Scouting in Savannah

Two years ago I took Big Al's junior girl scout troop to Savannah, and this past weekend I did it again with T-Rex's group. This was a great group of girls to go take because they were so polite and well behaved.

We watched the ENTIRE process of salt water taffy being made, and peppered the two young men making it with a LOT of questions. They couldn't get over the fact that the guys could cut off the extra taffy on the machines and NOT eat it - they couldn't believe he would just toss it in the garbage. They also asked one guy the favorite part of his job and he replied, "Girl Scouts."

We ate lunch at the Pirate House. This is where Robert Louis Stevenson was inspired to write Treasure Island. They said he stayed there and wrote it upstairs, but I'm not sure on that one..... there was a whole lot of storytelling going on in Savannah this weekend. We also learned about the pirate tunnels used to drag drug patrons down to the docks under the tavern and out to the waiting boats.

We visited the headquarters and met another girl scout troop.

Then we toured the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low - BEAUTIFUL house, and wished we could slide down the bannisters like her "dying" grandmother did.

We ended the day with a tour by carriage. Robert and his trusty horse Robin took us around the city and told us a mix of history and "tame" ghost stories. - it was cold! Robert told us many stories about Savannah, and inspired us with the Tom-a-chee chee tradition for Sunday (don't know if it is an actual tradition, but the girls wanted to try it - see below).

Today we ran around the city one more time doing the Savannah Safari badge. We found all sorts of animal architectural elements,

and thought we concluded the day with a pining ceremony in the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace garden.... but the girls wanted to try the Tom-a-chee-chee tradition. One of Low's ancestors ran the railroad, and a monument was erected for him in one of the squares. Unfortunately the people of Savannah had forgotten that Tomacheechee was buried there. He was a Native American who helped Oglethorpe with Native relations when starting the colony of Georgia. He was buried in the square, and when they rediscovered the burial place they reburied him. Ms. Low's mother or grandmother had this huge rock moved in to commemorate his burial. The carriage driver told the girls it was a girl scout tradition to knock 3 times on the rock, run around it 3 times, and then say Tomacheechee 3 times. Then you ask, "What are you doing?" Do you know what you hear? Nothing. HAHAHAHAHAHA...... the girls didn't get the joke, so they wanted to actually do it. I just stood back and took pictures.

T-Rex had a great weekend, and the girls this year are really building some great friendships.