Domestic Bliss: Jekyll Island

Ok, so it's been 3 months since we went to Jekyll Island for our honeymoon and I'm just getting around to posting about it. Oops. What can I say? Life has been busy.

We had a great time at Jekyll and I highly recommend visiting if you've never been there. It's much different than other beaches in SC or GA. It's protected and there are laws that only a small portion of the island can be developed. There are lots of old Great Oaks and natural beaches, and when we were there, there were no crowds. There aren't lots of "activities" like para sailing or jet skiing, but there are biking/hiking trails that circle the whole island. There are also several locations where you can rent electric cars. Or you can visit the Sea Turtle Center to learn about the life of sea turtles and visit with some of their rescues. Or you can do the whole beach thing. We were there in April and it was still too cool for swimming in the ocean. In the summer months there is a small water park that's open.

We stayed at the Beachview Club which had a heated pool and hot tub. And we also had a jacuzzi tub in our room. The hotel was pretty nice and had fantastic grounds and a great view. Jekyll doesn't have much in the way of restaurants, though. There are maybe 3 or 4 restaurants on the whole island and we weren't at all blown away by the 2 we visited. We took lots of snack stuff and had a kitchenette in our room. We also picked up some sandwich stuff from the grocery store in Brunswick. We did go out to eat a couple of times.

The first full day we were there we decided to rent on the electric cars. We had it for 24 hours and really used it to the best of our ability. It had a top speed of about 25 mph. We rode around and around the island and had a great time! The only limitation was the battery which had to be charged for several hours the first afternoon. All in all we felt it was well worth the rental cost.

The next day after turning the car in, we rented bikes from our hotel and rode about 8 miles on the beautiful bike trails. The trails go through the marsh and pass through the public pier area and then circle the island's perimeter. I rode as long as my rear end could stand and then we headed back to the hotel.

We also went into Brunswick a few times for "necessities." On one of those trips we ate at a little seafood restaurant that was right on the water. On the way into the restaurant we saw a sign that said something about shrimp boat excursions which is something Dave really wanted to do. We inquired on tour times and found there was a tour we could do on our way home the next day.

The best food we had was on our way home in Darien when we stopped at a great small buffet-style restaurant. We happened to get there on one of their two seafood nights and had some very large and delicious fresh Georgia shrimp.

The Beachview Club

Electric car we rented to tour the island. Great fun!

We saw this raccoon right along the bike trail.

We also saw lots of deer at night.

The highlight of the trip for Dave was definitely the shrimp boat excursion. We got packed up and checked out of our hotel on our last morning then headed down to the Sea Turtle Center for a tour. After leaving there we got some lunch and spent some time at a waterfront park waiting for our departure time for the excursion. When we headed over to the parking area to wait on our tour guides to arrive, we noticed a surprising number of people arriving for the same trip and we started to get a little territorial. We hedged our way closer to the front of the line to make sure we got a good place on the boat. I made sure to take some Dramamine just in case we headed into any rough waters.

Our tour guides turned out to be the owner of the boat and his 14-year-old son. They also brought along a cook to prepare the fresh-caught shrimp for us right on board! So about 16 people boarded the boat which used to be a working shrimp boat but now only does tours. We got the standard safety speech from the Captain and found out the schedule of events for the afternoon. Then we headed out into the bay. Luckily it was low tide so didn't get into any rough water. The net was dropped 3 times during the trip and the contents dumped onto a large table so that we could see some of the other sea animals that live off our coasts. Cliff, the 14-year-old first mate, was quite knowledgeable about the sea animals and handled them all without reservation. We got to see horseshoe crabs, lots of fish and blue crabs, and even a bonnet head shark! It was interesting to see how many things were in the net besides shrimp. So Cliff filtered out the shrimp, de-headed them and threw them to the cook to be washed and cooked.

The Captain also gave everyone a chance to come and steer the boat. Dave did a great job at this. I did it just long enough to get a photo. We had a wonderful 2 hours on the boat and we each got a t-shirt to prove we'd been there. They didn't give us enough shrimp on board for our liking so we headed down the road towards home in search of more. That's when we found the buffet in Darien. Those were some of the biggest, freshest, tastiest shrimp I've ever eaten. No exaggeration.

Dave and a horseshoe crab