We love to stop in Charleston for a few days on our way thru – I think we’ve only missed it once.  While we have stayed at a marina right in the city a few times, it is often simpler to stay at St. John’s Yacht Harbor Marina.  It is a 20 minute Uber ride into downtown & they have a loaner car you can use for 2 hours to do errands. 

In addition to the usual restaurants & tourist spots, we like to add a new museum or such every time.  This time … a new donut shop!  BKeD Shop.  Fairly expensive, but very good!

That is the shrimp boat at the dock in the background

We’ve been on the hunt for fresh shrimp, but have had bad timing at some of our usual stops.  Fresh shrimp is truly right off the boat, so you need to be there when a boat comes in, as it’s unloaded, processed & shipped off within hours.  While stopping at Thunderbolt, Georgia we spied an old building that had “the look”.  We walked up, but were disappointed as a sign on the door said “NO SHRIMP”, but as we continued around the building, an overhead door was open & we saw shrimp!  The workers were about half-way thru the unloading & promised us some if we came back in an hour – “whole or headed?”  An hour later, we bought 5 pounds at a great price – headed – thank you.  We had some for dinner (they were fantastic!) & now our freezer is nicely stocked with enough shrimp to last us a few months.

From our marina in Thunderbolt, it is only a 15 minute Uber right into downtown Savannah.  Unlike Charlestown, we’ve only stopped a few times, but looked forward to visiting again.  Our new stop for Savannah was … no … not a donut shop, but a new museum – the American Prohibition Museum.  It was really comprehensive & quite interesting.  There were so many aspects of Prohibition which I had never considered:

• While the 18th Amendment & the resulting nationwide prohibition of alcohol wasn’t passed until 1919, “the movement” & various Temperance Societies had began in some areas of the country almost 70 years previously.
• While the theory was to keep the men in-line, sober & stop them from spending their pay on evil, there were so many downsides never considered.  Tens of thousands of farmers, brewers, distillers, coopers, distributors, truck drivers & workers of all kinds were instantly out of work.
• The first national Income Tax was enacted to offset the loss of liquor taxes.
• Organized crime got it’s big start with bootlegging – a multi-million dollar business.

On the other hand:

• Auto & boat engine technology exploded – more horsepower was needed for the bootleggers and then by the authorities chasing the bootleggers.
• Women rarely drank alcohol before Prohibition, but sure started during Prohibition.  Speakeasies, although illegal, were everywhere & for the first time, women could freely socialize with men in an informal setting complete with dance to this new music (to many) called jazz & wear risque clothing.  It is also said to be the real start of integration – people of all backgrounds, colors & social standing gathering together just to have a good time & mingle with each other for perhaps the first time.