Saturday in Savannah

Saturday morning found us eating at B&J's in Darien, Georgia.

Andrew's dad deliberately chose it since it's one of his favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants. He wanted us to get a taste of a real Southern breakfast complete with atmosphere, as in, everyone around us was a shrimper or a hunter in a camouflage clothing.

I think everyone definitely pegged us as out of towners, but everyone was friendly (in true Southern fashion). After all, who could resist our smiling faces?

Onto the food - we opted for the breakfast buffet since it let us try a little of everything. Keep in mind, I didn't even come close to finishing everything on my plate but I wanted to try everything.

It was totally a unhealthy (but delicious) meat overload - bacon, a hunk of sausage (one tiny bite of this convinced me to leave this alone), eggs, a sausage patty, gravy, grits, potatoes and a biscuit. I ended up making a mini sandwich with the sausage patty, gravy and the biscuit, yummy.

As you can see over Tom's shoulder, the rustic interior matched the casual vibe of B&J's. After dropping Andrew's mom at his granddad's place, we drove up the coast to Savannah. Since it was the one rainy day of the weekend, our tour of the city and its gorgeous historical homes was limited to what we could see from the car.

For lunch, we had the chance to eat at Clary's, a Savannah institution that appeared in the movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil":


The restaurant was hopping, and I was charmed by the stained glass windows, including one that simply said "Clary's Cafe" over Andrew's shoulder:

And the other showing the iconic statue "Bird Girl" that appeared on the cover of John Berendt's novel that the movie was based on:

The menu was incredible! The breakfast menu looked so good that I considered having another meal with breakfast foods. In the end, I opted for a light meal to leave room for dessert. No regrets on that front, my Greek salad was pretty ordinary (so not picture worthy) but the french onion soup was wonderful - tons of gooey cheese, flavorful broth and sliced onions:

Amanda followed the same soup and salad strategy for lunch, and enjoyed a creamy tomato bisque that she also deemed excellent:

I think one of Andrew's favorite meals in the world is eggs benedict, so for lunch, he had the crab cakes benedict with a side of cheesy grits - he signalled his approval of the meal by clearing his plate:

Tom went with a hot dog with all the fixings (I admit, I almost ordered this when I saw it on the menu) with a side of fries:

Now for the best part, the classic southern desserts!

The best key lime pie that I've ever tasted - I was the lucky one to have ordered this:

Amanda's pecan pie with vanilla ice cream (long story, Andrew had ordered this originally but once Amanda decided to get dessert, she decided that the pecan pie looked good and he decided what he really wanted was lemon meringue, so a switch was orchestrated):

Andrew made a wise decision to switch - the lemon meringue was again, the best I had ever tasted. A nice balance of sweet and tart with some heavenly meringue on top:

By the time we arrived back at Andrew's granddad's house, the whole family had gathered for a celebratory birthday dinner. I put the camera down for this part of the festivities, but let me say that the Moroccan chicken and couscous that Andrew's Aunt Mary and Uncle Dave made were delicious! I made sure to get a copy of the recipe and will definitely be making it in the future.

Next came the gift opening portion of the night - we were celebrating granddad's birthday in addition to Mary's 60th birthday:

That's all of Andrew's cousins (plus significant others) watching the gift opening with a few of Andrew's uncles and aunt in the background:

That's Mary in white, closest to the camera, with the rest of clustered in the back (you can just see my head poking out from behind Amanda) - this picture is courtesy of Andrew's dad Tom, which is why you don't see him in the picture!

Andrew, Amanda and I take a few seconds to mug for the camera, with the beautiful toile carpets swags in the background:

And one of the highlights of the evening, a family shot courtesy of the timer on Tom's camera: