On Monday, still a bit bleary from only a couple sips of coffee, I refreshed my Facebook stream. Immediately, a post on Charleston’s tourism page caught my eye.
The photo of a giant loggerhead turtle making its way back to sea looked familiar. Turns out it was the photo my husband took one early morning while we were vacationing two years ago at Folly Beach.
That was a memorable vacation. Friends, family and fun in the sun all in South Carolina’s beautiful Low Country. That vacation proved to be hard to beat.
But I think we came pretty close with our road trip this past summer to Savannah. I realized after reading through those Charleston posts, that I never wrapped up our high points from this summer’s trip.
Though we missed having family along on this trip, we sure did manage to fill our time with plenty of activity…and thankfully plenty of down time.
I already covered days 1-3: Abraham Lincoln to Tropical Storm Debby in this post.
Our next few days found us ready to stick close to our temporary home — the pristine and luxurious beach-front Beachy Keen — and anywhere but our van.
Alas, the beach was still a bit too choppy for swimming that first day, so we opted to do a bit of touring in Savannah, with a pilgrimage to the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace, which is now a Girl Scout museum.
I think what I remember most from that visit (besides a terribly rude store clerk), was how much Chicago history is wrapped up with Gordon-Low’s family. Her mother’s relatives were part of the founding of Chicago.
Savannah is a picturesque waterfront city and we enjoyed the cobblestone streets, watching the boats and visiting the Savannah Candy Kitchen, where we caught fresh salt-water taffy, still warm to the touch, out of a candy shoot.
Our visit to Bonaventure Cemetery was cut short because one of our traveling companions was, well, completely freaked out by the experience. Clearly, we did not raise a ghost story fan. Still, we saw enough of the historic final resting place to make me want to re-read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil while we were in town.
Just like our first three days, our next four on Tybee Island were largely unplanned. The negative was that there was no fishing to be done because all charters were booked and scrambling to regroup after time lost with postponements due to the storm.
We made up for that with plenty of time on the beach, hunting for shells and spotting wildlife in the morning, body surfing and boogie boarding in the afternoon, and hermit crab watching in the evening.
Except for meeting up with an old friend at a pub, the most memorable food outing was to The Crab Shack, where we were served a ridiculously large platter of crab, mussels, clams, shrimp, potatoes, corn and sausage and where the kids got to feed alligators. Future Farmgirl would make the drive all over again just to go there.
She and I were also impressed with the Tybee Marine Science Center. It’s a small nondescript building nearly lost among the bustling activity near the main beach and pier. But it’s worth a visit. Though tight on space, it’s jam packed with information on local wildlife. We were particularly happy to learn the names of most of the critters we encountered on the beach or spotted in the marshes.
Not to miss were the guests of honor, tiny loggerheads, part a rescue program similar to the one we encountered two years earlier on Folly Beach.
Our way back was more deliberate than our leisurely trip down…with one exception. Still disappointed about no fishing, we took a slight detour through Tennessee near Sevierville, where the kids literally caught our lunch.
The kids caught many more trout than we could eat in one sitting at English Mountain Trout Farm and Grill. Our Future Farmgirl seemed to have a bit of trouble with the fact that she was pretty good at catching the fish, but sorry they were going to get killed and eaten.
Future Farmboy had no such conflict. He happily caught, then ate the filleted beauties. (If you go, don’t miss out on the hush puppies and slaw.)
By vacation’s end, we were happy to be home sweet home, but already missing and dreaming about our next trip to the beach.
Virtual Farmgirl 