Krissy crosses the Mason-Dixon line

I can't say I dislike Georgia. The overly-tanned, Corona tee-shirt-wearing, "there are fourteen of us packed into one motel room and we don't care if we keep you up all night blasting music and having sex we won't remember" crowd doesn't exist here, and the retirees don't wear speedos. So it's not Florida. I don't hate it.

Savannah is a kind of charming city, despite the sunburnt senior citizen tourists that it seemed to magnetically attract. Looking past the trolley tours and Thomas Kinkade gift shops, there is Spanish moss, gorgeous architecture, and a decent art museum. I think a lot of the charm of city can be missed, though, if the historic district is all that you see. Driving out of the city, we skipped the expressway and drove through the neighborhoods in search of a place to eat.

As we drove past the manicured gardens surrounded by elaborate wrought-iron fences, I spotted, in the midst of tourist territory, a group of Asian hipsters on bicycles. Continuing on in the same direction, I saw more. Girls in vintage dresses with ironic $250 Nikes, scruffy-looking guys with charcoal smears on their shirts, angular haircuts and dark, plastic-framed glasses abounded. All in the middle of the trolley tour route?

The mystery was solved when I spotted the Savannah College of Art and Design bookstore (we stopped in for coffee and amusing people-watching). While the school's location was obviously based on being in the historic district, rather than its proximity to "Ye Olde Savannah Gift Shoppe", I rather enjoyed the sight of the odd elderly tourist accidentally wandering into art student territory.

Driving out of the downtown, things became even more interesting. Catfish and BBQ joints were common, including the "Oriental Foods Market" occupying an old gas station and selling bamboo, BBQ, noodles, and dried alligator heads. Yum. We ate at Love's seafood, recommended by my mother's Georgia-native friend, which was delicious. (The downside: throwing up catfish nuggets and hush puppies later that evening.)

Tourists, hipsters, and food aside, the biggest impression Savannah made on me was the importance of religion in the South. And so, based on my day in and around Savannah, I present:

You know you're in the Bible belt when...

-Easter services are advertised on billboards and with commercials

-The motel with hourly rates and an attached liquor store has a bible verse on its sign

-There are bible verses on menus, but no wine list to be found

-Even the synagogues look like cathedrals, down to the cross-shaped floor plan

-The island you're staying on has three restaurants, no grocery store, but five churches

And

-A waffle house on Sunday morning at 10:30 is empty, but at 11:30, the line stretches out the door, everyone dressed in suits and dresses

That's all I can think of at the moment....