Once we spent Thanksgiving in East Hampton and our itinerary included a visit to the grave of Jackson Pollock. Green River Cemetery, like all cemeteries, is a great place for kids. I used to find unwrapped crayons in my purse from grave rubbings. If you’ve never rubbed a grave, just grab a piece of paper, lay it on a sturdy-looking grave marker, rub it with the side of a crayon, and kids think it’s genius when an image pops up. When we enter the cemetery I always say two things: “when my uncle was little he broke his leg playing on a headstone so remember that they can be old and crumbly,” and “people are dying to get in here.”
That year we hadn’t yet taken a photo for our annual Christmas card, so we schlepped Santa hats with us to visit Jackson Pollock’s resting place. We posed in the graveyard but not everyone was cooperating at the same time. We ended up using a different backdrop but I’m glad my kids are comfortable enough in cemeteries to pose for a picture.
Your kids might complain about visiting a cemetery instead of say Six Flags, but try calling it a “graveyard scavenger hunt,” and I bet they have fun. Things to collect: your favorite epitaph, your favorite statue, the oldest headstone, calculate how long people lived, and who lived to be the oldest person. My all-time favorite epitaph is Robert Frost’s “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.”
One of my favorite cemeteries is in Savannah, GA. The Bonaventure Cemetery, located on the Wilmington River, is about a 15-minute drive from the historic district. It’s usually pretty busy with tourists walking under the hundred-year live oaks and listening to the free guided tours by the historic society. It is also featured in Savannah’s most famous book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. John Berendt, the editor of New York Magazine, moved to Savannah and wrote the true crime novel published in 1994. At the time Savannah was a funky Southern enclave of gardening clubs, a drag scene, and the filming of Forrest Gump. I recommend reading the novel before traveling to Savannah to get a feel for the place through the eyes of the colorful characters. The book put Savannah on the map, making it a popular destination for bachelorette parties and goofy ghost tours.
I took my two boys on a pirate-themed day trip to Savannah to improve my fun mom street cred. My kids were born in NYC, and we loved our Upper East side hood, then we had to leave our dear city due to the pandemic. Our current home is in a resort town just under an hour's driving distance from Savannah. When we enter the historic district the kids yell “Sidewalks! I’m so excited!” So the bar is set pretty low.
If you live up North you might lump the people of Savannah with Georgia’s devout Baptists that founded Chick-fil-A. I describe Savannah as a drinking destination. I rarely take the kids there at night out of respect for the city’s party theme. The biggest holiday is St. Patrick’s Day since 1870 when an influx of Irish immigrants kicked off the first parade. Today over 400,000 visitors flood the historic district for a parade in the morning and many days of drinking. We visited on March 12, and the tourists were already decked out in green. Homes and bars were decorated to the hilt. Even our delightful lunch waiter was wearing black pants with embroidered green clovers.
Once when friends were visiting from NYC we paid $40 per person for a Savannah historic walking tour. The guide wasn’t very kid-friendly which I respected but she wasn’t interesting to me either. I wanted to hear about murders, and where did Flannery O’Connor keep the creepy chickens? I can’t recommend a specific guided walking tour. However, if you are going on foot, then the Savannah Scavenger Hunt book is a great way to see the city with kids. There are also plenty of other tour choices including the trolley, horse-drawn carriages, and Savannah for Morons.
Our walking tour guide made an excellent family-friendly restaurant recommendation. The Pirate’s House is located in an old sailor’s inn mentioned in Treasure Island by Stevenson. My kids read snarky humor books so they haven’t read the classic but I like to imagine the excitement of a sailor stepping onto the dock of old Savannah. Pirate themes can run from campy to legit and kids love them all. This place is the real deal and the old building feels entirely authentic. They haven’t marred the old architecture with cheesy décor, and the place is covered in historical landmark signage.
The Pirate’s House buffet ($18.95/adult and $9.50/kid) is delicious. Typically I don’t cotton to buffets except for the dessert. The Pirate’s House was all about the sides. I piled mashed potatoes, vegan Brunswick stew, rice, and collard greens on my first plate. I went back for a second round to eat spicy grilled fish, and some more Brunswick stew and I finished my younger son’s roast turkey. The apple cobbler was just ok. We all visited the buffet twice which made me feel good about getting my money’s worth.
Knowing that we were on a pirate theme day, I schlepped a pirate hat saved from back when I was a mermaid and my sister was a pirate for Halloween. We practiced pirate poses and saying “argh” in front of the restaurant while we waited for our reservation time. Also, their kid’s menu turns into a pirate hat so I was in good company.
If you visit Savannah during the week, then don’t miss lunch at Ms. Wilkes' Dining Room, which also appears in Midnight. President Obama ate there. There is no menu and guests pass the dishes at a communal table. Cash only. No leftovers.
When we were walking from The Pirate’s House to the Telfair Museum we saw a sign that read “Juliet Gordon Low Birthplace”. We pulled up this description of the founder of the Girl Scouts and checked out the enormous gardens around her house. We learned that she traveled to Egypt and India in the late 1800s, and agreed that she was very brave. Her nickname was Daisy, she never had any kids, and we wouldn’t have Thin Mints without her. The tour is only $15/adult so we considered it but we were on a schedule so we moved along.
Jim Williams, the subject of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, was the president of the Telfair Museum. From humble beginnings in rural Georgia, he made his fortune restoring old homes in Savannah and filling them with antiques. He also killed his handyman/lover in self-defense, spent ten years in court to defend himself through three mistrials, and worked with a voodoo princess to vindicate him over the grave of his departed handyman/lover. I tried explaining all this to my 8-year old and he nodded in understanding. Check out the movie by Clint Eastwood. It’s creepy good. This museum is expensive ($25/adult and $10/kid) which inspired such remarks as “what do they think this is the Whitney?” But it also includes a tour of a mansion and slave quarters that you can visit over one week. If you have time to visit three museums, then it is worth it.
Back on the pirate theme, we took our pirate hats with us to a minor league Ghost Pirates hockey game. I bought nosebleed tickets for about $15/each and they were perfect. It’s a small arena and we had a full view of the action. We attended one of the Undie Sundays, where the fans bring packaged underwear for charity and throw it on the ice after a home-team goal. We were new to the tradition so we didn’t have any undies to throw but the boys loved it. We noticed that our nosebleed companions weren’t quite making their throws over the plexiglass and hit the expensive seat fans in the back of the head. It was fun to then watch little kids shovel undies onto tarps and pull them off the ice.
I found the fun mom treasure chest between the second and third periods. An enthusiastic promoter popped up to the second level and yelled “it’s time to dance for pizza.” We jumped out of our seats and started dancing only to see ourselves projected on the JUMBOTRON. The promoter was holding a medium-sized pizza box vertically and jumping up and down to hype up our section. Then he threw the pizza box to the people sitting behind us. I imagined either a ruined hot pizza, cold pizza, or an empty box. We discussed how they don’t know how to handle pizza boxes in Savannah, but we looked amazing on the jumbotron.
I recommend minor league hockey games to the point where I would only go to a day game. I wouldn’t skip the bedtime routine for it. There were about 10 different games or promotions that we enjoyed in between the play. We danced to YMCA, there was a game to throw pucks on the ice, we waved at a kid’s birthday party riding the Zamboni, and my younger son got his picture with the mascot. We aren’t knowledgeable fans of the game of hockey. We really just wanted to watch the players fight. We yelled “fight! fight!” and then felt weird about that afterward. One of the fights reminded me of the drama of professional wrestling: they threw down their gloves and then had a prolonged circle skate before they started pushing and grabbing jerseys. The crowd went wild and I didn’t look away.
If I were going to put together the perfect 36 hours in Savannah for you with children then I would:
Stay in a hotel near River Street. We recently tried Hotwire.com’s Hot Deal in Savannah and chose “Historic District East”. For $120/night we had a two-queen room on Bay St at an IHG hotel. It had a rooftop pool and one of those pancake machines at the breakfast buffet.
Friday night: Eat dinner at Belford’s and enjoy the people-watching in Franklin Square from a patio table. The streets are closed to cars in this area. You can opt for a carriage ride after dinner. I would save room for Leopold’s Ice Cream or one of River Street’s enormous candy shops. River Street is a nice walk to get acclimated to the city, though you will have to navigate the stone stairs of death to get there.
Saturday breakfast: I like the Maple Street Biscuit Company but maybe you would prefer the beignets and bottomless mimosas at Huey’s.
Walk off the biscuits with a free tour of the Bonaventure Cemetery.
Saturday lunch: The Pirate’s House buffet takes reservations. Take a walk around upstairs while you are there. It used to be a jazz restaurant.
Saturday afternoon: Don’t miss the artists selling in Forsyth Park. Ask the guy that paints cats how he got started. It’s so good you will have to buy one. This is a good place to start a walking tour or visit SCAD, the school of art and design.
Saturday dinner: The JW Marriott Skytop lounge has a slide down to a second level with cornhole, huge Jenga, and other games for the kids to play while you sip drinks and wait for your dinner to arrive. The real treat is the lobby with a life-sized chrome dinosaur on the ceiling and galleries under a bold design aesthetic. If you collect Marriott points, then this may be the place for you to stay. Your kids will love it.
Sunday breakfast: The ultimate Sunday brunch is The Olde Pink House, a mansion built in the 1780s. It was renovated by Jim Williams (of Midnight fame) in the 1900s. Now you need a reservation well in advance because of the bachelorette parties.
And please if you are in town without your kids, get cocktails at Peacock Lounge, eat dinner at Savoy Society, and invite me to karaoke at McDonough’s.
This is equally informational AND hilarious! Someday I too hope to dance for pizza.