Thanksgiving Trip: Golden Isles

Once we said goodbye to everyone in Atlanta, we headed to Southeast Georgia - a change in itinerary that we figured out as we went, and didn't even have a hotel lined up until that afternoon. But it turned out to be a wonderful little side trip, with a beautiful combination of old memories and new.

The first stop was our old house at 106 Norbury Street in Brunswick.
We lived there for close to 5 years, arrving when Cat was about 18 months old
and bringing Jack and Liza to that house when they were born. I loved seeing
the house and the neighborhood again.

Next we made a quick stop at Cat's elementary school for Pre-K
and Kindergarten, recreating her first day of Pre-K pics.
(see the post HERE.)

Dinner at Zaxby's near the Publix where I did all of my grocery shopping for years.
And I initiated an arm wrestling tournament to get kids off of devices and interacting.

Next we visited some old friends! Celeste and I were VT companions
for a long time, and Mary Jane and Sean lived in our neighborhood
and often had us over for dinner.

Luke and Celeste's son got along very well.

The older kids hung out with Celeste's oldest, who is Jack's age.
The two of them spent a lot of time together back in the day.

And Jack earned himself a new buddy too!

As our plan to visit the Brunswick area slowly evolved, Ben had the idea to stay at the Jekyll Island Club Resort, a cool historic building on Jekyll Island, which is a barrier island that's also a state park. The hotel was originally built as a private hunting club and exclusive gathering place for America's most wealthy families in 1878 - and J.P Morgan built a 6-bedroom "cottage" near the hotel. (Find some history and photos HERE.)

Ben and I have stayed there once before during an anniversary getaway, and though we'd taken the kids to Jekyll Island several times, they'd never stayed at this cool hotel. We were really lucky that there was one large room available where we could all be together, and it did not disappoint! It's one of those places that makes it very easy to imagine what it would have been like to walk the halls and the grounds 130 years ago.

The view from our balcony.

The sitting area near the grand dining hall as we were waiting for a table for breakfast.

There are several historic photos throughout the building. The caption for this one:
Theodore Vail speaks from Jekyll Island as he opens the first transcontinental telephone
line on January 25, 1915. William Rockefellar (seated) listens. Standing are (left to right)
W. Welles Bosworth, S.B.P. Trowbridge, and J.P. Morgan, Jr.

Outside of the hotel.

You have to wear white if you want to play croquet on the lawn in front of the hotel.

We took a little time to walk around the grounds of the resort.
We were all slightly obsessed with the oak trees + Spanish moss.

This is the river. We didn't go to the beach, but maybe next time we're
in the area we'll walk to Sharktooth Beach to find - you guessed it - shark teeth,
or visit popular Driftwood Beach.

Then we surprised the kids with a visit to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center!

This was one of the bigger patients being treated and very active,
so we watched him for a while.

It was fun to see the juvenile turtles too!

In the visitors' center we learned more about a cute box turtle.

The merch in the gift shop was fun.

Now that's a big turtle.
Also, we learned that the visitors' center is in a historic power station.

Last time we visited the Sea Turtle Center was the week we moved away.

Then we drove south to St. Augustine to meet up with Mema and Papa and John's family!

It was chilly and cloudy when we arrived!

The kids were excited to see a beach!

We had a lot of fun just hanging out at the rental house that night,
talking and playing with the dogs.

We also played some fun games - Telestrations and Think N'Sync.