Bonaventure Cemetery

Saturday
Bonaventure Cemetery lies a few miles east of Savannah’s historic district, on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River. It contains centuries old Live Oak trees, draped with Spanish moss and hundreds of azaleas, unfortunately somewhat past their best, and other Spring blooms in addition to the beautiful and striking statuary. The cemetery is located on ground that used to be a plantation. William H. Wittberger bought the plantation in 1846 and formed the Evergreen Cemetery Company in 1868. The City of Savannah purchased the land and the cemetery in 1907 and renamed it Buonaventure. It became widely known after it was featured in the novel (and movie) Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. One of the best known individuals buried there is Johnny Mercer, the famous American songwriter and his family. Another grave which receives a lot of attention is Little Gracie, shown top left in my collage. Gracie was the daughter of the owner of the Polaski House Hotel, much loved not only by her family, but the whole community. She died of pneumonia when she was six. Her father had a sculptor carve a life size true to life statue of Gracie for her grave.
From there we continued on to Tybee Island, a barrier island just 18 miles away from Historic Savannah, and a popular vacation spot. This turned out not to be the best idea on a Saturday afternoon, as the traffic there and back was really slow, and finding parking a problem. However, we had time for a walk along the beach and a visit to the lighthouse, including climbing up to the top - a couple of pictures in extras
Step count: 18,246