After a wonderful week's vacation on Jekyll Island, Georgia, being home feels quite nice.
Jack and I have intended to take a "real" vacation for the last couple of years but didn't get around to actually planning one until a few weeks ago. We had the general idea of traveling south to the Georgia coast from the time we started discussing a trip, and Jekyll seemed the obvious choice. When we were traveling to that area to care for Jack's parents the last few two years they were alive, we fell in love with the peace and tranquility of Jekyll Island and the absolutely unspoiled beauty of the beaches there.
A part of the Georgia State Park system, Jekyll Island is largely maintained as a nature preserve with only 27% of the island available for development. The houses look like normal homes instead of the god-awful big houses popular in some vacation destinations, and hotels are limited to three stories to preserve the appearance of the shoreline.
We reserved a lovely one bedroom condominium at Villas by the Sea, which has a private beach adjacent to one of the most beautiful places in the world, Driftwood Beach. Most days we walked several miles up and down the beach at low tide, collecting a few sand dollars, a bunch of great photos and memories that will last a lifetime.
We rolled into town on the front edge of one of the most spectacular lightning storms I've ever experienced in my life. Driving the last few miles toward the entrance to Jekyll with the storm dead-ahead of us, we saw a phenomenal light show. Here in the hills we miss a lot...
Rain was falling by the bucketful when we checked in at Villas by the Sea, so after a quick eye-balling of our condo, we opted to head to St. Simons for dinner at our favorite shrimp restaurant before unloading the car.
Iguana is every bit as good as we remember, and with the fresh fall shrimp starting to come in, it may have even been better than the last time we were down. Our waiter was a friendly guy named Duncan who informed us that the patio was still dog-friendly and brought him a bowl of fresh drinking water.
We chatted with a friendly Hawaiian family sitting at the next table with their little dog. The son, who is perhaps twelve, is an up-and-coming junior golfer, and he and his mother moved from Hawaii to St. Simons last year so that he can train and have access to the coaches and golfing opportunities presented by this part of the country. Kid must have some kind of golf game to uproot his family from the REAL islands. St. Simons is great, but Hawaii?? An aunt had flown in from Honolulu to Jacksonville to visit for a few weeks.
Despite the rainy, stormy weather, it was a great start to our vacation.
Upon returning to the condo we realized that our "queen room" actually housed a full-sized mattress, but we were too tired to bitch about it that night and too smitten with the location of our accommodations to bitch about it the next day or the rest of the vacation.
Beach access was available via four separate lighted walkways that crossed the dune-line beyond an expanse of lawn and live-oaks which opened from our first-floor patio. Plentiful garbage cans were available in convenient locations around the campus, and they'd provided a couple dozen pick-up bags (and a nice-sized package of dog biscuits) in our "doggy bag" at check-in, so dealing with Dudley's "business" was no problem at all. They also gave us a neon blue hang-tag for our door knob to let folks know a pet was in the unit in case there was a fire or other emergency.
Jack's brother, Dickie, and his family live on nearby St. Simons Island, so we had several opportunities to visit with them as an added benefit of the trip. Our nephew, "Little Jack", is growing like a weed - it's hard to believe he'll be nine years old later this month.
Our first day on the island we decided to trip over to St. Simons for lunch at our favorite taco stand in the whole world. Off the beaten path and not the kind of place you normally find tourist traffic, Jack discovered Del Mar during the month he stayed with his dad after his mother's death. As we pulled into the parking lot, Jack pointed to a vehicle and said, "I think that's Dickie's van."
Sure enough, after placing our orders and heading out to Del Mar's dog-friendly patio with Dudley, we found Dickie finishing lunch with one of his co-workers.
Unexpectedly running into him was great, and as he had an easy afternoon schedule and his own vehicle, he was able to hang out with us while we ate our lunch.
Later in the evening Dickie, Lisa and "Little Jack" drove over to Jekyll and joined us for dinner. Sometime last summer while on vacation in Tennessee, they'd met a guy who owns one of the few restaurants on Jekyll Island, and Dickie suggested we eat there. Coincidentally enough, the restaurant was in our condo development and just across the parking lot from our unit.
The food was great, but the company was even better. I'd completely forgotten that Monday would have been my mother-in-law's birthday, but the significance of the day did not escape Jack and Dickie even though little was said about it.
The first two mornings of the week, we walked on a beach near St. Andrew's Sound where people wade tit-deep with large seines to harvest shrimp, blue crabs and small "eating fish". They are interesting to watch and generally bring in a pound or two of shrimp with each pull of the net.
The birds and dolphins take advantage of this activity as the cast-off fish from the seine are well within their dietary preferences. As soon as the netters start culling what's in the net, swarms of gulls move in to join wood storks and white herons at the shoreline, waiting for the bait-fish to be thrown back in... And as soon as the shrimpers head back into the water, dolphins lurking a few yards off-shore join them to snatch goodies out of the nets.
Tuesday lunch found us back at Iguana's for their delicious po'boy sandwiches. Jack opted for the fried oyster one, and I chose the fried grouper, which is a thick plank of white, mild deliciousness. Iguana's homemade remoulade is the perfect condiment, and hats off to waiter Duncan for recommending that we dump our slaw onto the sandwiches.
After lunch we returned to Jekyll, and the clouds over the
Sidney Lanier Bridge were spectacular as the weather cleared and the clouds moved out to sea.
Jack and I decided to take advantage of the last of the clouds and photograph the sunset that evening, heading toward the pier on the northwest corner of the island. The view from the area near the stable was gorgeous, but in the span of five minutes, I collected at least sixty mosquito bites, so we relocated to the pier itself where the bugs weren't so intense and the view of the sunset and the bridge were even better.
I'm particularly proud of this photo of a fisherman... I saw him coming and only had a moment to get my camera ready to capture this moment --
The sunset was as gorgeous as any I've ever seen.
Wednesday started at Driftwood Beach, one of the most beautiful places on earth and easy walking distance from the private stretch of beach behind our condo. We spent the rest of the day exploring Jekyll and making the obligatory run to St. Simons for mid-week provisions and matching tie-dyed T-shirts.
From the time we initially planned this vacation, we talked about somehow fitting a trip to Cumberland Island into the agenda, and a quick trip to the Jekyll Island Harbor resulted in our meeting-up with Captain Eric Moody for a three hour tour of the intercoastal waterway, Cumberland and Little Cumberland Islands, a cool bird-watching place called Raccoon Key, and all kinds of interesting scenery.
We re-visited the friendly dolphins at the shrimping beach, but this time it was from the water, and the dolphins came right up to the boat, hoping to be fed goodies. Once they realized that we had nothing to offer, they returned to their shrimper friends but not before I snapped this great photo of one of them.
We encountered wild horses, eagles and osprey along the way...
And a dude in a sailboat who wasn't where he was supposed to be at low tide.
And made it "home" in time to catch the end of Little Jack's soccer game and have dinner with Dickie and family again.
Friday we piddled around the condo and met Dickie for one last lunch at Del Mar before heading to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.
We'd thought about heading back to Iguana's for our last dinner on vacation, but neither Jack nor I felt up to the trip to St. Simons, opting instead for the Latitude 31 restaurant on the wharf at Jekyll.
With a twenty minute wait for a table, Jack and I headed to the opposite side of the wharf where The Rah Bar is located. We ordered beers and a half-dozen oysters on the half-shell for Jack.
I'm not an oyster-eater, but if I was, these are the oysters I'd want to eat...
Just as they activated our beeper to let us know our table was ready, I caught sight of the steamed shrimp and wished we had more time to kill on appetizers.
The fried shrimp at Latitude was excellent - on the minus-side, more heavily breaded than what is offered at Iguana's, but larger and served with delicious au gratin potatoes and an herbed sesame bread which was very tasty.
Saturday found us savoring the last moments of our wonderful vacation as best we could...
During one last lunch at Iguana's we made friends with the manager and plans to return for more of their delicious grub as soon as possible, and the afternoon was all about that one last walk from our condo to Driftwood Beach as low tide struck at the perfect time for a stroll along the shore.
It was also perfect time for a wedding.
Jack and Dudley and I hung back and watched the whole thing, took some pictures and enjoyed what ended up being a beautiful renewal of vows.
A couple fishing nearby stopped long enough to watch with us...
We traipsed back to the condo as the sun began to set, and Dudley enjoyed one last sprint to the place by the boardwalk steps where our sandals waited for us.
After a late dinner at the Jekyll Island Wharf - another trip to The Rah Bar and Latitude 31 - we watched the last of a red crescent moon fall into the water.
Then we flew-in like wild people to pack and ready our things for an early Sunday departure.
We were on the road before 7:00 Tennessee time, and after a quick stop for the best road breakfast in the world - Sausage McMuffin with egg and no cheese - and a full tank of gasoline, we were on our way and rolled into the driveway sometime around 4:00.
A perfect week's vacation... And we're going to do it again --
