Bless your heart ....

Now let me tell you, Saturday morning 9 am began much sooner following a night that I was "into my cups" but nonetheless, the Paula Deen Tour was planned for the third day of the Savannah Trip.

We were picked up at our hotel and taken to a parking lot where we were met with others, tons of others as it seemed, but probably 40 people eventually loaded on a tour bus and we began the adventure. It was another great weather day and the leader of the bus, Wendy, should have spelled her name "Windy" because she never shut up from the time the trip started until 1:30 p.m. Even at lunch we had the great fortune of sitting with her and she talked then, perhaps with her mouth full of food, but by then I was just in total disgust with her.

The tour, once you got past her non-stop talking, allowed us to see the produce stand where Paula would obtain her vegetables and fruit "on loan" or the bakery which made the bread for her sandwiches for her Bag Lady company that was selling lunch out of the trunk of her car.

We saw her first home in Savannah, where she married, and some of her favorite haunts (and trust me they were haunts!) The tour of the city concluded at her Brothers restaurant "Uncle Bubba's". We were led into the cattle call room, sat at tables like we were in elementary school and fed one oyster and a trip through a buffet line that included a shrimp boil, squash casserole, biscuits, pulled pork and a chicken/rice casserole. The food was okay but it was not what I thought I would be eating. It was not the heavy butter drenched food like Paula's food is, but this was her brother's place and not hers.

We loaded back on the bus and Windy rambled for another 30 minutes before we were deposited back at the hotel, where we promptly began the fun portion of the trip. We walked for about five hours through the city seeing the old homes, the parks and visited an amazing Catholic Church. I was in there (and from what I understand ... it is still there, it did not burn down). Truly breath taking.

We ended the night at Vic's on the River (not named after the dog fighter) and had a perfect upscale dinner. It was shrimp and grits for myself and my friend had amazing pork loin cutlets. I enjoyed a drink and the evening was spent back at the hotel unwinding and rejoicing that three days of no work talk, no personal phone calls and truly perfect weather making one amazing vacation.

Coming up, we have Sunday and about 6 hours of fun ahead ... as the travel log continues.