h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Bev was invited to a conference at Jekyll Island. We love the Golden Isles on the Georgia Coast. The trip was right before her mid-winter break, so we decided to make a little vacation out of it.

We went down on Thursday, February 17th. We took the Golden Isles Parkway from Macon to Brunswick. It was a pretty drive through South Georgia, and I wasn't paying close attention to our speed. We were stopped by the Georgia State Patrol. After a brief argument on the side of the road, we were back on our way.

We found our way to Jekyll Island, and checked into our hotel, the Oceanfront Resort. We dropped our bags and went out on the beach. Then we drove around the island a little bit.

Jekyll Island is a state park. From the 1880s until 1942, it was a playground for a very exclusive group of industrialists, the Jekyll Island Club. They wintered on the island and used it as a hunting club. They built a luxurious clubhouse, and some of the families built 'cottages' for themselves. The group declined, especially during the depression. After the 1942 season, no one came back. In 1946, the state condemned the island for use as a park and resort for all Georgians. The historic district on the island preserves the surviving cottages and the clubhouse (The tour is nice). There are two golf courses, a water park, 4-H center, hotels, and a few thousand permanent homes.

The state owns the entire island. Everyone who lives or builds here is on a 99-year lease. Even though the land is owned by the state, the homes aren't cheap. Home prices on the island start at about $350,000. They're all nice, but they're not that nice. By law, only 65% of the island can be developed. That means there's a lot of nature to be seen, but there's not a lot to do.

On Friday, Bev went to the conference. I stayed at the resort and read. Eventually, I started walking around. I borrowed a bike from the hotel, and road to the northern tip of the island. Then I came back on the beach. I rode the bike some, and walked some.

The beaches on Jekyll are very pretty. Mostly, they're very wide, and there are a lot of shells there. On the northeastern part of the island, there's Driftwood Beach. It's supposed to be one of the most romantic beaches anywhere. Entire trees are strewn about the beach stripped of their bark. Some of them look like they're swimming through the sand.

As soon as Bev returned, he took her to go see it. We walked along the beach and took pictures. Then we found path that cut through the maritime forest, so we explored that. After a couple of hours of walking, it was getting dark. We returned to the car, and went in search of food.

For some reason, it's hard to find anything to eat on Jekyll Island. We stopped at one restaurant at the island's one small strip mall, but it was packed (I've since found out that it's where all the locals go to eat; so it must be quite good). The restaurant in the hotel had a one-hour wait time. We drove back on to mainland and went to eat in Brunswick. We found a Mexican restaurant, El Potro's. It had a buffet that didn't look like much, but the food was excellent!

On Saturday, Bev had a short day at the conference. I spent the morning in bed reading. Once Bev returned, we went to the historic district. We'd previously taken the trolley tour through the area, so we walked around. We looked in a couple of the small shops that they have on the grounds. We walked around a bit and took some pictures.

Then we went to Saint Andrews Beach (At least we think that's where we went. Different maps show it in different places). Bev had heard that was where the best seashells were to be found. We went up and down the beach. Then it was once again time to look for food. We were in luck. We were able to get a table right away at the hotel. The food was good, but they were very proud of it.

We had all of Sunday to ourselves, although we weren't sure what to do with it. I wanted to get some more pictures of Driftwood Beach. Some of my digital shots from Friday night didn't come out the way he wanted them. We were playing on some of the larger pieces of driftwood taking pictures. During one timer activated shot, I tried to leap up on the log. I fell off the log and hit my head fairly hard. Then the camera took the picture. Luckily, no damage has been noticeable yet.

After that we drove to Saint Simon's Island, the next island to the north. First, we went to the village near the St. Simon's lighthouse. There are a lot of cute shops there. You could spend weeks on St. Simon's Island, without getting through all the shops. We had an excellent lunch at Barbara Jean's Restaurant and Bar. It was some of the best food we ever had.

Then we drove around the island some. We crossed over to Sea Island. It's a tradition for us to drive through the neighborhood on Sea Island and see the fabulous homes they have there. They're truly spectacular. It makes you proud to be an American where we can produce so much wealth, that there can be blocks upon blocks of million dollar+ homes.

We drove up to the north of the island, and looked at some more expensive homes. Then we went through Brunswick. We tried to take the driving tour, but the city seems like it's fallen on hard times. It has a lovely area around courthouse. There's a park like area with some truly impressive trees, but the houses that were across the street were all dilapidated. We didn't stay long.

On Monday, we packed up and headed north. We stopped in Savannah on the way back. Georgia's first city was laid out on a grid system by General Oglethorpe. There are a series of parks that block major through streets. One of which was featured in Forrest Gump. We stopped and walked through some of them. They're beautiful and they're surrounded by well-maintained historic homes.

After our walk, we went down to River Street on the waterfront. River Street is paved with ballast stones left by merchant ships when Savannah was a major cotton port. Now it's a tourist destination with restaurants and markers. We had dinner at a Greek restaurant called the Olympia. The food was pretty good. We were entertained by the birds that flew in to get the scraps off of the floor. Once we were full, we headed home.

It was a pretty good trip.

You fell off a log?

I hope you're well recovered - it sounded like a great trip otherwise.

I do believe you have a birthday tomorrow...all the best Two Bit



Have a great day & many happy returns of the day



Galaxy Babe

Thanks, we had a very nice day together.