Lunchtime in the garden of good and evil - day 2

We woke up at 7 or so as per usual and headed over to the free breakfast put out by the hotel. I'm not a big fan of these things, and this hotel's offering was a bit minimal. Our goal was to catch the first tour at the Mercer House. We were there at 10 the minute they opened. At 12.50 they were said to be the most expensive house tour in the city, but also the one we wouldn't miss, so we didn't feel bad. At 10:30, we were part of a group of 8-10. I wasn't surprised that I couldn't take pictures in the house. I was surprised that I couldn't even photograph the garden. The house was build before the civil war by the great grandfather of lyricist Johnny Mercer, although Mercers never lived in the house. After a series of owners, the house became a Shriner temple and then fell into disrepair before being rescued by Jim Williams, an art dealer who specialized in restoring fallen Savannah mansions. It became his own home and the crown jewel of his operations. Alex, the tour guide, did a great job of explaining the history behind the vast art collection.

Halfway through the tour we were in Jim Williams's study and Alex announced that we may have heard that they won't comment on the Book. Actually, Donna had read that and warned me that it would be the case. He told us that Midnight in the Garden was a major part of the history of this house, and he'd be happy to answer any questions. Apparently, this policy changed about a year ago as Jim Williams' sister gave in to pressure. The study includes several pictures from the making of the film, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring John Cusack and Kevin Spacey.

Afterwards, we had intended to take the free shuttle to the Pirate's house for a buffet lunch, but we decided to check in at Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House - a Savannah institution for decades that serves a family style lunch that has people lined up around the block at times. We got there just after the first seating at 11, and were first in line for the next opening. Sure enough, minutes later there were 30 people behind us. In a half hour, we were seated at a table with 8 other people and found out what the fuss was all about. The table was filled with platters of fried chicken (about the best I've ever tasted), green beans, cheese grits, cornbread, pulled pork, okra, macaroni, black eyed peas, turnips and collard greens. All you could do was take a dab of each thing and it was still an overwhelming experience. Save room for dessert - banana pudding.
Time to walk it all off.

Then back to the room to collapse before the conference begins. After making one of my famous wrong turns, we finally found the conference center and got my badge and agenda. At 6, we both attended the reception, which was a bit modest with no alcohol to be seen. Everybody there seemed to know somebody, so after about 15 minutes, I dropped Donna off at the hotel and rejoined the conference for the excellent keynote speech by Alister McReynolds. His point was that there were many subgroups among the Irish protestants in the late 18th century, and that we shouldn't just lump them all in with Orangemen. I found this very interesting, because I knew precious little about this period in Irish history - particularly about the 1798 revolt of the United Irishmen. A good beginning indeed.