A Low-Stress Saturday in Augusta

There are weekends where you need an itinerary.

Augusta doesn’t always require one.

If you’ve got a free Saturday and no interest in turning the day into a scavenger hunt, keep it simple.

Start with coffee somewhere that lets you sit down

Trellis Coffee Bar on Walton Way is an easy place to start. It’s a coffee shop and bakery in an old gas-station space, which is more interesting than it sounds and less precious than it could have been.

Get coffee. Get something baked if you’re hungry. Sit for a minute. There is no prize for beginning the day in a hurry.

Then go look at some art

The Morris Museum of Art sits right by the river downtown and focuses on art from the American South. That matters because you don’t have to walk through it pretending every painting arrived from somewhere more important.

You can take your time in there. A museum is better when nobody in your group feels like they’re being tested.

Walk the Riverwalk afterward

From the museum, the Augusta Riverwalk is right there along the Savannah River. It is one of those places that works better when you don’t ask too much of it.

Walk. Sit down. Look across the water. Let the day slow down a little.

Leave the rest of the afternoon open

This is the part people are sometimes bad at.

You do not have to fill every hour just because you traveled somewhere.

Maybe you wander Broad Street. Maybe you find lunch. Maybe you go back to the house and somebody falls asleep on the couch while everybody else argues over dinner.

That counts as a good day too.