Jekyll Island Visit

We drove by the artistic Hwy 17 bridge as we approached the causeway to Jekyll Island. It was a total of 325 miles from our house to our motel on the ocean side.

We lost no time in getting over to the wide, flat beach that was just across the road from us. Brenda and Shirley (in distance) walk on the beach. Rod was keen on photographing the oystercatchers that came flying along, dipping their beaks in the shallow water. Brenda and Shirley enjoyed visiting and generally clowning around near the beach.

We got up early took coffee and bagels out to the beach for breakfast on the beach to see the sunrise. It was cloudy and hazy with smoke, so we didn't see the sun until it was this distance above the horizon. Still, it was nice to start the day on the beach.

The well-preserved collection of houses, etc. were described as a "reflection on a gilded era" when millionaire businessmen used this island as a private winter resort. This is one of the houses on the river side, the Mistletoe House.

The street parallel to the river was lined with huge old liveoak trees hung with spanish moss. This is across from the Mistletoe House, and we were on our way to the Goodyear Cottage to see the art collection there.

The liveoak limbs stretch all the way across the road near the Goodyear Cottage, appearing as a tunnel when you look down the road.

This is the back of the Goodyear Cottage, which houses the art gallery and a pottery workshop in the basement. It hardly fits my idea of the word "cottage", but those were pretensious times.

We enjoyed the pottery display. The turtle theme was understandably very popular here.

There were nice pieces of etched glass on display.

We walked behind the front row of houses back toward the Jekyll Island Hotel. This house is called Indian Mound.

This is a collection of luxury apartments called Sans Souci. There was a descriptive panel of past residents titled "Men of Means", Among those having apartments were J. P. Morgan, William Rockefeller, and Henry B. Hyde along with a series of other millionaires of American business.

This is Moss Cottage, to complete the set of houses on the river drive south of the Jekyll Island Club.

We made a brief trip to the turtle center, and the most impressive thing there was the giant fossil sea turtle they had flying over the exhibit area.

On our way to the pier, we swung by the Chapel.

The last and largest of the millionaires' homes we visited was the Crane House. We had seen comments about the number and luxury of the bathrooms in this mansion since Crane made his millions with bathroom and plumbing fixtures.

On our path to the pier is this incredibly large liveoak tree. I don't think I've seen its equal.

Brenda, Rod and Shirley had a nice dinner at the pier, Latitude 31 Restaurant, and used it as an occasion to celebrate the 49th wedding anniversary of Rod and Brenda.

Our view from our dinner table at the Latitude 31 was the lush interface between the grasslands of Jekyll Island and the river between the island and the mainland.

We stayed around on the pier in the cool temperature and pleasant breeze. We watched the birds and watched a dolphin tour leave from the dock.

We had a good time on the Jekyll Island Pier, and the lush grassland made a good background for photos.

We had Shirley as photographer, and this seemed like a good place for a 49th anniversary photo.

We were down at the beach for our seaoats sunrise again. Close by was this prayer group, which had been a regular sight this week since SuperWOW has brought youth from churches all over the state and perhaps beyond. The island is covered with church vans and buses.

I kind of think of all creation having it's morning song of praise. That idea was brought back to my mind by seeing two blackbirds not 20 feet from the prayer group, loudly voicing their morning song.

On the way into the museum, Rod spotted this writing spider which is different from the type we get in the Atlanta area. So as a committed small-game hunter, he had to have a picture of it.

We learned a lot of history about Jekyll Island from the museum, and then headed over to the Turtle Center again.

Besides being a good educational site for school children, they operate a quite sophisticated hospital for injured or ill turtles. The turtle shown above had a major injury to its shell from an impact with a boat propeller. We heard that scenario several times while we were there. They have a kind of putty they use to patch the turtle shells, and it has an antibiotic effect as well.

Continuing the emphasis on the slightly weird, we found this orange-headed lizard on a tree outside the turtle hospital. I don't believe I have seen one like it.

We had lunch on Jekyll and left the island a little after noon to drive to St. Simon. We found it densely developed down to the beach, and this public beach was really covered up with people.

We drove around until we found the gleaming white lighthouse, the thing we had heard most about at St. Simon. It was associated with a nice museum and bookstore, and the entire area was well developed as a public waterfront area.

I walked out on the nice public pier, which had a lot of people fishing. What I liked best was an encounter with an old pelican.

If you ever need to know how to recognize a mad pelican, look at the image to the left. That is just after he pecked at the boy and just before he flew. Note that his brown neck feathers are all erect - his hackles are all raised and he is ready to peck someone!