DisneyWorld is one amazing place. It is literally its own world with miles of roads leading up to, and around the four kingdoms. Hotels, shopping centers, restaurants, it has everything. We were on the highway one minute, and suddenly we were passing under signs welcoming us to, 'The happiest place on earth!" I could just imagine the cars full of kids, screaming in delight that they had finally arrived.
On one of our non-park days we decided to check out a Walt Disney Corporation community called, Celebration. It is not exactly a city, but instead is called a "census-designated place and master planned community." In other words it is an unincorporated resort and retirement area. It began in 1994 and has neighborhoods of condos, small homes and large mansions. The streets are tree-lined and each house is unique, and very Americana. Rather than it being a subdivision atmosphere, the streets and houses looked like they could have been over a century old, with not a flower out of place, or a weed in a crack on the sidewalk. Ornate Victorians sat next to colonial style homes, next to Spanish style houses with heavy tile roofs, next to craftsman style houses, next to American Gothic farmhouses with porch swings. This planned community was created to be Disney's idea of the perfect town. There was no bad part of town, no other-side-of-the-tracks. It made me feel, well, confused. It indeed was a beautiful town, and as we rode up and down the streets we were always 'ooing and ahhing' at the picture-perfect homes. But, it was a bit too "Stepford-Wife-ish" for me. (Remember the movie in which all the wives in the town were turned into 'perfect' wives, always happy, always perfectly put together, waiting hand-and-foot on their husbands?) I really wanted to like Celebration, but it all made me feel uneasy. In fact, my feelings were confirmed when I picked up a local paper touting the wonderful attributes of the community. In it were photographs of happy people doing fundraising, having Christmas parties at the town hall, participating in craft and bake sales. Then I read the minutes from the most recent Home Owners Association meeting in which a bylaw was passed limiting each family to only four "non-residents" (read outsiders) to any town event. Each homeowner would be given ID badges for these events and their guests had to remain with them at all times. That just creeped me out! I decided, after continuing on to St. Augustine, Savannah and Charleston, cities with real histories and a grittiness to them, that Celebration can go on perfectly without including me.
ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
St. Augustine, located in the northeastern part of the state lays claim to being the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States. With over four centuries of history, the city has influences from Spain, England and Greece as well as from the African cultures and Native Americans. It was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, one of whom was Juan Ponce de Leon. You know his name as the guy who claimed to find the Fountain of Youth. The story goes that he was amazed at the youthful and strong native tribesmen who looked far younger than their actual age. He of course assumed that it was due to them drinking from a spring that bubbled up in their village. (Let's not consider that they had a healthy diet and did plenty of physical activity.) So, the legend of the Fountain of Youth began and continues to this day. We tried it. And we're still waiting for it to take affect. It had a mineral taste and was highly alkaline. The docent told us, even though it wasn't very pleasant to drink, it was very good for us. Well, okay. It was still yucky.
We enjoyed exploring the Fountain of Youth Archeological Park, which besides the Fountain contained a 16th century settlement, cannons, interesting and well-informed park docents and lots of peacocks. We almost went deaf when, on the hour, a docent dressed like a Spanish Conquistador lit the cannon and 'fired on the enemy." (No they didn't actually shoot a cannon ball, but the blast was incredibly loud.)
Then we walked along St. George Street, a pedestrian-only section of the old city. Along the way we saw plenty of restaurants, bars, shops and historical buildings such as the oldest wooden schoolhouse in St. Augustine.
After visiting Celebration, it was nice to see a real town with real history and some grit to it.
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
Oh, I do love Savannah! It is old and beautiful and creepy and haunted and real. Our hotel was right on the Savannah River and was once an old factory and warehouse used by Anheuser-Busch and then Heitz Ketchup. In fact when they did renovations to turn it into a hotel, they found lots of old beer cans and ketchup bottles.
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| This is the warehouse turned hotel. |
In February of 1733 General Oglethorpe and settlers from England landed in what is now Savannah and according to history, was greeted by Tomochichi, the Chief of the Yamacraw tribe. Together, Oglethorpe and Tomochichi are considered co-founders of the City of Savannah and the Colony of Georgia. The historic downtown is very much the same as the original town plans drawn up by Oglethorpe. Savannah's historic district is the largest in the U.S. Each little neighborhood has a square and a statue of someone important to Georgia. Twenty-two of the original twenty-four squares still remain. Each house and building had an interesting history, some with very influential former residents, and others, places where much money was made "between the sheets!" We took one of those 'hop-on-hop-off' bus tours and learned so much about the city. I just felt the history everywhere and could understand why it is considered a very haunted city. I love that stuff, but my husband is a skeptic, so he sort of ruins it for me!(haha)
From our hotel we could see gigantic barges loaded with containers move up the Savannah River, some piled so high they were taller than the buildings. It was weird to see. At first glance it appeared that the buildings were moving, then we realized it was the container ships behind them that were moving. We learned that the cobblestones along the river were actually ballast stones from the old ships that were 're-purposed' for roads. It was great to see that an area that was at one time the dock area full of warehouses, was now a place with flourishing restaurants and hotels, all keeping the original flavor of each building and street.
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| Here you can see the ballast stones used to make the roads and walls. |
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| This was one of several old storage areas along the river- very creepy! |
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HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA
We made a detour here on our way to Charleston and we were glad we did. The beaches here are beautiful- fine white sandy beaches that go on for miles. I can see why this is a well loved vacation destination. We enjoyed our brief couple of hours here.  
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
Charleston was founded in 1670 and was originally known as Charles Town to honor King Charles II of England. Its rich history is obvious everywhere you look and the historic district is beautiful, each section having its own unique personality and flavor. We took a bus tour, which we often do in new cities to get a "quick study" of the place. Later we walked to the harbor and the city market and just wandered the tree lined streets and soaked in all the amazing southern architecture. Our hotel was centrally located, right in the historic district, so we could walk to restaurants and we really felt like we had our fingers on the pulse of the city.
  
Our vacation to Florida, Georgia and South Carolina was wonderful in all ways! We had great fun at DisneyWorld and enjoyed our road trip to three fabulous southern cities. One of my favorite quotes about traveling says it all:
"Traveling...it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller." (I.Battuta) Until next time! |
