Golden Isles of Georgia

Old Glynn County courthouse

From Charleston we made the relatively short drive to the "Golden Isles" of Georgia for a couple of weeks.  The drive was nice and easy on Hwy 17 and then we got onto I-95 south.  Wow, the traffic on the Sunday after Thanksgiving was something else and we were glad we weren't going very far.  We got settled into our campground in time to drive into Brunswick to check out the historic district.  There wasn't much to it compared to other old towns but the old county courthouse was really cool.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I'm borrowing a little one off the web.

Cottage on Jekyll Island

The next weekend we visited Jekyll Island.  Our first stop was the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.  The coast from northern Florida up along Georgia and into South Carolina is a nesting area for sea turtles.  The Georgia Sea Turtle Center is a turtle hospital with a visitor center which was very informative.  We enjoyed visiting the patients and learning the stories of their rescues and hopes for release back into the wild.  (http://www.georgiaseaturtlecenter.org/)

Jekyll Island Club

Next we visited the historic district of the island.  In 1886 the entire island was purchased by the "Jekyll Island Club" which was comprised of a group of the wealthiest people in the country.  They built a "club house" and many built "cottages".  The buildings, as you can imagine, were extravagant.  It was a beautiful day to walk around the buildings and try to imagine how it was back then. (http://www.jekyllisland.com/About/HistoryofJekyllIsland/HistoricSites/HistoricLandmarkDistrict.aspx)

Driftwood beach

We left the historic district and drove out to "driftwood beach".  The beach is named for the piles of large driftwood logs on the beach. 

Fort Frederica

On Saturday we went to St. Simons Island following a driving tour provided in a brochure.  We did a quick drive down the Avenue of Oaks, checked out the beach, and went to Fort Frederica National Monument. The monument was at the site of a British fort and the second city founded in Georgia (after Savannah) in 1736.  There was very little left standing but there were a lot of building foundations and city streets were marked allowing the imagination to roam. (http://www.nps.gov/fofr/index.htm).  After the Fort we went down to the St. Simons Island Village to check it out and have some lunch.

This weekend we planned to go to Cumberland Island but the weather wasn't cooperative.  We didn't want to walk around in the rain and cold north wind for 4 hours.  Instead we visited historic St. Mary's, a small town on the coast.  There are a number of very old homes with history dating as far back as the war of 1812.  They are still working on getting the information out but we got enough to enjoy it.  We were lucky enough to walk around during a break in the rain.