Our last stop in the USA was to Savannah, where we maintained our tradition of visiting relatives, friends, and doctors, not necessarily in that order.

Early on, we drove out to the vicinity of our former home on the Ogeechee River, in order to access the effects of the Matthew Hurricane. Although we arrived some 11 days after the storm had passed, there was still a tremendous amount of debris. The roads were clear, but the lawns and ditches were still littered with branches and cut-up logs. We saw some big trees that had fallen in yards, narrowly missing homes, trees that were still not sectioned for removal. We saw lots of blue tarp on roofs that had been damaged. Surprisingly, the private docks along the river seemed largely intact.

We spent a fair amount of time with Barb’s daughter Danielle and Danielle’s daughters Kristen and Abigail. One afternoon, Barb took Kristen and Danielle on a shopping expedition.

We had deliberately timed our visit to Savannah to coincide with the annual Savannah Film Festival, hosted each year by the Savannah School of Art and Design (SCAD). All told, we saw about ten films, all relatively new and all yet unrated. After many of the films there were Q&A sessions with some of the film actors and/or directors. Some of the films were surprisingly risqué for a conservative Southern city. On the last day we took Abigail with us; on one film Barb and Abigail had to beat a hasty exit. I stayed. 🙂

Barb and I took Abigail out to Tybee Island, where we walked the beach, had breakfast at the world-famous Breakfast Club, and climbed up to the top of the Tybee Island Lighthouse, located at the north end of the island. When we tried to access the North Beach, we found it was closed because the large parking lot was being used to temporarily store storm debris. The magnitude of the collection was amazing.