes of Savannah! Actually it was a good run... We toured some of the many squares that are part of the civic planning of the area. "Johnny Mercer" even got on the bus! The southern architecture, huge oak trees mixed with tropical palms, and lazy Savannah River were all very cool. It'd be easy to live there (although the real estate cost would be scary).

After the tour we headed back to relax and regroup for the evening. Monica got some HGTV in, Peter and I watched some college ball, Janie was deep into the iPhone. We stopped into the brewing celebration in the lobby for party hats and a glass of wine or pop ("Soda"), then headed for City Market for pre-New Years action. Sourcing an outdoor table (beside a heat lamp no less) we ordered up some southern cooked wings / shrimp and settled in front of a band doing a groovy mix of 70's stuff. It was relaxed and entertaining. The troops hit the wall close to 9:00, as the cool skies, heavy eyes, and increasingly liberated, alcohol induced setting seemed to take over. When home, we enjoyed refreshments, TV (College Football - Texas A&M vs Duke) and Janie went nuts on the new washers at the Embassy. We mostly heard the retort of fireworks at midnight comfortably from our room. We'd completed the southernmost part of our trip.