[10.10.22) 17-Min Read Per WordPress

Well, it was great to get away and do so without a firm schedule of places we needed to be at a certain time, or things that had to be done even on specific day. No, this was definitely a “make it up as we go along” trip… perhaps our first and we’ll definitely do it again. It was just enough structure to pick when we’d leave — being sure there wasn’t anything going-on with the kids and grandkids, etc. that we needed to attend or attend to — with just places where we wanted to go and a loose idea of what we’d do there, where the only very structured “stop” was The Brumos Collection on Friday, as they’re only open three days a week: Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Monday, October 3rd:

We headed off to Savannah at 10:00am, and while we had a good bit of traffic through our local Marietta area Interstate 75 South and then in downtown Atlanta as well as south of Atlanta near Jonesboro, it was otherwise smooth sailing for the four-and-a-half hour drive to Savannah with just one stop.

I’d asked the GPS/Google Maps to take us to the Hampton Inn in the Savannah Historic District, but didn’t add the street name. Sure enough, there are two Hampton Inn’s in the Historic District and it took us to the wrong one. After attempting to check-in and being told we didn’t have a reservation, the host suggested we might have booked our room at the Hampton Inn on Bay Street, a few miles away and very close to the Wharf area. We found our way to the right Hampton Inn and it was a really, really nice location at a very well run-Hampton Inn, albeit with nearly mandatory valet parking given where it was located.

After getting checked into our room on the Bay Street side of the 5th floor, we headed to the Wharf area in search of a late lunch stop and found our way to Bernie’s Oyster House: it was just our kind of place. Debbie had a Crab Cake and I had the raw oysters. From there we wandered east in search of Forsythe Park — about a mile-long walk from the Wharf –– and it was a lovely way to spend our afternoon.

We not only saw Forsythe Park, but also many other interesting sights, to include a coupe of the homes that were featured in the Clint Eastwood directed movie, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil which had a lot to do with our return visit to Savannah for the first time in many years.

We made a stop at our hotel room so I could firm up our Architectural History Tour on Tuesday morning at 10:00am with Jonathan Stalcup, and just to relax for a while before heading back to the Wharf area for dinner.

We’d hoped to have dinner at the Boars Head restaurant but when doing our survey of the diner places along the wharf we found they were only open on Tuesday through Saturday. Instead, we ended up going to Fiddler’s Crab House as they had really interesting-looking recipes for their Oysters Rockefeller and Shrimp & Grits on their menus; we were not disappointed! Both were wonderful.

From there we made our way back to our hotel and very comfortable, but noisy room. Sadly, Bay Street has a steady stream of truck traffic all night long, which was hard to ignore. The HVAC was also noisy and disruptive, so neither of us slept as well as we’d hoped: something to keep in mind for future visits, as we’ll be back sooner rather than later.

Tuesday, October 4th:

We were both up and had breakfast well before our 10:00am tour start time, but had secured a 12:30pm late check-out, so it was a relaxing morning where we were actually having to kill some time before our scheduled Architectural History Tour. However, it was well worth the time we spent waiting and on the tour. We learned a lot about Savannah that fed into how it was developed and in just the space of a few blocks gained a lot of knowledge about the city and architecture. It was so well-worth our time and the $60.00 fee. We’ve ordered a copy of Jonathan’s book on Savannah as well as a few others. Again, we’ll definitely be coming back in the not too distant future.

Next up was checking-out and making the 90-minute drive to Jekyll Island where we’d be spending the next three nights. Note that, for this particular “vacation” I didn’t make our Savannah reservations until two nights before we departed, and didn’t make our Jekyll reservations until Monday night: we truly had no firm plans or scheduled events for this trip vs. our Washington, D.C., museum “agenda” which was way to ambitious. The “making-it-up as we went along approach has worked-out well. I booked us into the relatively new Hilton Home2Suites opened in 2019 in the relatively new Jekyll Beach Village Center opened in 2010, and it was wonderful.

We knew we’d have a late lunch and we opted to walk about a half-a-mile to Tortuga Jack’s and it turned out to be our go-to-place for our time at Jekyll. Our bar keeper at their massive Tiki Bar facing the ocean — Jorge — became a fast-friend who took care of us several more times during our visit. The food was very good, the cocktails quite nice but the view of the Atlantic from the bar is what made it all worth the expense… it was not cheap eating and drinking on the resort town economy, any more than the lodging. But, I think I’ve gotten over the idea of trying to be frugal at this stage of our lives. We might as well enjoy doing things like this while we’re “young” in our mid-60’s while we still can and clearly have the resources to do so, versus waiting for….??? Yeah, that’s the rub, what are we waiting for?

After our lunch, we did a little more exploring, did something of a reconnaissance ride around the island to get a feel for the bike trails, and decided to head to the Driftwood Grill and Bistro for dinner, based on a Top-10 list of restaurants at Jekyll Island. We were a bit put-off at first as unlike our experience at home where we can go and hang-out in the bar and wait for seats to open-up, every seat in the restaurant was “reserved” and had to be booked by the host. We ended-up waiting 40 minutes for a seat at the bar to open-up, but it ultimately worked-out to be well worth-it. Our barkeeper Pam was great, she made a wonderful frozen cocktail for Debbie and our Shrimp & Grits were better than the ones we’d had in Savannah the previous night, and those were really, really good. So, it was a great night out, once again.

Wednesday, October 5th:

Thankfully, the new Hilton Home2 Suites and careful selection of our room afforded us a very peaceful night’s rest, the first time in several hotel stays. We began our day on with breakfast at the hotel, and it was quite good even for a hotel buffet.

Our plan for the day made-up last night was to head-off on our Fandango fat-tire, off-road tandem for a 20+ mile ride around the island on the paved bike path. I’d looked at the path details and decided we’d probably be better off riding just the 10-miles from the Beach Village Center to the Historic District along the north coast of Jekyll Island and then doubling-back instead of riding all the way around the island based on what we learned when we drove around the island yesterday afternoon. Wow, what a great ride that was.

We headed-off around 10:00am with temps in the mid-60’s under sunny skies and the ride was better than expected, taking us to parts of the island we’d never had seen just driving around. Our 10-mile ride to the Historic District took us along the eastern coast of the island in view of the ocean, then inland for a few miles through some of the single home and condo/townhouse neighborhoods before it popped-us back out along the historic “Driftwood Beach” with its iconic driftwood formed as a result of decades of erosion and ocean incursion. What was once a maritime forest is now a sandy shore on the north end of the island lined with weathered tree trunks and branches, creating a forest of sun-bleached, dead oak tree trunks after the supporting soil with its nutrients and protection was washed-away and deposited on the south end of the island and on other barrier islands. From there we made our way to the historic district where we took a quick look at some of the “cottages” from the original club-years built between 1904 and the 1930’s depression era when the entire 5,500 acre island was a private club / corporation owned collectively by wealthy investors from all over the U.S.. We’ll come back tomorrow for a more detailed tour, but it made for a nice place to make a couple photo stops before making our way back the 11-miles to where we began our ride in our hotel parking lot.

Well, there was yet another stop at Tortuga’s Tiki Bar for lunch at 11:45pm, where we once again found Jorge who took great care of us. After lunch we returned to the hotel and spent a good hour relaxing by the pool, getting our first “sun” in many, many months if not years.

After getting some of that sun — and as I worked through the issues with my missing pension check with Lockheed’s Customer Service Folks and the Edward Jones folks — we cleaned up a bit and headed back to Tortuga Jack’s for a cocktail with Jorge and then on to the Beach House & Tap House for dinner. While we considered splitting a 16oz Rib Eye, as well as a a salad with chicken and Ahi Tuna appetizer, we ended-up having pizza. It’s not what we needed, but it’s what we wanted! And, best of all, we ran into an older couple from north Georgia who we had a delightful time chatting with while also getting great service from Anna at their bar.

We also somewhat planned our Thursday, which may begin with another 20-mile ride in the morning before cleaning-up and heading to the Historic District for lunch at the Wharf and a tour in the afternoon. But, we’re also thinking about extending our stay and instead of checking-out on Friday morning before making the 90-minute drive to Jacksonville to visit the Brumos Auto Collection and then heading home — a 6-hour drive — and return to Jekyll for one more late afternoon, dinner and night before making a 5-hour drive home on Saturday.

Thursday, October 6th:

Well, it was not as restful of a night as last night as I’d hoped, having fallen asleep somewhat early only to find myself awake around midnight. I quietly moved to the sitting area and spent a couple hours reading before I was able to go back to bed and sleep, getting in more than enough sleep, albeit still not as sound as I’d like. Debbie slept well until around 4:30am, and then found herself awake for a while.

Regardless, we were up and had breakfast by 9:00am, and then headed-out for our second 22-mile bike ride on the lovely bike trails at Jekyll Island around 9:30am with temps in the mid-60’s lots of sun and a light breeze. We made a short stop at the “Mosaic” center, the Jekyll Island History & Tour Center to check on their tours and were still undecided if we’d take a formal “trolley” tour or just do our own walking tour before heading back to the other side of the island.

On our way back we talked a bit more about our plans for Friday and whether to head down to Jacksonville — about a 90-minute drive — visit the Brumos Collection / Auto Museum, and then make the 6-hour drive home afterwards, getting us home around 8:30pm – 9:00pm that night, assuming no traffic issues… Or, perhaps returning to Jekyll Island for one more night at the Home2Suites where we’ve been for the past two nights, and then having a 5.5-hour drive home on Saturday morning…. Or, perhaps just spending the night in Jacksonville after visiting the museum before heading home on Saturday.

To make a long story short, we opted to spend the night in Jacksonville at a Hampton Inn on the beach, but my initial on-line reservation was a bit fouled-up and it took a good 30-minutes on the phone with Brandi at the Jacksonville Hampton Inn getting everything sorted-out. So, assuming all goes to plan, we have a room in Jacksonville on the beach at a Hampton Inn with a restaurant and lounge, so after our visit to the Brumos we should be able to resume our “no pressure” vacation without leaving the hotel until 9:00am on Saturday morning for what will hopefully be a low-traffic, uneventful 5.5-hour drive that will put us home comfortably in the afternoon.

With tomorrow’s plan figured-out, we headed-over to The Wharf restaurant in the Historic District of the Jekyll Island Club for a light lunch and then opted to do our own, self-led walking tour of the cottages and club grounds after picking up a walking tour guide book at the Jekyll Island Arts Association Arts Center at the “Goodyear Cottage” where Debbie also found a few little mementos. We had a lovely, low-key afternoon and probably walked a good two-miles following our walking guide past all of the cottages and other landmarks at the club, including the San Souci Apartments where we spent our Honeymoon back in mid-July 1993.

As much as we tried, we were unable to find a place for an afternoon cocktail that was as enjoyable a Tortuga Jack’s so that’s where we ended-up yet again. Jorge took care of us and we met a lovely couple from the Red Bank New Jersey area who we had a delightful time talking with while enjoying the beachfront bar’s view of the Atlantic, a couple cocktails and then had dinner yet again. It was the usual, resort-priced dining experience, but what the heck. We’ve been having a great time, had good company, great food and great memories.

We were back at our hotel by 6:30pm where Debbie fell asleep watching the PGA Shriner’s Children’s Open and I captured my recollection of our day’s adventure here in the Barrier Islands of Southeast Georgia on Jekyll Island.

Friday, October 7th:

It was another relaxing, enjoyable morning with breakfast the Hilton Home2 Suites before we checked-out and made the very easy, 90-minute drive over to The Brumos Collection (the actual name for the museum) in Jacksonville. It was not as easy to find as I would have thought, very much off the beaten path and something you had to be looking for, while also using GPS. But, so worthwhile. In fact, after spending several days doing more research, editing and posting over 460 photos to a blog “scrapbook” with over 12,000 words, I’d say I’m somewhat obsessed by it. Well, was… I’m finally beginning to “move-on” to other things as of October 16th. But, it was perhaps the most historically significant collection of cars I’ve ever seen in one place, and the museum building was spectacular as well, with many innovative and informative features at every corner, to include their website that became part of this past week’s, follow-on “tour” of 14 additional vehicles that had been displayed along with the 47 we saw during our two-and-a-half-hour visit. And, yes… we were both physically and mentally exhausted when we left around 1:45pm and headed-off in search of a late lunch.

As we made our way to the Beach and then north towards where our hotel was located, we found a recently opened Margaritaville Hotel and Landshark Pub that provided us with yet-another beach-side place to enjoy a meal while looking out at the ocean. The food was great, the bar was inside out of the breezy, cool air we were “enjoying” following Hurricane Ian and like Savannah, Jekyll and the other parts of Jacksonville we’d seen on our trip, nothing looked the worse for wear from the hurricane which was at tropical storm strength and well-off-shore by the time is passed these area.

Our hotel wasn’t much further north and it far-exceeded our expectations in all respects, even for being a somewhat older hotel that was a little tired. My mistake in initially booking the room is probably what allowed us to find a room for just the one night and it was comfortable and quiet. I was also confident our hotel hostess had also “fixed” my mistake which gave me piece of mind, while putting us in a room with a view of the ocean… not that we spent much time enjoying that view. As noted earlier, one of the things that attracted me to this Hampton Inn was that it was basically a resort with a pool area separated from a “Tiki Bar” on the beach and a full-service / menu restaurant. So, once we arrived and settled-in to the hotel, there was no need to leave. We merely headed down to the Tiki Bar, found some beach-side seats where we continued to enjoy our views of the Atlantic Ocean and had a wonderful time, even running into a gal named with a name-tag that read “Ramsey” which prompted me to ask if that was here name, or did she happen to have lived in Ramsey, New Jersey. It was the latter… she was from Ramsey, a very popular place to be from for folks who had relocated to the areas we’d been visiting as we’d encountered several folks from northern New Jersey.

Saturday, October 8th:

We were up somewhat early as I wanted to get on the road and be home before Saturday afternoon traffic built on Interstate 75 North. It was a mostly uneventful and easy drive back to the Atlanta area. The Express Lanes made getting through the traffic that always builds just south of Atlanta relatively easy, but then it became a mess. There was traffic in downtown Atlanta, gridlock on I-75 through Marietta and when we tried to do an end-run around the Interstate 285 perimeter, it too was gridlocked. Fortunately, we jumped-off at Camp Creek Parkway and took backroads home, mostly on Thornton Avenue through Lithia Springs and Powder Springs and we actually arrived at home pretty much “on-time” with out detour.

Back at the house we got luggage out but didn’t really unpack; we just de-compressed from the long drive, got caught-up on mail — and yes, my missing pension checks were in the hold mail, so that was a good thing to see — and ended-up having a quiet night at home. Lord knows, we’d been out to eat every night for the past week and it was just good to be home.

While Debbie decompressed with college football, I headed to the office to begin work on my Brumos Collection photos, some 330 that I needed to download, crop and then reduce in size to minimize the amount of disk server storage space they’d take up and so as not to make them so high quality that folks might think a “virtual tour” of the Brumos could possibly replace an in-person visit.