This weekend was coastal Georgia. We wondered, nobody ever says, “I’m going to Georgia for a vacation.” We hear Outer Banks, Myrtle Beach, and Florida, but somehow poor Georgia gets the shaft. So we had to investigate.

Our first of the islands, Jekyll Island, we thought answered this question. Sure it was lush green and had a nice beach, but there wasn’t much to do. What-ever! So we ventured on to St. Simons. More of the hip, happening environment we were used to encountering at the beach. There were even Carnies (unfortunately, I did not get any pictures. Darn!).

Sunday we headed to Cumberland Island, which is a national park. To get there you have to go on a 45-minute ferry ride. You have a bunch of strict preservation rules to follow; there are no garbage cans so you have to carry all your trash around, no food for sale or vending machines – you need to bring a picnic, and you’re not allowed to walk on certain parts of the sand dunes because sea turtles are making nests at this time of year! There’s also about 200 wild horses living on the island.

We took a guided tour of the island, and I’m very glad we did so instead of taking the tour ourselves. Our guide was full of information and she actually made it interesting – more than I can say for most of the social studies teachers I’ve had in my lifetime. I thought the most interesting part of the island was the ruins of Dungeness. Cumberland Island was THE hip hangout for the Carnegie family in the early 1900s. They made this huge pimped out “cottage” with 9 bathrooms (back when having plumbing alone was quite a feat). There was even a “sports complex” with an indoor pool. When you were a guest at Dungess, they had you for months at a time. Can you imagine?

I was very disappointed to hear, though, that women had none of the outdoor fun that the men did. They all sat under this big flower canopy and did embroidery or other such handiwork and had “witty conversations” – aye yi yi. Because back then, having a tan was like the bane of all existence for women. Now in the middle of winter when we’re all pasty, we wish for a caribbean vacation to get some color.

Speaking of color, we both got a bit of pink! After our tour we spent some time at the beach, where Oak enjoyed laying in the warm tide pools. We ate the lunch we brought and hiked our way back to the dock for the ferry. Oh, and yes, the comic relief on our tour was provided by a little boy that kept getting into everything, including trying to eat some horse poo.

The weekend was lots of fun, but exhausting. I need some extra sleep tonight!

Stay tuned for the next adventure.

Posted by Carrie on Tuesday, July 6, 2004
Categories: blog · 2 Comments »