Savannah scenery

I had hoped we could stay right in Savannah, but because the current there is so strong, we ended up staying at Thunderbolt Marina which is a suburb of Savannah. From there we took the city bus into Savannah and spent the day. As it turned out, staying in Thunderbolt was pretty nice--every morning, a box of Krispy Kreme donuts and the newspaper was delivered to our boat!

We were told that the first thing you do when you go to Savannah is run up to Paula Deen's restaurant and make a reservation. Well, we got there at 9:15 and ended up at the back of the line. (I'm there at the end, in the red jacket waving a cup of coffee.) The line grew even longer, at least another block. We did get reservations for lunch.
There are so many pretty homes in Savannah, I had a hard time paring my list of pictures. Finally got it down by half !

Many homes had extensive decorative metal work.
And there are 24 squares such as this one in the downtown area.
Another example of the metal grill work on the garden gate..
This home is from the early 1800' undergoing renovation---last selling price was in the $200's for the 1 bedroom efficiency !

After a tour of Savannah, we set off on our own. Here is another home with the metal work.
And still another park. This one was near the city market square.

This is to show that we did go to Paula Deen's for lunch. Food was good, as was the service. A lot of hype though......Gift shop did a booming business too. Restaurant is in an old warehouse with the fire doors still intact along with some of the brick walls in the restroom

Last place for us to visit on day 1 was the home of Juliet Lowe who founded the Girl Scouts. (I was a GS many more years ago than I care to remember.) But I did pick up some memorabilia for Samantha's troop. (our grand daughter)

Here you can see how some of the side walks are...others are of an aggregate of shells. As with many cities, there is a lot of construction and rennovation going on in the downtown area.

On the second day, we started with a walk through the cemetary which is in the center of town. No one has been buried there since the 1890's when it was made into a city park.

Those were the days of the duelists.....


Then we took a tour of St. John's the Baptist Church built in 1872.

This is the organ in the rear of the church and the altar.




This is a picture of the outside of the church...........










taken from this square ! (another one !)







This placard was in front of the Unitarian Church, commemorating the organist of that church who wrote "Jingle Bells".







Some beautiful row houses..............






and a couple more beautiful homes.













All seem to date from the 1800's. In the last one, all the white trim is iron work that has been painted.















We ended our tour on the waterfront where the old cotton warehouses have been converted to shops and restaurants. See the street where Bob is standing...the street is made up of ballast from the ships years ago. I wondered how they dared having these very uneven streets still being used.





Statue of the Waving Girl on the waterfront park. Legend had it she was waiting for her lover to return from sea, but the real story was that she just liked to wave to the ships that returned.






Hotel across the river from the waterfront in Savannah.








Another part of the waterfront park is dedicated to the Irish imigrants. The St. Patrick's day celebration here reportedly draws upward of 500,000 people !





Here is another view of one of the streets from the waterfront paved with the ballast from the ships.

All in all, a great city full of history to visit. I didn't mention the Ship and Sea Museum which we also took in...it was great.

On to St. Simon's Island

Arriving at St. Simon's Marina, we took the courtesy car (1 hour) to take a quick tour of the island. Since this church was the farthest from the marina, we took it in first. The church dates from the 1700's. It was a beautiful setting with huge old moss covered oak trees.






The cemetery was adjacent to the church and many of the tombstones were dated from the 1700's.









The trees in the church yard.











Bob is reading the placard under the oak tree where it is believed that John Wesley did his first sermon. The tree is thought to be over 400 years old.








Across the street from the church

was a memorial garden dedicated to the Wesley's.












This interesting tree branch was along the path.......





The next day we took the marina's courtesy bikes and rode to Mallory Street which is the downtown area. Many shops, bed and breakfasts, and we had breakfast there. Of course, we had to visit the lighthouse.

It's a very pretty place--I'd go back !

Jekyll Island

On Jekyll Island, we took the courtesy bikes from the Marina and headed for the Historic Village. This was a private club established by the likes of Morganthau, Pulitzer and a couple others. The bike path was very pretty with large trees.





This building housed the apartments of the original four.








They needed a place to house their guests.... This is a view of the clubhouse from the water.

Here is the front lawn of the clubhouse where they still play croquet. This apparantly is a sport which continues in much of this area. Later on Dataw Island, we saw a game going on with the contestants dressed in white and it can apparantly be quite competitive.

This is one of the other private homes in this village. The employees who maintained the grounds, and managed the Club lived in smaller homes in the same area. These are now various types of shops.

This home (now a book store) was at one time the hospital for the Club and its employees.

Here is Bob under one of the large oaks with the moss.

Before we left on our bike ride, I took a picture of Bob near the dock post so you can see how it is at low tide....see the posts compared to Bob. And you can see the barnacles on the post.

This is where the dock was at high tide...compare the top of the post to Bob. The tide swing here is about 9 feet. This will last until we get to North Carolina decreasing as we go north. By the time we get to New York, it'll be only 3-4 feet.

So we have to contend with the tides, and be aware of that because the ICW can be very shallow in some places...Plus we have to be aware of the current and wind can make it worse.

Jacksonville to Jekyll Island

Leaving our anchorage, we were on our way to Jekyll Island. We passed this deguassing plant which was located at the Navy submarine base. It demagnetizes the submarines. Apparantly the Navy occasionally stops all recreational traffic in the area when subs are leaving or returning to the base. There were none when we went through.

It seemed strange to see this cruise ship in the waterway as sometimes it seems pretty narrow !

Here we are passing Cumberland Island which is a wildlife refuge. Wild horses are on this island.

It's my understanding that some of the horses are herded up every few years and sold off.

After passing Cumberland Island, we were in Cumberland Sound which is an another inlet from the Atlantic Ocean. This lighthouse was on the south side of the sound. There was a buoy washed up on the beach in front.

On the north side of the sound, is Jekyll Island. On the tip, you can see the remnants of a shrimp boat that sunk here.