Jekyll Island

Day one found us leaving our base camp at Fort McAllister to travel just over an hour and a half to visit quaint Jekyll Island. I understand why Poulain du Bignon purchased this property and settled for 5 generations before selling it for a nice sum.

On this trip we brought along our bikes and upon arriving on the island parked at the Georgia Sea Turtle center. This little operation provides education and interim care on turtles inhabiting the region. It was quite educational and some moments just about brought Resa to tears as she watched the staff work on the turtles and viewed the recovery center. If you know Resa you understand her connection.

Once we completed our tour and spending money on post cards for the kids travel books we unloaded the bikes and began our island tour.  Intentions to travel the entire island were a bit ambitious so we embarked on a quick jaunt to the nearest beach.

Rogan and Rory have now touched their toes in both oceans of our country. Regardless of the ocean the behavioral response was the same – playing chicken with the breaking waves and getting coated in sand.

Remy played the role of biologist and collected samples of various aquatic life. He landed his biggest catch, a horseshoe crab with a fully intact shell (sans internals) to bring home. Resa and I get challenged at times as we just don’t know what he might be hiding in his hands and find that discomfort easy to handle when we see his face.

There were many highlights to the day and the one I’ll note had to due with a mistake we made following the bike path map. After making a u-turn thinking we were headed in the wrong direction the bike path came to an abrupt stop. What we found on the other side of the hill and occupied the next 2+ hours of our day was breath taking.

We had stumbled upon driftwood beach and were amazed by the weathered trees covering the beach. Resa captured some fantastic shots of the landscape.

Then we proceeded, after some debate, to ride our bikes on the beach to the pier. This proved to be the high point of the day for everyone as we rode around and through the driftwood and beside the breaking waves. A stiff breeze kept us from over heating, until the very end when we faced the wind head on. This was tough and my little troopers mustered enough energy to get through and just out of earshot of Mom’s colorful discourse with mother nature.

We quickly toured the pier, filled our water bottles, packed Remy’s horseshoe crab into Resa’s basket and began the LONG trek back to our car. Our little bike ride was now becoming a 10 mile journey!

Our last stop before reaching the car was the du Bignon family cemetery were a letter box was hidden within the split of tree. This always makes Mom happy and the kids get to stamp the books as a reward for finding the prize.

The ride home included a brief dinner detour to the Fox’s Pizza Den downtown Brunswick. The extra thin and crispy pizza’s washed down with multiple pink lemonades, cider and beer capped off the day. I’d say it was great pizza, but it may be tainted by the fact that it was 7:30 PM and 8 hours since our last bite. Famished would have been an understatement for the R5.

Now I’m sitting with my bride as Remy has just soldiered off to bed. He is the sweetest late in the evening, so thoughtful and inquisitive after a long day. These are the precious moments that drive us to take these trips. He wants to take a trip with me somewhere and I look forward to satisfying both our needs to have some one-on-one time. My boy is growing up quickly.