June 23 Tours of Jekyll & St. Simon's Islands

This is kind of a fun map of the area where we were,
so we thought we'd include it.

Thursday dawned relatively smoke free, so we took the opportunity to wash the decks clean of our Wally's Leg coat of ash. Soon after that, we had company! Judy Thomas Johnson, a friend from high school and college, arrived per our advance arrangements to take us on a driving tour of Jekyll and nearby St. Simon's. What's more, she invited us to use her family's beach house on St. Simon's Island and her car for the entire weekend, since she had to go to Savannah with her husband on business. We decided to take Judy up on the chance to luxuriate on land for a couple of days, and it turned out to be a good decision in more ways than one. 


Judy looks fabulous. She and Kay had not seen each other since their 20th high school reunion in 1991; this year is their 40th! Steve had not seen Judy since probably the late 1970s. She and her family live in Baxley, GA, which is about 30 miles south of Vidalia (yes, Home of the Sweet Onions). Along with other Baxley families, the Johnsons have a tradition of "going to the beach" at St. Simon's. 

Kay and gracious friend Judy Thomas Johnson
at historic Christ Church

We showed Judy around Mulligan, happy to be giving a tour to an old friend, then packed bags for the weekend and headed out in Judy's car. 


The first item on her agenda for us was a circumnavigation of Jekyll Island, which introduced us to its incredibly pretty and unique Historic District. Jekyll, you see, was where America's Gilded Age millionaires en masse had winter getaway "cottages" between 1888 and 1947. Judy lends me a book about the Jekyll Island Club (Splendid Isolation), which made a great read for quiet times during the rest of the weekend. One of the most incredible facts in the book was that, in any given winter during the Jekyll Island Club period, one-sixth of the world's wealth was concentrated on little Jekyll Island on the Georgia coast. Now the whole complex is a giant museum, with the old Jekyll Island Club House as its core. The Club House is also a hotel, as are a few of the millionaires' cottages.

Moss Cottage, Jekyll Island Historic District,
the 1896 shingle-style winter home of
George Henry Macy, tobacconist & owner of A&P

Next we headed to the mainland for a driving tour of the old port city of Brunswick, then across the water again to St. Simon's Island. We stopped for a quick lunch at a place Judy knew, then headed to Christ Church, which was supposed to be open but was not. There were some workmen there though, and Judy just asked them to let us in, which they very gallantly did. One of them told us they always try to accommodate visitors, which we thought was a wonderful attitude for someone going about his livelihood in a beautiful place. We loved the old Episcopal church, which dates to 1736 (although not the current structure) and is surrounded by a live oak-shaded graveyard where some of Georgia's earliest settlers are buried. Like other historic Low Country cemeteries we have visited, it draws you deeper and deeper into it, to read the names and dates and try to piece together family stories.

Our last stop of the day was Ft. Frederica National Historic Monument, where we got in free because the Park ranger at the desk had already closed his register for the day. A bonus for us, who had decided to visit as many National Park sites as possible on our cruise, since our interest was piqued because of Kay's immediate pre-retirement job with the Friends of Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park (a Civil War site) back home. 


We walked the well-marked archeological remains of the fort and its town that were established as the British colonies' bastion to keep the Spanish from encroaching from Florida. We were again reminded of how much history there is on the South Georgia coast, and how far back it goes. As the end-of-day crowd wanes, we were joined by a herd of deer, who looked beautiful moving through the wooded grounds of the archeological site. 

Next we adjourned to Judy's beach house. How we wish we had taken a picture. We meant to, but events just sort of took on a life of their own on St. Simon's, and we missed that opportunity too. The beach house is a very cool place, a three-story home looking out over the north beach of St. Simon's toward Jekyll across the Sound, with Cumberland Island in the distance. Each of the three floors is its own apartment, with two bedrooms and baths, kitchen, dining area, living room and terrace. Judy installs us on the second floor, which is hers and her husband's level. Her husband's two brothers each have a floor as well, and we were pleased to be able to meet her sister in law, Pome, who was in residence when we arrive. 

We end our day with a walk in the rain down the street to another beach house, to visit with two couples who are Judy's friends. She wants to take us to the nearby Lodge Hotel for the cocktail hour Scottish bagpipe concert, but we are pooped after our extensive and wonderful tourist day. The three of us decide to eat in and relax.