Leash Kid Adventures: Rain, Shine, or Pyro Cumulus Clouds.

Savannah is a perfect southern city with sweet tea, gorgeous people, warm weather. I had not been in town for close to a year, so when J called to announce birthday plans I jumped at the chance to visit her in her new home. It is hard to stay away from a city like this in close proximity to the beach, delicious restaurants, and great night life.

Savannah holds a big piece of my heart. When I lived on a boat, we would port in Savannah once or twice a week and spend our evenings on River Street and City Market. We would take runs each evening and watch dolphins swim by and cargo ships fill the river expanse.

Savannah is a town that wants to have a good time and convinces you to do the same. There is an open container law and you can bring drinks into any new establishments you go in. That makes bar hopping a bit more exciting! Just remember anything you walk around with needs to be in a cup - or a paper bag like these $5 40's we survived on. My bag disintegrated by the time I tried to drink all of this! P.S. it didn't happened.

We arrived Friday after deciding last minute not to fly and checked in at the hotel, watched the opening ceremonies, and waited for the last of the crew to roll into town - they took too long so SP and I ventured out without them, but as usual, they caught up with us!

And finally it was time to celebrate this birthday girl! Remember gents, on Fridays we wear plaid.

We made all the favorite stops and finally ended the night at Savannah Smiles a dueling piano bar where I have spent nights before running back to the boat to make it back before departure. If you are in Savannah add this to your list of places to check out. Though I will always recommend a dueling piano bar to anyone and everyone I meet, this is the place that began my love and I guarantee a fantastic time!

Really, I will buy you a shot if you don't enjoy it.

As always, it is great to be back together again with these friends!

The next morning we woke up to Indecisive Saturday, a traditional long boozy brunch with spicy bloody marys and carafes of bottomless mimosas at B. Matthews. It is a requirement to enjoy both on indecisive Saturday.

What a lucky girl I am to room with these fools for the weekend!

We had hoped to enjoy the beach for the day but after venturing out realized there were bigger events brewing in Savannah. Smoked filled the blue skies and clouded our views of the Savannah river as we crossed the bridge into South Carolina.

Determined to find out what was causing the flames, we headed to the port where we found the tire factory collapsed upon itself and engulfed in flames.

There was no way to stop the blaze and the smoke took over the sky.

As we watched, we made best friends with Brandon the newscaster - most likely due to our boozy brunch and he asked to interview our reactions for the WJCL news. Our moment of fame was upon us! Plus, would you say "No" to him?!

And we of course, gave the birthday girl the spotlight..

Honestly, we chose her because being a doctor she had the least likely chance of embarrassing us. And she did a fantastic job! This girl was made for TV. Once we heard that no one was in danger we stopped for one last family photo.

After our 15 minutes of fame and the pyro cumulus clouds plaguing us, our day turned quickly into evening activities and it was finally time to Slow Ride! Why do the days go so fast on holiday?

Slow ride is a 15 person bike that meanders through the streets and squares of Savannah for a tour of the pubs in historic downtown, otherwise known as a pub crawl on wheels. The bike helmet is only a requirement for some.

Each seat on the "slow ride" has its own set of pedals so we grabbed our drinks, put Slow Ride by Foghat on repeat, and set to pedaling.

Important factors I learned during our slow ride:

1. It is harder than it looks - seriously. With the hard bike seats, your knees hitting the bar top, and the feeling you are going to lose your balance at any moment this is not a effort free activity.

2. Bring your own music - they don't play any music but will let you plug in an iPod. Definitely make a playlist for this excursion when (and you should) go!

3. At some point everyone in your group will stop pedaling. This will happen when you're in the middle of an intersection and you will freak out that you are going to get hit by oncoming traffic. Or you will be on a hill and struggle to get the bike started again. Invite your most active and ambitious friends to participate.

This is a shot of no one pedaling.

4. The driver has too many rules. I get it, he's chaperoning drunk patrons through the streets of Savannah but he threaten to kick multiple people off our bike, only gave us 15 minutes in each bar, hollered at us to always face forward (I am here to see the sights!), and turn the music down.

In the end he left us on the street when he got a $100 fine for how loud we were. Sorry Ed, even if you were a stick in the mud.

5. It may not be the safest mode of transportation because only moments on the bike my pedals fell off! I must have been far too eager for the Slow Ride. At first I was very sad to miss out on all of the fun - until I realized I could supervise. Supervising had job duties such as monitoring the feet for slackers and "motivating" everyone to go faster. All while sitting back to enjoy the ride. So, if you can manage to knock off your pedals - do it.

We made four stops along the route with my favorite being "Abe's on Lincoln" Located off the stretch of tourist stops, it is a small, hole in the wall bar off Lincoln. The walls are plastered with Abe cocktail napkins, there's live music, and its dark and dingy - which always make the best places.