Savannah is the perfect size city to explore in a day, and since Ben had never been and I hadn't been in a while, we decided to take a day trip from Charleston. 

We left Charleston in the morning and were in Savannah by 11 a.m.

Our only plans for the day were to walk around enjoying the city and hopeful eat some good food. 

We started our morning walking through Forsyth Park, and obviously stopped for a picture at the fountain. 

Have you even gone to Savannah if you don't take a photo here?

From there we meandered our way in the general direction of the river. 

We stopped to explore some of the squares, and managed to pop into the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist just before Mass was going to start and they were going to kick out all the tourists. 

I'm glad we managed to get in. It was a really beautiful building that I hadn't visited the last time I was there. 

We ducked into an adorable bookstore right off one of the squares, and I spent time strolling through the aisles before I discovered a section of Blind Date with a Book. This is one of my favorite ways to patronize independent book stores, and I settled on this YA romance. It seemed like a good choice around Halloween. 

We strolled down Broughton Street stopping in some of the shops. I snagged some delicious pumpkin spice whipped honey from the Savannah Bee Company. And then we stopped for lunch at Goose Feathers Cafe. If you're looking for a quick and delicious lunch stop in Savannah, I definitely recommend Goose Feathers. We heard a tour guide say they have a great brunch too, but can't vouch for that ourselves. 

The rest of the day was lots more walking. We walked along the river, we explored the city market. 

And then in the afternoon we did two historic house tours. These are really popular things to do in Savannah, and it was the one thing I felt like I missed out on during my last trip. 

The first tour we did was of the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters. This was definitely a highlight of the trip in terms of learning something new about historic Southern cities and slavery. The house has been really well preserved and the audio tour was well done. It was obviously a heavy topic, and I thought this tour handled it well by not glossing over the ugly parts of Savannah's history, like our second house tour did. This tour was a little pricey in comparison to some of the others, but I'd say it was well worth it. Definitely one of the best parts of our trip. 

Our second historic home tour was the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace. She was the founder of the Girl Scouts and at one point when her original home was going to be sold off, the Girl Scouts purchased it and restored it. This tour was also interesting if for nothing else than every room was packed with Juliette's artwork -- paintings, sculptures, blacksmithing. I had no idea she had dabbled in so many different art forms. I was a little disappointed that this tour didn't really include much of a mention or acknowledgement that slaves likely worked in the house. If someone on the tour hadn't asked where the service entrance was in one of the rooms, I don't think it would have been mentioned at all. Seemed like a missed opportunity for important education on this tour. 

After walking all over the city, we'd worked up quite an appetite. We stopped for an early dinner at Public Kitchen before heading back to Charleston. 

Our day in Savannah was definitely my favorite day of the whole Charleston trip. Savannah is just such a beautiful city and so lovely to spend a day walking around.