Friday, May 6, 2016

A Fun-Filled Day on Jekyll Island!

 After a good night's sleep and those famous flax pancakes with tons of fresh fruit, Ken and I left the CG at 8:45 and drove about 50 minutes to Jekyll Island. It is one of our favorite places - so peaceful and beautiful.  

What nice signage for Jekyll Island!


We had not been there for about 3 years and were amazed at some of the changes.  They have a new gorgeous Convention Center that we had witnessed the ground breaking ceremony.  In that area they built some beautiful shops, Cafes, and a large marketplace.  Also connected to the area is The Westin Hotel, that appears to be very upscale.  There is also a newer Holiday Inn on the island and remodeled older hotels.  All is done in very good taste and keeping with tradition, there are no high rise buildings.  I think the tallest one is 4 floors.

These are just some of the shops in the center of Jekyll!

The new Westin  Hotel!


We parked at the large fishing pier and walked along the beach enjoying the scenery and Driftwood Beach.

This is the large fishing pier and there were lots of
fishermen there today!

The bridge to Brunswick, as seen from Jekyll!

Entering Driftwood Beach!


Hard to imagine that the roots used to be underground!



You can get a great view of the lighthouse on St. Simon's Island -


It's a Kodak moment!

Woodstocks are  not the best looking birds.....

....but they look beautiful when they spread their wings.
You don't see the black tips when they are standing!

Then we continued our walk on the marsh trail ending back at the fishing pier. 

Lots of variations of colors on the marsh trail!

I thought these were buds.....

....but with a closer look they are snails!


A very well-maintained trail!


We got on our bikes and rode to the campground and made a reservation for the 1st week of April in 2017.  That will be our stop when leaving Florida and starting to head back to PA.

Riding out the lane from the fishing pier to the campground!

Riding through the campground!


We continued on our bike ride through the old oak trees with lots of Spanish moss.  It is a cement trail that goes around the whole island - 17 miles. 

Now enjoying the ride around the island!

Canopy of trees and Spanish moss!


 We went as far as the historic area including the Jekyll Island Hotel and the "cottages" surrounding it. 

The historic Jekyll Island Hotel!

....and then there are the cottages built in the early 1900's.



This was built in the 1930's and housed indoor tennis courts!


We turned around, rode back to the fishing pier, loaded our bikes and drove to the center of the island.

We stopped to check out the new shops adjoining the Westin Hotel and then drove to St. Andrews Beach.  We took our chairs out to the beach, ate our packed lunches, and then walked along the shoreline looking for sand dollars.  We didn't find any!!!!!  2 gentlemen that were shrimping with a net were just bringing 10 sand dollars they had found in a "pile" on the beach to a log to allow them to dry.  We were about 5 minutes too late!!!!!!  But, we did enjoy walking the beach, but I had about "enough" walking for 1 day.  I had 20,000 steps on my pedometer and the day wasn't over!!!!  We also rode 11 miles on our bikes! We should have done a little swimming and say we did an Ironman!!!

Okay, the beach was really full today!  (Those are our chairs)


Well, maybe not!!
The men  netted quite a full bucket of shrimp!

These are all oyster shells!

Piles of them!

The water created a pattern in the sand that looked like
a large tree.  You probably had to be there!!!!


This is a sunken shrimping boat. About 1/3 of it visible
10 years ago!


We were back to the CG by 5:30.  We had salads and Ken grilled chicken patties - Yum!  Had a nice chat with Nancy Savage!

Around 8 we walked to the back of the CG to enjoy another beautiful sunset. They have been amazing here!  Nothing more to say - the pictures speak for themselves!





No comments:

Post a Comment