Savannah – Wandering Dawgs

Lens Artists Photo Challenge # 227 – Home Sweet Home

December 4, 2022December 4, 2022Posted in Georgia, Nature, PhotographyTagged Coastal Georgia, Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge, home sweet home, Lens-Artists, Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Photo Challenge, Savannah21 Comments

If I had a visitor from another country who wanted to see my home country in a week or a month, where would I take them? This is the challenge Tina has given us.

I live in the United States. Many visitors from other countries are surprised by how huge it is. It would take more than a lifetime to see it all.

Instead, I will take the time we have to see the many beautiful sites in my home state of Georgia. There are mountains, farmland, friendly small towns, the Okefenokee Swamp, historic cities, barrier islands, salt marsh, beaches, lakes, and the city of Atlanta.

I’m not sure we could even cover the entire state in one month but we could give it a good try. We’ll start our tour in coastal Georgia where I live. We would visit at least one of the three inhabited barrier islands that can be reached by road, go on a dolphin tour to look for Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins, walk on an uninhabited island that can only be reached by boat, and take a ferry ride to explore Sapelo Island or Cumberland Island National Seashore. We would catch blue crabs from the local waters and steam them for a delicious meal, snack on boiled peanuts, and feast on low country boil with shrimp fresh from the sea.

We would visit historic Savannah and enjoy a family style lunch at Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room.

We could take a ride to Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge to see nesting egrets, herons, and woodstorks in the spring. We could continue farther south for a boat ride through the Okefenoke National Wildlife Refuge.

We would take a road trip on back country roads to north Georgia. We would stop to explore Athens, the home of the University of Georgia, go to the top of Brasstown Bald, and look for waterfalls. We would pass by fields of cotton, corn, and pecan orchards along the way.

We would take another road trip to see the western part of the state and stop to explore Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain and President F. D. Roosevelt’s Little White House in Warm Springs. We would drive by peach orchards and watch the sunset at one of the many lakes in Georgia.

There is so much more to see in Georgia. Sadly, I don’t have photos of some them. In Atlanta we could see the World of Coca-Cola, the Georgia Aquarium, Centennial Olympic Park, Stone Mountain, the President Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum and the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. We could visit the Providence Canyon, also called the grand canyon of Georgia in Lumpkin and beautiful Rome in northwest Georgia, and too many more places to name.

I can’t end a post about Georgia without including the University of Georgia Bulldogs football team. Go Dawgs!

Georgia Football Barn Sign, Tennille, GA

If you would like to see more about my home state of Georgia please visit visit this post I did a a few years ago Wandering Around America One State at a Time – Georgia.

Many thanks to Tina for her Lens-Artists Challenge #227 – Home Sweet Home

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #190- Close and Closer

March 18, 2022Posted in PhotographyTagged Celtic Cross, Lens-Artists, Odds and Ends, Photo Challenge, Savannah, St. Patrick's Day5 Comments

For this challenge Patti has asked us to get closer to our subject. We can get closer by moving our feet, using a zoom or macro lens, or cropping.

In honor of yesterday’s 198th Savannah St. Patrick’s Day celebration, the first one since 2019, I’m featuring the Celtic Cross in Savannah, Georgia for this challenge. The header image is the original photo. The next three images show the image cropped in three ways to show details of the different parts of the cross.

Many thanks to Patti for the challenge Lens’Artists #190: Close and Closer

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #189 – Odds and Ends

March 12, 2022Posted in PhotographyTagged Forsyth Park Fountain, Key West, Lens-Artists, Odds and Ends, Photo Challenge, Savannah, St. Patrick's Day15 Comments

Our challenge from Tina is to show images that never quite fit into a challenge category. I came up with a few images from my archives. The header image is from the Key West Cemetery.

In Savannah, when the azaleas are blooming and the Fountain in Forsyth Park turns green you know St. Patrick’s Day is almost here. These images were taken a few years ago.

Athens, Georgia is the home of the University of Georgia. It is also home to two interesting sights unique to Athens. A double barrelled cannon, the only one known of its kind, stands in front of City Hall. The Tree that Owns Itself grows in the middle of a quiet neighborhood.

I’ll end the post with images of the end of two U. S. Highways, U. S. 1 in Key West and U. S. 80 in Tybee Island, Georgia.

Many thanks to Tina for the challenge Lens’Artists #189: Odds and Ends

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #173 – Interesting Architecture

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021Posted in Photography, TravelTagged Ahwahnee Hotel, Art Deco South Beach, Interesting Architecture, Lens-Artists, Ninilchik, Photo Challenge, Quapaw Bathhouse, Savannah24 Comments

Tina’s challenge this week is to show interesting architecture – whether in our back yard or around the world.

My first three images don’t have anything in common except I like the architectural details of each of them. The image above is from the Art Deco District in South Beach in Miami. These next two are from two National Parks in the United States.

Quapaw Baths on Bath House Row in Hot Springs

The rest of my images are of interesting houses of worship. The first is from Alaska and the rest are historic houses of worship in Savannah, Georgia.

Russian Orthodox Church in Ninilchik, Alaska

Independent Presbyterian Church, Savannah, Georgia – the movie Forest Gump begins with a feather floating up to this steeple

Many thanks to Tina for this Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #173: Interesting Architecture

Lens-Artists #120: What A Treat

October 29, 2020Posted in PhotographyTagged Byrd's Famous Cookies, Cookies, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge, Savannah, Savannah Georgia, treat23 Comments

For this photo challenge Tina says “We’d love for you you to share something that was a treat for you”. This challenge reminded me of a fun day with friends before the pandemic shut down the world.

A few days before the national emergency was declared, our group of nine Active Older Adults from our local YMCA boarded a small bus for the 30 minute ride to Byrd’s Famous Cookies Bakery and Flagship Store. We began our adventure in the store where we sampled cookies and of course bought some to take home.

The smell of the baking cookies was heavenly

After a short presentation about the history of the company and more cookie tasting we took a tour of the bakery. No photography was allowed in the production area but I was able to get this shot through window of the doors to the room. Seeing so many cookies at once was a cookie lover’s dream come true!

As soon as the door to the production room was opened the smell of fresh baked cookies filled the air. Just imagine the aroma in your kitchen when you are baking cookies and multiply it by about 1000. I wish I could transmit that heavenly scent through the internet to you. Our guide walked us through the entire process from dough to hot cookies coming out of the oven. We were then rewarded with warm, fresh baked cookies right off the production line.

We wrapped up our day with lunch at Bow Tie Barbeque before boarding the bus back home.

The cookies have been made in Savannah since 1924 when there was only one flavor – their famous Scotch Oatmeal cookies. Today their flavors include Key Lime Coolers, Chocolate Chip, Salted Caramel, and Georgia Peach plus many others. There are several Byrd’s stores around Savannah and the cookies are distributed to stores all around the country.

Laughing with friends, eating cookies, and going out to lunch – what a treat!

If you would like to learn more about Byrd’s Famous Cookies or would like to order some of these mouth watering treats, visit Byrd Cookie Company.

Many thanks to Tina for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #120: What a Treat.