So wrote Sherwood Anderson back in 1930, during a stay in Georgia's haunting old museum of a seaport. I recently enjoyed a one-day stopover in Savannah that included a break-of-dawn bike ride through the historic district, a perfect meal at the Boar's Head and an excursion to the ancient and eerie Bonaventure Cemetery just outside of town. The cemetery, by the way, has been a source of inspiration for countless visitors. The great naturalist John Muir spent a week there more than a century ago, sleeping under the moss-covered oaks and ruminating about the relationship between life and death. "You hear the song of birds, cross a small stream, and are with nature in the grand old forest graveyard, so beautiful that almost any sensible person would choose to dwell here with the dead rather than with the lazy, disorderly living." I'm not sure I agree with Muir's sentiment entirely, but Bonaventure certainly did deliver a moving, emotional experience for me on a quiet, breezy Sunday morning.
Below are a handful of the photos I snapped during my ride through town.