Category: Fun

In our last post, we told readers about our first visit to Jekyll Island on our snowbird trip. At the time we made reservations, we were only able to reserve two nights because Jekyll Island is a very popular location for snowbirds. When our two days were up and we began packing to drive to our next stop in Tampa, we received a call from the manager of the campground there.  We had reserved five nights in the campground, but the manager said he had to cancel the last two nights.  Although he gave me a reason for the cancellation, I never really understood his explanation very clearly.

We were looking forward to the visit to Tampa and a chance to spend some time with old friends, therefore, we decided to go ahead even though our trip would be two days shorter. Before we left Jekyll however, we checked with the reservation clerk on the possibility that we could return after we left Tampa.  Our luck was good, and we obtained a reservation for three days beginning the day we departed Tampa. 

Many of the details of our Tampa stay are in a previous post of Easin’ Along.  We had a great visit with Jack, my college roommate, and his wife, Jewell.  Also, Helen (adorable wife) had a fantastic visit with her lifelong friend Harriet. They spent some time walking the beach and catching up even though they talk frequently.  Later that evening the three of us went to Harriet’s home to watch the Super Bowl…rather, I watched the Super Bowl while they chatted.

By the time we returned to Jekyll Island, the weather had improved considerably.  The temperatures were close to 70 degrees, and the winds had subsided. We received a very convenient campsite close to the showers.  Almost immediately, we witnessed a familiar sight that told us we had returned.  On our earlier stay, we met Bill, a campground volunteer, who came to Jekyll every year to avoid the harsh winters of Akron, Ohio.  Bill was always roaming around the campground and painting everything that needed paint. He loved to chat with campers as much as they enjoyed him. It was good to see Bill back in action.

Our plan for the next day was to go to nearby St. Simons for some sightseeing and to have lunch with Sally, another friend from high school and college days who just happened to be visiting her daughter in the area. St. Simons is very charming, and we were eager to explore after lunch. We met Sally at Barbara Jeans in the heart of the historic part of town.

Barbara Jeans is famous for crab cakes, and Helen couldn’t wait to order. Sally joined her.  Both agreed that they were some of the best. I decided to try the She-crab soup and was glad I did. The portion was large, and the soup was thick, creamy, and awesome. It was so good; I can’t remember what else I ate with it, probably a fish sandwich. The conversation was as good as the meal which we enjoyed greatly, but it soon was time to walk off lunch. We exchanged hugs with Sally as she left to rejoin her daughter.

Although the streets were busy, the weather was delightful, and it was a great day for walking through this charming seaside village.  A short fishing pier at the edge of town gave us a view of the St. Simons Lighthouse, built in 1872 to replace the original lighthouse built in 1810 and destroyed in the Civil War.  This lighthouse still serves as an aid to navigation and can be seen as far as 23 miles out to sea. A Lighthouse Museum sits adjacent to the structure and maintains artifacts relevant to the history of St. Simons.

The day after our trip through St. Simons was a day to take a break from our furious pace (chuckle). A quick glance at the activities board for the Jekyll Island campground told us that there were many choices available if we needed something to do, but with beautiful skies overhead, we wanted to visit Driftwood Beach one last time to search for shells and soak up some sun. We knew that winter awaited us back home.

Driftwood Beach offered very few shells worth keeping, but it was delightful to be there nonetheless. We resolved to keep Jekyll Island Campground on our list of Best Places to Snowbird, and vowed that we would start earlier to secure reservations for next year. It should be noted that the marsh is a lovely as the beach, and one could sit and enjoy the view and the birds for hours on end.

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.  A phone call informing us of canceled reservations ultimately resulted in a stroke of good fortune. Our return stay at Jekyll Island represents precisely our vision of retirement in the years, months, and days leading up to it.  We’re enjoying a wonderful life at a leisurely pace with just enough activity to keep us…Easin’ Along.  Thanks for coming along with us.

While on our snowbird tour, we enjoyed our time in the campground at Jekyll Island State Park in Georgia so much we returned for a second stay. There was a good reason for that.  We have enjoyed every stop on our trip with Gracey (travel trailer), but Jekyll Island is so beautiful, and with so much to do in the area, we wanted a second chance to explore. In this post, we’ll give readers a glimpse into our first visit.

As is evident in the picture above large trailers and motorhomes fill the campground.  They arrive from a variety of regions, but predominately they come from the northern states and Canada, towed or driven by snowbirds seeking to avoid harsh winters back home. When walking the trails through the campgrounds, it is fun to count the number of different states and Canadian provinces represented.

On our first pass through the area, the skies were very clear, but the weather was cold and windy. Nevertheless, Helen (adorable wife) was determined to walk Driftwood Beach, just a very short distance away. This scenic beach is so named because the northern end of Jekyll Island is slowly eroding and deposited on the southern end of the island.  Large, dead trees end up tossed onto Driftwood Beach and resemble a tree graveyard. It makes for some great pictures, and some interesting beach walks although we found no shells or shark’s teeth.

Near the campground is the historic Jekyll Island Club and after leaving the beach, we toured it by car. The resort, founded in the late 1800’s, became the winter getaway for some of the country’s wealthiest families.  Names like Vanderbilt, Morgan, Pulitzer, and Rockefeller were among those on the membership roster and on the deeds of beautiful homes on the streets near the resort. The home on this picture belonged to the Rockefellers. A picture of the resort also is shown.  Please note that a group is playing croquet and dressed in traditional white clothing.

Snowbirds camping at Jekyll Island are a very busy bunch.  A whiteboard just outside the door of the community building listed all of the activities available to campers.  On a daily basis, coffee and donuts were available for early birds, and the room filled up pretty quickly with campers eager for conversation. A bus was always available to shuttle golfers to nearby courses or to take campers to town in Brunswick, or Saint Simons. Exercise enthusiasts had the opportunity for Zumba sessions or yoga classes, while another group immersed themselves in quilting or knitting. Since we were not going to stay very long on the first visit, we chose to do what we do best—find a great place to eat.

The name of the eatery that we heard most often was Southern Soul Barbeque in St. Simons.  Listed among the “Best in the South” by Southern Living Magazine in 2017, Southern Soul would be hard to pass up for anyone who considered themselves a barbeque junkie, and we qualified. We arrived in the late afternoon to order meals for take-out.

After salivating over the menu, Helen chose a brisket sandwich with coleslaw and fried green beans.  The sandwich was good and smoked well, and the green beans were an interesting twist to vegetables. She enjoyed them with a side of ranch dressing.  I had to get a slab of ribs, fried okra, and potato salad.  The ribs were meaty, and the sauce was very tasty and tangy. In all honesty, however, I’ve had better ribs.  I suspect that they were cooked a day or two earlier and refrigerated then re-heated…disappointing.  The potato salad was excellent. I ate everything nonetheless.

The disappointment with the ribs was a minor issue and did nothing to take away from our stay at Jekyll. On the drive to St. Simons I had to stop and capture a picture of one of the marshes that do much to enhance the beauty of the Island. On the return trip, I stopped to take the picture at the top of this page as dusk approached.  We’ll have more on our second visit to Jekyll Island and St. Simons in a future post. For now, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. We’re having fun just…Easin’ Along.

We were in the second week of our snowbird trip through Florida and Georgia.  Mayport Naval Station near Jacksonville, Florida was our home for the week. The weather had improved tremendously, and we were enjoying our stay very much.  Nevertheless, by the third day there, we were ready to spread out a bit.  It was time for a day trip.

Helen (adorable wife) had decided that we would go to St. Augustine, about a one-hour drive south by way of highway A1A. We both had been there before to visit friends, but neither of us had spent any time touring the sights. We planned to grab a trolley and take an in-depth tour of the historical district…then eat seafood.

With the weather cooperating nicely, the drive down A1A was delightful.  The ocean was in our view for a large portion of the drive and the time passed quickly. Helen spent some time on Trip Advisor as well as the AAA Guidebooks to obtain information on sights to visit, and by the time we arrived had determined that we could get a great feel for the area on the trolley tour. Soon the Castillo de San Marcos came into our view, and it was time to go exploring.

After parking Bert (Gracey’s tow vehicle) and walking a few blocks, we purchased tickets for Old Town Trolley Tours at a sidewalk booth adjacent to the trolley stop. We did not have to wait long for the trolley, but I did have time to take a few pictures of the activity in the historical district. It was busy for a mid-week day.

We boarded the trolley in the middle of the tour route and, after a few safety instructions (don’t jump out of a moving trolley) we were off. The trolley guide was an amiable sort, and it was obvious that this was not his first tour. The wind immediately picked up, and I was glad I had a jacket on. Thankfully, the sun was warm.

One thing became apparent almost immediately.  St. Augustine has stunningly beautiful architecture. As the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States, it’s architecture has many European influences, particularly Spanish, but also English and French. It was the French architecture that captured us first as we passed Memorial Presbyterian Church, built in 1889 by Henry Flagler, co-founder of Standard Oil and given much of the credit for the development of St. Augustine as a tourist destination.

Mr. Flagler’s contribution to the architecture of the area was evident everywhere, and one tour stop after another featured buildings commissioned by him at the turn of the 20^th century. Since I’m not an expert on architecture, I’ll let pictures, accompanied by a few words, tell the story of Flagler’s contribution.

Ponce de Leon Hotel, built in 1888 and constructed of poured concrete and coquina stone. Thomas Edison wired the hotel for electricity.  The Ponce de Leon has been the home of Flagler College since 1968.

The Alcazar Hotel completed two years after the Ponce de Leon, and also built by Henry Flagler, is now the Lightner Museum.

Other architectural styles were just as impressive to this retired homebuilder, including Gonzales-Alvarez House, built in 1723 and is considered St. Augustine’s oldest house.

I loved the many Victorian homes along our route.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The oldest drug store was built in 1739 and moved several times.  It is now a museum and free of charge to the public.

 

The Bridge of Lions, built in 1925 during the development boom, is a marvelous structure by day, but we understand that it is dazzling at night during the Night of Lights festival held each year.  The picture below portrays it well.

 

 

The Bridge also leads to O’Steen’s Restaurant, a place recommended by almost everyone we spoke to about the best places to eat in St. Augustine. Once we completed our very enjoyable trolley tour, we jumped into Bert and drove across the bridge. By now, it was mid-afternoon and well past lunchtime.  O’Steen’s would be both our lunch and dinner stop.

Our friends had warned us that there is always a wait regardless of the time of day, and sure enough, there was a line at three o’clock, our arrival time. Helen placed our name on the waiting list.  The hostess suggested that we walk next door to the Bizzare Bazaar and browse through the flea market while we waited.  A loudspeaker for the restaurant is inside in the building, and we should hear a call within fifteen minutes for seating.  Readers know that flea market browsing is our thing. I purchased an old James Bond DVD for Gracey for a dollar.

O’Steen’s specialty is fried shrimp and hushpuppies, and we each ordered a dozen. We were not disappointed.  The shrimp came fried in an extremely light batter without a hint of the greasy taste that some can have.  The hushpuppies were large and served very hot and very good. For sides, I had green beans which were just ok, and a macaroni salad that was the best I ever had. By the time we finished this meal, we were too stuffed for dessert, but the pies served to the guests around us were very tempting. We thought about it but passed.

Before returning to Mayport, we made one stop at the Castillo de San Marcos, a fort built in 1672 by the early Spanish settlers which enabled them to hold St. Augustine for many years.  The view of the river from the top of the fort was beautiful and, once again, we were impressed by the architecture.  The fort is now in the hands of the National Park Service, and our National Park Senior Passes were all we needed to enter.

At the end of our walk through Castillo de San Marcos we stopped to hear a portion of the lesson given by a Park Ranger.  We would have loved to hear more, but it was time to drive back to Jacksonville. Our side trip had been a success.  We left comforted with the knowledge that it is still possible to grow old and look good…time to be Easin’ Along.