Nolen Family Vacation 2017: Day 8

Saturday, April 22nd

Savannah, GA

After a homemade breakfast with Nate and Chels, we hit the road and headed for Savannah. By the time we arrived and unloaded at the hotel it was late afternoon. We headed straight to the riverfront and strolled along the Factor's Walk.

Here's an explanation of what it is, exactly.

Factors Row and Factors Walk are located on a bluff just above the River Walk. Factors Row is a unique collection of red brick buildings, formerly a center of commerce for Savannah’s cotton factors, or brokers. Factors Row was also home to the original Cotton Exchange, where cotton factors, or brokers, set prices worldwide.

 

Running from east to west above the river, these vast brick buildings rise two or three stores above the bluff and descend for three or more stories to the river front. The topside contained the offices of the cotton brokers and the building on the lower River Street side were used as warehouses. A series of iron and concrete walkways, known as Factors Walk, connected the buildings to the bluff. Ramps leading from Bay Street down the bluff to River Street are paved with cobblestones, brought as ballast and abandoned on the riverbanks by departing sailing ships.

After walking the length of Factor's Walk, we took a right and walked along the riverfront.

[caption id="attachment_3739" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Georgia Queen[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3743" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Tugboat[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3744" align="aligncenter" width="200"] The Waving Girl statue[/caption]

We ducked into a few shops including the Savannah Bee Company which gives free tastings of all their unique honey flavors.



We tried to find dinner, but everything was booked, being a Saturday night and all. Instead we found a Whole Foods near our hotel and grabbed food there.

Oh, the hotel. It was miserable. There was a huge group of young adults who were up alllll night long. They were making noise in the parking lot, they were making noise in the hallways, they were up and down the stairwell all night. Every time the door to the stairs was closed it slammed shut. At 3am I called down the the front desk and the receptionist said she'd tell the manager. After another hour of this I went down in person. It turns out the only employee was a pregnant receptionist. She informed me that they'd had this issue with the same group the night before and there was nothing she could do. It was a reallllly long, sleepless night.