Thursday, June 11, 2015

Jekyll Island - The Millionaire's Club & Low Country Boil

Skidaway Island State Park, GA

We decided to take our time driving up the coast of Florida this morning. Northern Florida is really beautiful with lots of islands off the coast. We went from island to island taking bridges and a ferry, and looking at all the fancy houses lining the Atlantic Ocean.

Here's me hanging out on the front of the ferry as we came into dock. Ned was smart enough to stay in the vehicle...can you say baking hot temperatures!

 

 

A lot of this area is beautiful marshland.

Last night, Ned did a little research and found a really interesting place to visit today called Jekyll Island. It's located in Southern Georgia and has an interesting history of Native American, Spanish and English settlements. What fascinated me the most is the "Jekyll Island Club." It was touted as the "richest, most inaccessible club in the world." Founded in 1886, there were 100 members such as J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, and a bunch of other bigwigs that were captains of industry. Here's a picture of their "Club House". Yes, everything you see in this picture is the club house.

The members, and their families, did a variety of outdoor activities such a hunting, horseback riding, skeet shooting, golf, tennis, biking, croquet, lawn bowling, picnics and carriage rides. The people arrived by boat...er should I say by yacht and sailing ships. JP Morgan's boat, the Corsair II, was too big to dock. Anchored in the channel Morgan was escorted ashore by a flotilla of small craft, after a cannon had sounded off his arrival. No egos here.

Here's a picture of a humble cottage.

These multi-millionaires built their summer "cottages" in Newport, RI and their winter "cottages" here on Jekyll Island. My question is, when did these guy work?!

We had a blast riding our bikes around looking at all the cottages, boat house, club house, chapel, etc. The bike path through the historical district was pristine and tree-lined.

 

 

We only encountered 5 other riders on our 15 mile ride. Either people don't appreciate this little gem of a path or we were the only ones crazy enough to ride in 91 deg. temperature in mid-day. We rode around most of the island, exploring the campground (for a future trip?), the Atlantic Ocean paths (which were not tree lined and hotter than hell in the blazing sun) and the fancy golf club.

After this several hour excursion we loaded up our bikes and continued north heading toward Savannah. The skies opened up and dang did it pour! The weather here is so weird. It can be blue skies and sunny one minute, then just downpour the next, then go back to being sunny. We secured our campsite at Skidaway Island State Park and then headed for Tybee Island. Wahoo!

This is a beautiful campground situated under lots of Spanish Moss and among palmetto trees.

 

We've done a roadtrip for 7 years and our favorite meal of all time has been the Low Country Boil at the Crab Shack on Tybee Island. Their motto is "Where the Elite eat in their barefeet." (Yes, that would be us...Jekyll Island and so elite - ha!) Today we headed back to see if it really was as good as we remembered. We didn't call this trip "The Greatest Hits" for nothing!

This is a really funky place situated right on the marsh. We had to cross about 4 or 5 islands to get here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scored the margarita! Sure hope the meal is as good as we remembered...

Oh Man...this is so GOOD!! (Alan and Patty...roadtrip!!!!!) Hot n' juicy has nothing on this place. We got fresh Georgian shrimp right out of the ocean, sausage, corn on the cob and potatoes all boiled together with some secret seasoning.

 

 

 

 

 

Oysters anyone? Okay, not us but dang these suckers are huge! Other people were ordering crawfish, whole crab, king crab legs and of course, BBQ. We stuck with the Low Country Boil.

Hey friends in Nevada City, I'm thinking we should get together this summer and do a big "Low Country Boil!" Who's IN??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biggest gator caught on record, over 19 ft. Caught by "Ned", son of inventor of tobasco sauce.

Perfect finish to a great day!

 

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