Thursday, Jan. 31st
We headed to Brunswick to see Lover’s Oak which is a 900 year old oak tree. It’s trunk measures 13 ft. in diameter. According to local legend, Native American braves and their maidens met under the majestic spreading limbs of this enormous oak, hence the name. It is truly remarkable in its size… not to mention its age! From there we headed into historic downtown for lunch at “Indigo Coastal Shanty.” Funky interior and great eclectic menu. Afterwards we visited the old City Hall building (no longer used as City Hall) but lots of interesting artifacts inside as well as the building itself is beyond cool. Then we wandered into a local art gallery that had a Fibre Arts show on display. Beautiful work… one piece being a $15,000 beaded wall hanging. Gorgeous! Ellen, this could be your next artistic endeavor, and make you rich in the process!!! The gallery was connected to a funky downtown historic theatre which also had artwork for sale on the walls. The theatre was intimate and reminded us of the Bow Street Theatre in Portsmouth. They happened to have a show going on the following weekend called Showstoppers featuring music from Dream girls, Jersey Boys and Chicago. We bought tickets which also included wine and dessert before the show. (Fast forward to Sunday, the 10th, the day of the show: Great production. Loved it! Some of the singers were amazing and some were much less than amazing. But all were entertaining and the show included some audience participation so quite enjoyable. Plus the desserts were to die for and the wine was a nice touch!)
Friday, Feb. 1st
We enjoyed a 9 mile bike ride on Jekyll Island weaving in and out of the coastal marsh areas. Beautiful scenery! It was a cool day but great for biking. Gary got a bit of a brain freeze with the wind whipping thru his helmet. No hair up there to warm his scalp. 🙂 We ended up eating sandwiches in the truck before we got started because of the cool temps.
Monday, Feb. 4th
We enjoyed watching the Patriots win the Super Bowl last night! Very excited about the outcome, although I almost fell asleep during the middle of the low scoring game. Today we headed to Woodbine, GA to walk the riverwalk which is part of the Georgia Pacific Rail Trail. Part of it meanders beside the Satilla River along a boardwalk and is very pretty. Then it slowly transitions into a paved (very straight) rail trail. We walked a few miles until it got boring along the very straight rail trail portion. It could be fun if we come back and bike the 10 mile in/out trail, although Gary’s gotten spoiled by the amazing scenery on Jekyll for bike riding so he’s not quite as enamored with the idea of bike riding here. We ate our packed lunch at one of the picnic areas and headed back home.
Tuesday, Feb. 5th
We visited historic St. Marys, which is about 40 minutes south of here. It was a beautiful day. Unfortunately they are in the midst of re-paving some of the downtown area so it wasn’t as scenic as it might have been. However, the town is along the St. Marys river and has an outdoor theatre set-up similar to Prescott Park. Only this one is reinforced to be hurricane safe. Gary was in awe of the size of the beams on the thing. We had lunch at an outdoor restaurant overlooking the river. I had shrimp again. Shrimp and oysters are the specialties down here. We wandered into a few antique shops and saw where to catch the ferry to the Cumberland Island National Seashore so that will be another day trip some time during our stay down here. From here we headed to Crooked River State Park to check it out. It was only 10 minutes away. Lovely campground with some nice hiking trails. We’ll come back another day and hike one of the trails.
Wed., Feb. 6th
Back to Jekyll today to bike ride in a different area than we’d biked before. This time we were in the historic district, which is on the grounds of the Jekyll Island Club Resort which is listed on the National Historic Register and it’s also where the U.S. Federal Reserve started. At one time the Jekyll Island Club owned Jekyll Island. The Club officially opened its doors in 1888 and became a retreat for families that represented one-sixth of the world’s wealth. Families like Vanderbilt, Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan built “cottages” on the property. It was the place to be until the Depression and WWII changed things. The hotel fell into decline then abandonment. Eventually it was bought, renovated and reopened in the late 1980’s.
The resort itself is very grand with lots of historic charm, high ceilings, elaborate doors, beautiful common areas, a croquet lawn and several outdoor seating areas. One of which we confiscated for our lunch. There are 20 or so refurbished historic cottages on the hotel property. The cottages are quite lovely, although most are not open to the public so it may simply be the exteriors that have been refurbished. Some have been converted into shops. We shopped or rather I shopped, although I found no treasures. Plus since we were biking I didn’t have much room to store any purchases anyway. We wrapped up the exploring, bike riding, and shopping after several hours, and headed back to our tiny home and saw an eagle sitting on top of a large utility pole near the bridge to Jekyll. I pulled over (yes, I was driving the truck) and we chatted with a local couple who were fishing. Apparently the eagles are seen often in this location and have a nest somewheres on Jekyll with a few babies in it. It took a little while to decipher the thick Georgia accent to pick all that out, but we got there. Haven’t discovered yet where the eagle nest is though.
Thursday, Feb. 7th
Today was a beautiful warm day so we headed to St. Simons to walk the beaches. Our favorite was Gould’s Inlet. Absolutely lovely with gorgeous homes nearby. As the name implies, it’s on an inlet with the tide flowing in an out making these narrow rivers in the sand. Very interesting! Nothing like walking along with your toes in the ocean in February! Afterwards we headed downtown for lunch outdoors, although it was a tad cool sitting in the shade. That’ll teach me to leave the sweater in the truck. Then we did some boutique shopping downtown and I finally found a wide brimmed hat to keep the sun off my face.
Monday, Feb. 11th – Saturday, Feb. 16th
This week was some clothes shopping for Gary who needed new shorts. He also found, in his words, a “skinny t-shirt.” Takes pounds off the wearer. This is his new favorite shirt to wear. He’s ordering about 10 more. On a different topic… I visited my first Hobby Lobby store. Never been in one before. Huge! And enough fake flowers to create a fake flower nursery if one wanted to do such a thing. Another day we headed back to Crooked River State Park in St. Marys and hiked a great trail through live oak and native landscape.
Valentine’s Day meant breakfast at the Waffle House where we both ordered… big surprise… waffles. Then biking at Jekyll Island on some different trails than we’ve been on before. These were a bit sandy and not all of it hard packed but luckily nobody did a face plant. We did find “Glory Beach.” Beautiful beach that is entirely remote. One other couple on the beach, and a bunch of gulls. The beach was used to film some scenes from the movie “Glory,” hence the name. I can see why it would be used in a Civil War movie. There is no sign of civilization on the beach other than a water tower in the distance, which I’m sure the editors could get rid of via the marvels of Photoshop. After biking and before heading home, we stopped to pick up dinner at Gary Lee’s, a take-out bbq place that is open 3 days a week and does a bang up business and was recommended by several locals. We ordered our ribs, brisket, and mac & cheese. (Dinner of champions.) As we were leaving the owner says “so where are you from?” At first I was a little insulted that we didn’t fit in as locals. Then I said “New Hampshire.” He thanked us for coming in and said his wife lived in Claremont for three years. Never did quite find out how she ended up in NH. There was a line of folks so we kept moving.
Sunday, the 17th, we are flying home for 10 days to check on the house etc. so we will be back in some colder temps for a little while. I’m looking forward to soaking in a bath tub and seeing my mom. Not necessarily in that order! And, of course, seeing my sis, Ellen, and Wayne and friends!
