Jewels of Georgia and South Carolina

Archers Direct, May 2012

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DAY 9: Thursday 17 May 2012 - Savannah to Golden Isles to Jekyll Island, Georgia

We had another included hotel breakfast - sausage and biscuits today, with a load of other stuff. There was a leisurely 8.30am bags, 9.30am bus start, but when we returned to our room at 9am, our bags were still outside of the room. We were the only folks from our group on our floor so I guess we got missed. We took them downstairs ourselves - it wasn't far. Fortunately, Driver David had a system and knew ours were missing and had just sent a guy to get them (too late!) Smart guy! Much easier to count the bags before you leave, than when you arrive. The sun was shining as we set off. That's gotta be a good sign.

Our first stop was at Fort Frederica National Monument. It was $3 to go in and we only had ten minutes so we just grabbed a couple of photographs and returned to the bus. This historic site was an early British settlement (1736), the goal of which was to protect Georgia from the Spaniards. In 1742, 3000 Spanish troops landed from 52 ships and were successfully repelled by the British.

   

We stopped again a little bit further up the road to check out this neat little church. Christ Church was established in 1736 and continuously served the community. The first building on the site was erected in 1820 but was destroyed during the Civil War, being replaced by this present building in 1884. It's a pretty little church and graveyard in a nice setting but I think I'd have preferred half an hour at the Historic Monument. Not my decision however. Then we were back on the bus and headed for St Simon's Island.

   

On arrival, we decided to make the historic St Simons Island Light Station our first stop.

   

It's $10 to go inside, and there is a small museum of the area and fairly dull gift shop where you buy your ticket. Then we headed for the Keeper's House where we weren't allowed to take photos (and that loses them a Ted). To be fair, the entrance fee included another museum, but it was one and a half miles down the road, so we weren't going there!

The dwelling has two stories, one for the lighthouse keeper and one for his assistant, which worked okay until they had a bit of a falling out - if you can call it that - the lighthouse keeper ended up dead. After that, they closed off the internal staircase and moved the stairs outside.

Both the lighthouse and dwelling date back to 1872 and are maintained by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society. We headed inside and, after a wander around the house, we headed up the 129 steps to the top. Yikes, that was a fun climb! Not.

   

It's a funny thing but, even though the lighthouse has been standing since 1872 I'm still a little nervous stepping out onto their little platform, even surrounded by a fence. Don't think the assistant helps, as she's worried I might jump off or something (yeah, right), but she does tend to hold on to me a teensy bit too tight. There's a great view from the top. In the distance you can see the Sidney Lanier Suspension Bridge - Georgia's tallest cable-stayed suspension bridge.

   

Checkout Neptune Park Fun Zone (below left). They have a swimming pool and water slides, 18-hole mini-golf, a concession stand and children's play area. We didn't have time to try it out, but it looks fab from above. If you look at my right paw, that bus you can see through the railings - that's our bus. I knew you'd be thrilled. The round building below is a historic gazebo. You can get married there, though why you'd want to...

   

We got this shot down the wall of the lighthouse, by hanging over the railing - we let the camera do most of the work. Leaning back over the railing we got this shot of the lantern room, which contains the lamp and the lens, which magnifies the light from the lamp. Once we'd walked round the outside of the lighthouse a couple of times, and admired the view, we headed back inside to those windy metal steps and the way down.

   

The site at St Simons has a history. Fort St Simons, like Fort Frederica, was built by British troops under the command of General Oglethorpe back in 1738. It guarded the entrance to the Frederica River that must be passed by ships on their way to Fort Frederica. The Fort was destroyed by Spanish soldiers in 1742.

Once we were down on the ground we took a closer look at the gazebo. It's pretty nice - a bit like a bandstand I guess. You should just about see me, sitting opposite you at the far end! Then it was time to head down to the beach - it's about ten yards away!

   

From the beach you can see shrimp boats out on the water - you'll recognise them from my not-so-very-favourite movie, Forest Gump, or just cos you're well read! I had a bit of a paddle then we headed down the beach.

   

The beach was pretty quiet. I got the chance to clamber over a few rocks before meeting a whale! This is a North Atlantic Right Whale - a mother and calf. This is Georgia's State Marine Mammal (who knew they even had one?) According to a plaque, there are fewer than three hundred Right Whales left as there are many injuries and death suffered in the nearby coastal waters where they give birth to their calves. Let's hope they are able to save this endangered species.

Neptune Park is named for Neptune Small, a former slave who was given the land on which the park stands by the family to which he was enslaved, having accompanied two of the family's sons into the Civil War as a manservant.

   

We ambled out onto the pier, where we saw a bunch of folks fishing. Take a look at this coastline - nice eh? We had time for a little wander about and even bought some books in the local library sale! Fab. Then it was back to the bus and off to Jekyll Island.

   

We got to drive over the Sidney Lanier Suspension Bridge on our way to Jekyll Island. Once on the island, the bus stopped at the Jekyll Island Museum.

   

We had about forty-five minutes until our trolley tour and the museum isn't huge. It shows a little of the history of the island including Native Americans, French settlers and later Island Club millionaires.

There are a lot of other activities that can also be done on Jekyll Island. Outside of the museum is a large store area where they have a number of horse-drawn carriages - if you have more time than us, you can take for a tour or ride around the island. There are also opportunities for horse riding, tennis, golf, water sports, shopping and a summertime waterpark. After the awfulness of Myrtle Beach, this looked fabulous, but it was already 4.30pm and we were leaving the next morning! At least the sun was shining. For this tour, Wes would be our guide.

   

We gathered together for our private tour trolley and headed into the Historic District to take a look at the holiday homes of the rich and famous. The island was purchased in 1886 as an exclusive winter retreat and remained such for more than fifty years, with owners including the Rockefellers, Morgans, Vanderbilts and Pulitzers. A few of the houses are opened up on the tour so we could take a look inside.

   

Not sure who owned the house below left, but below centre is Moss Cottage - once owned by George Macy who would become head of A&P Groceries. When we arrived at Mistletoe Cottage, we got off the trolley as we could go inside this one (no photos though!) Not sure what happened to the sun - it was getting a little dark above. This cottage was built in 1900, owned by locomotive manufacturer Henry Kirke Porter and his family.

It was a nice house, with pocket doors (slide into the walls to hide them) separating two parlours. It has nice cedar pine floors and a great sunroom. It had handpainted rice paper wall paper with bamboo trim on the ceiling. Apparently it was supposed to be all over the room, to make you feel like you were in a birdcage. Yeah, I can't say I'd recommend living in a birdcage. Oh dear, is that thunder I hear?

   

We walked to the cottage next door, the larger Indian Mound Cottage. The first owners had only eight-thousand square feet, but the second owners - the Rockefellers - clearly didn't think it was large enough, building an extension to extend the house to twelve-thousand square feet. One of the bedrooms was huge, with an indoor addition of two sinks and a bath which uses both sea or fresh water.

By the time we got outside under the porte cochere the rain was pouring down. Wes asked if we wanted to stop, or continue - we all agreed we should carry on! However, we decided to wait a few minutes to see if it would ease off before returning to the trolley. While we were there, I took a turn in this nifty little vehicle. Couldn't get it home though! Eventually, we returned to our now soggy trolley, with everyone a little more huddled together in the middle, away from the open sides.

We drove past the Jekyll Island Club Hotel which opened in 1888. Nice turret, eh? The rain was still pouring down so there were no more stops but we still had time to check out some fancy buildings!

   

Below left is Crane Cottage which houses the Courtyard at Crane restaurant. The steps are all that remains of Chichota Cottage, which was built in 1897, fell into desrepair and was demolished in 1941. The house below right is Villa Ospo. It now is home of the Jekyll Island Authority offices, but it was originally built for Walter Jennings - one of the first directors of Standard Oil. It is the only home with a garage.

   

Cherokee Cottage (below left) was built in the early 1900s but is now used as a meeting room. Next door is Faith Chapel, which was completed in 1904. It incorporates a window by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The last building we passed on our way back to the museum was that of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, a marine turtle rehab, conservation and research facility - I didn't even know turtles drank! Rather than tranport sick local turtles to Florida or South Carolina, they can now be cared for locally.

   

Once back at the Museum, Brenda mentioned we could hire a bike, or take a carriage ride, but, with the rain still coming down, albeit lighter now, we figured we wouldn't bother. This time. Need to come back to Jekyll Island though, cos it's fab!

We transferred back onto the bus which took us to our hotel, the Hampton Inn and Suites. The room seemed pretty nice, but Happy Hour in the bar was from 5-7pm and it was already 5.30pm. Before retiring to the bar, we still had to hit the beach. We headed outside for the walk to the beach, but had to pass by this lovely-looking pool. There was no time for a swim, but it looked like a very good. They even had a real fire, though it wasn't lit.

   

The hotel has a great wooden walkway from the pool deck through the trees and directly out onto the beach. Pretty impressive if you ask me!

   

Now this was a nice beach - particularly as the sun had come out. I mean, I gave Myrtle Beach a bit of a kicking for there being nothing there, and here there's even less, but it's so peaceful it doesn't matter. At least, that's my excuse. I really liked it on Jekyll Island and I'm sure that made the difference because Myrtle Beach did not have a pleasant atmosphere at all, I didn't think. There were a few people on the beach, but not many. There are dunes and a lot of light reedy stuff that's washed up on the beach.

   

That fire I was telling you about was lit when we returned to the hotel. It was really nice, though a bit damp to sit by and, of course, we had one eye on that Happy Hour clock, so we didn't linger. We had a Yuengling Beer for $3 while perusing the menu. It's not bad! At 6.50pm, we just about had time to get our orders in for a dinner drink (or two). You can work out for yourself if I shared or not! We could have taken a shuttle bus to a restaurant, but the bar was doing bar snacks so we settled for a little pizza (technically, Italian flatbread pizza) with pepperoni instead. It was a bit small for me, but I think the wine distracted me! Di got a veggie burger with - sadly - crisps (potato chips). I guess this is another place without a fryer. It tasted good and the wine was a reasonable price too! Then we sat and discussed politics for a while.

   

TGTips
It's always worth checking the "rules" of Happy Hour - some insist it's buy one get one free per person, one drink at a time so you can't stack them up, others have cut-price drinks, some don't care as long as you pay! Guess which this was!


Eventually it was time to retire for the night. On our way out, Paul spotted a guy at the bar with a tenor saxophone - they got talking. Paul played a couple of quick numbers and they sat at the bar chatting for a while. We finally got back to the room and Slingboxed The Apprentice (Lord Sugar version) before turning in for the night.



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