Revisiting Three of Our Favorites

Our Greeters to Jekyll Island

On our first trip 4 years ago we stopped at Jekyll Island and enjoyed it very much.  We enjoyed it the second time around as much or even more and coming through the bridge we were greeted by these pelicans and cormorant. 

Jekyll Island Marina

 First of all Jekyll Island Marina is the most “preeee-cious”  (that is a drawl, can you tell we are in the south!) little marina with friendly people.  They have a small pool, hot tub (unfortunately a bit cold for those), bikes, courtesy car, laundry and restaurant on site.

Scenery while biking on Jekyll

  We borrowed the car to go to the grocery which was our biggest disappointment on the island.  It is in a trailer.  The store was old so they razed the building and put in a convention center and put the few stores on the island in trailers out near the ocean.  (Why, I don’t know because the rest of the island is nice.) There were adequate supplies but prices like in the Bahamas!  We got what we needed and then headed out after lunch for a bike ride.  We have been very lazy about getting our folding bikes out especially with theirs being so convenient.  

Driftwood Beach

Arleen on Driftwood Beach

We were not planning on a long ride but the weather was so pleasant we just kept going on the bike path to the north end of the island to see Driftwood Beach.  It is a neat beach with all these dead fallen trees right on the ocean's edge. 

By the time we got back to the marina my legs felt like mush! 

A "Must See"

   

That night was dinner on board while we did laundry, finally a marina with a short dock to land.

"The Club"- the Millionaires Club that is!

We were glad to be at the marina because it got down into the low forties.  

Al and I walked over to the historic district which offers paved pathways through 33 of the “Millionaires Club” cottages and structures.  This was the get-a-way for the Rockefellers, Goodyears  and other “old money” families. Last time we enjoyed lunch at The Club which we highly recommend! You have to experience it at least once.

 Besides reading the placards about the various cottages we also went to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.  We learned a lot about sea turtles and saw them patching one sea turtle's shell.  They have tanks with sea turtles that have been hurt or have problems.  They put info out on each turtle, when it was brought in, where it was found, what they have been doing to help the turtle, whether or not they feel it can be released again, etc.  It was quite interesting.   

Tanks for the sea turtles

Mending a shell on a turtle.

The entire island is interesting and we just loved the bike paths, some along the road, and others through the maritime forest.  When we got back to the marina our friends on Ar-turus were there, so shared a dinner together at Sea-Jays which is at the marina.  BRRRR-cold again, glad we can plug in the heat!

Cockle Shells a plenty!

Cumberland Island Beach

The next day we moved on to another one of our favorite places, Cumberland Island which is only accessible by boat or ferry.  It is for people who like to hike and enjoy nature.  After resting a bit once we arrived, we then went ashore. People can do primitive camping on the island and there are all sorts of trails.  The island is approximately 17 miles long, so we only see the southern end.  Since it was 3:30pm until we got in, we just did a short hike out to the beach.   The beach is so wide and just full of mostly cockle shells. 

Look at that twisted trunk!

It is just a lovely spot and the inner island is maritime forest with the gnarly live oaks and hanging Spanish moss and the ground covered with palmetto plants and a few flowers here and there.  It is beautiful. 

Palmetto

And our friends, Blair and Dennis, thought so too when they went in with us the next day. 

Dungeness ruins

We hiked down to Dungeness a mansion built in  around 1796 which suffered a fire and was purchased by Thomas Carnegie and built a 58 room mansion on the previous foundation.  Unfortunately, it fell to fire again in 1959 and only the remains are still there.  There is a tremendous history to this island which you can read about at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberland_Island.  While we were there, two of the wild horses posed out front of it just for us! 

Thanksgiving is coming!

Wild turkeys came close enough for pictures too.  We should have gotten one since Thanksgiving isn’t too far away!  I don’t think the park rangers would have approved, since it is a National Seashore and considered one of the most underdevelopment places in the United States!  Even though this was our third time here, we still saw areas we did not see before. 

Small crab in marsh mud.

Al, Dennis and Blair looking at the crabs.

Beautiful  marsh view from the boardwalk.

We went out on a board walk to the marsh area where we enjoyed watching the scurrying of tiny crabs in the marsh mud and even caught site of another horse there.   

Getting to the beach from Dungeness

Enjoying a rest and lunch in the maritime forest.

 After hiking the beach back to where we started, we stopped for lunch in the shade of the maritime forest.  Afterward we hiked more trails hoping to spot an armadillo which we had seen the last two visits, but it was to no avail.  On the bulletin board at the welcome center, there was a notice that the drought conditions and colder weather had taken a toll on the armadillo population so was probably the reason for no sighting. 

Later we shared dinner and a beautiful sunset on the back of Arturus.  What a way to end a beautiful day!

Farmer's Market

Only 12 miles to get to Fernandina Beach which was our next stop.  It was a Saturday so we struck gold because the farmer’s market is that day.  It was nothing like the one at home with probably 200 stands but it was a welcome sight for fruits and veggies. 

Petanque-Are you familiar with it?  We weren't!

                                    
 The town itself has charming shops and all kinds of neat restaurants.  We could see canopies and action going on from our boat. We discovered they were having a tournament of a French game called Petanque, which is similar to the Italian bocce ball except for instead of rolling the balls you toss the balls.  Supposedly this was a world tournament with people from all over. 

Small cruise ship at the dock in Fernadina.

From this town you can also get a small cruise ship that does some of the inter-coastal waterway and various ports.  We thoroughly enjoyed our one day stay here. 

Fernandina Beach, FL

The town itself is pretty from our boat but look to the left or right and you have this type of view.  However, the mills are operating, which mean people have jobs, which helps Fernandina to be such a thriving little town!

Mills in Fernandina Beach on a cloudy morning.  That isn't smoke from them, but steam.

One sad part  of Fernandina Beach is this is where we were parting ways the next morning with Arturus who had to move faster than us to make some commitments.  Four years ago this is where we parted ways with our friends, Jim and Jeannie Lea whom we traveled with from Portsmouth, VA.  Next major stop will be St. Augustine.