Jekyll Island

Today we drove over to Jekyll Island, which was a little bit closer drive than St Simons.  It was an interesting day.  We found out that Jekyll Island was originally the home to a hunting club for the very wealthy from up north.  The hunting club was started back in the late 1800's, and continued until the stock market crash, when many of the members lost their fortunes, and the island was eventually sold to the state of Georgia.  Some of the original members included Rockefellers and Vanderbilts.  Today the main lodge and some of the houses are part of a luxury hotel.

Our first stop was at driftwood beach... The trees have gradually been washed onto the beach and into the water through erosion.

The path out to the beach.

From here we could see the lighthouse we went to yesterday on St Simons Island.

Apparently there was a wedding here, probably just this morning, because the rose petals were still very fragrant.  We had read that Driftwood Beach is a popular wedding site.

Kodak moment!

After driftwood beach, we checked out the museum, and got tickets for the trolley tour around the historic district.  This was the area of the island where the hunting club was.  We got to tour a couple of the "cottages".  One of the "cottages" was the smallest one that was built, and it was 8000 sq ft.

This sign was inside the gift shop at the museum, directing people to the restrooms.

This was the trolley we rode.

This was one of the cottages.  The smaller building to the right is the kitchen.  Most of the houses didn't have kitchens, because people ate most of the meals at the lodge.  The kitchen is in a separate building to keep out the heat, and because of the fire danger.

This is one of the first "condo" buildings ever built in the US.

One of the "cottages".

This is part of the main lodge.

Beautiful live oaks and Spanish moss everywhere.

More cottages

The chapel that was built so people didn't have to take a boat over to Brunswick for church services.  One of the stained glass windows was made by Tiffany.

We stopped by the Sand Dunes beach after the trolley tour, but didn't stay long because the beach was wall-to-wall people.

The sand dunes

A fun day.  Tomorrow we head a little farther up the coast.

I really wanted to visit Cumberland Island, another of the "Golden Isles", while we were here.  My book club up in Hubbard Lake read the book "Untamed:  The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island" a year or two ago, and it would have been interesting to go there, but you have to take a ferry across, and no cars are allowed.  You can ride a bike, but you can only rent bikes on the island, not bring your own bikes.  So we thought we'd see more by going to St Simons and Jekyll.  Cumberland Island is also where John F Kennedy, Jr, married Carolyn Bessette, and I would have loved to have seen that little church.  Maybe next trip up the coast.  St Simons and Jekyll Islands were way more crowded than we expected, so the remoteness of Cumberland Island may have been refreshing, but you don't know till you go see things!