The Barrier Islands

Did you know that there is no mainland beach facing the Atlantic in Georgia? Nope..... there isn't.
The entire coast is Barrier Islands with the intracoastal waterway between them and the mainland.
The last two days have been spent visiting Jeckyll Island (yesterday) and St. Simon Island (today). These are laid back places with lots of Southern charm and 25mph speed limits.

Jeckyl Island has long been the playground of the rich and famous. At the turn of the century the island was purchased by wealthy individuals ( most notably Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan) for the sum of $125,000. They built a clubhouse and called themselves the Jeckyll Island club. The clubhouse shown here has since been converted to a hotel that anyone can stay at if that anyone has enough money.
Jeckyll Island is now a state park and is a super place to relax.
We had lunch of a pound of fresh "peel and eat" shrimp caught locally and a pitcher of beer. What a way to go!

Today was St. Simon Island day and we started with the lighthouse at the South end of the island. Once again, we climbed the stairs for a really great view of the island. The light is still functional being used for navigation from the ocean to the river.

After a light lunch we headed to the North end to visit Ft. Frederica. The town of Frederica and the fort were built by Oglethorpe, the founder of the Georgia colony. It stood from 1732 to about 1772 when the troops left and the town dried up. Without the troops there was no way of sustaining the town.





This is typical of the trees down here. The moss grows on all of them but really loves live oak trees. The moss is not a parasite but gets it's food from the air. It's a great relationship and a pretty one as well. One more day here and it's off to Orlando for a week. More from there.