January 5-9, 2021: Cumberland Island. Wild Horses Couldn't Keep us Away.

 

The ruins of Dungeness Mansion and one of the 140 wild horses of Cumberland Island.

"On a Georgia Island, a lot of good food and plenty of nothing."

                                                     ----The New York Times

Are you ready for a few days of relaxation and not much else? (And I am talking no email, phone calls, TV, etc.) Then pack your bags and head to Cumberland Island, about 2 hours south of Savannah, and beyond St Simon's and Jekyll.  

According to the National Park service which operates most of the northern portion of the island, "Cumberland Island is a barrier island off Georgia’s southeast coast, with protected beaches and maritime forest. The Dungeness Ruins are the remains of a mansion built by Thomas Carnegie, brother and partner of steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie. Georgian Revival–style Plum Orchard is another Carnegie estate. The simple, 1-room First African Baptist Church lies north. Wildlife includes loggerhead turtles and feral horses."  

Now that we have spent some quality time there, we can attest that the National Park Service ain't lying!

There are basically two ways to get onto the island:

1.  Ferry from St. Mary's, Georgia which runs several times a day but limits service to Thursday through Sunday at present (so be sure to check the schedule). This will land you at Sea Camp, the official national park office. There isn't much in the way of a visitor's center, but the rangers do run several historical and nature programs for guests of the island. They also rent bikes and campsites. If you know my husband at all, you know we didn't camp and took the other option---

2. Stay at the Greyfield Inn and they will arrange transportation (at no additional charge)  for you aboard their boat, the Lucy B. Ferguson, from Fernandina Beach, Florida.  That sounds a lot more like Paul :) .

Once you get to the island, you have two choices for lodging:

1. The campground. It looked nice and secluded, had real bathrooms and even a phone charging station (which was totally full of phones when we got there, even though the cell signal was often nonexistent.)

2. The Greyfield Inn. This is where we stayed and we loved it. The good news is: It is all inclusive (except alcohol). And the food is amazing Michelin star eats. The naturalist tours are all included.  The rooms were comfortable and it was QUIET. And I mean quiet! The bicycles are free to use whenever you want. Miles and miles and miles of hiking trails. There is a long list of GOOD things about staying at Greyfield. The bad news is GET OUT YOUR WALLET! It is not cheap. It borders on Blackberry Farms prices (where, incidentally, we have NEVER stayed even one night!)  But overall, for a 9th anniversary, it was justified.  We couldn't really say enough good things about the inn, the service, the food or their adherence to stop the spread of COVID 19. Breakfast and lunch were served at a very good social distance and masks were required by all except when shovelling awesome food in your mouth. Lunch was in a paper bag, but the quality of the food never suffered. We often took ours as a picnic.  If you can find any way to afford this, please go. You won't regret it. 

We had our room in the Large Cottage across the lawn from the main hotel. We had a private bath and a sitting area outdoors as well as a shared living room. The bed was very comfortable.

Greyfield Inn. Ten rooms and many porches.  the 19th century retreat of Thomas and Lucy Carnegie who built Greyfield in 1900 for their daughter, Margaret Ricketson. The home was converted to an inn in 1962 by Margaret’s daughter, Lucy R. Ferguson, and her family. The Carnegie family still oversees the Inn, which exudes the romance and luxury of a grand hotel with the hospitality and charm of a family home.

Greyfield has a social hour in the parlor nightly (with everyone wearing a mask and sitting six feet apart to their credit.) Our first night we discovered we were sharing the inn with a 50th anniversary couple from Paul's hometown of Clinton, Tn. and a 30th anniversary couple who were from Virginia. They used to have an "honor bar" but due to COVID, your favorite cocktail or soda pop is served by a bartender.

The portrait on the wall above is of Lucy Carnegie. Her daughter Lucy Ferguson started the Inn and the family still oversees it. Lucy Ferguson seemed like someone I would have liked. She loved nature, spent a lot of time outdoors and wasn't overly enamored of dressing up much. One guest who actually met her years ago when she was in her seventh decade said she road up the house on a horse with a vulture on her arm. 

This is the cottage where we stayed. 

The island is eighteen miles long and has many attractions. On the north end is the church where JFK, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette were married. They wanted it quiet and free of the press. I don't think they could have chosen a more remote and hard to get to locale. We saw the church they were married in and it was very, very small. I doubt it would have comfortably seated more than 25 people. 

This is an old African Baptist Church which has had numerous iterations, but is tiny. It served as the location for JFK, Jr. nuptials.

This tiny, simple altar with a wooden cross is the centerpiece.

Back in September of 1996, Cumberland Island had a secret. They were playing host to a top-secret wedding and no one was going to be caught spilling the beans.

A week later, the story broke—John F. Kennedy Jr. had married Carolyn Bessette in a private ceremony in the island's tiny First African Baptist Church, filling the church's eight pews with family and friends and no media. They held the reception at the historic inn. Despite the fact that the Bessette-Kennedy wedding was the hottest news of its time, the paparazzi never found out about the ceremony until after the fact, thanks in part to the zipped lips of the island's residents and the inn's workers. JFK, Jr also did a great job of zipping his lip. He and Carolyn didn't tell the press about their engagement until two days after the wedding!

Beautiful bride and groom. This give a perspective on how tiny the church is.

We enjoyed many of the historical aspects of the island both modern day and further back. The Carnegies built all their children (except bachelors!) a home on Cumberland as a wedding gift. The Dungeness, seen in our first photo, burned by the first half of the 20th century and was never rebuilt. 

The other imposing and lovely structure (now in disrepair, but being slowly restored by the park service) is the mansion at Plum Orchard. Paul totally fell in love with his place and played peeping Tom in all the windows where he saw an indoor swimming pool and a squash court. 

Definitely a winner in the "none-too-shabby" category, Plum Orchard was finished in 1898 and had some additions as late as 1906. Walking along, visitors are greeted by Plum Orchard’s expansive grounds, dotted with ancient, stately oak trees draped in Spanish moss. 

Much of the historic building on the island was the work of General Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary War fame. He received the Island as repayment for his services and moved there and built with his wife Caty.  The Greene's eventually succumbed to diseases of their era (lockjaw/ I don't know what the general succumbed to but he was only 44 years old.). Born on the island in 1790, Robert Stafford’s story picks up as the Greene saga fades. Having worked for Caty’s daughter, Louisa Shaw, Stafford learned the prosperity of plantation life, cultivating crops of citrus, rice and olives, with his most productive being Sea Island cotton. By the early 1800s, he owned most of the island, as well as 348 slaves at the height of his empire. Never married, Stafford took a mulatto common law slave wife, Zabette, who bore him six children. As the Civil War edged toward the island, the people fled North, including Zabette and the children, but not Stafford. Although the well-educated and accomplished children never returned, Zabette did, finding aging Stafford with another mulatto slave and two daughters. The stalwart, brazen Stafford died at age 87 in 1877, leaving nothing to Zabette or his six children. Tough times indeed!

Stafford Plantation. For those who want to guarantee they see a wild horse, many of them occupy the grounds across the park service road.

You could really indulge in plenty of history on this island. There is a road there that you can ride a bike all the way or take a tour.

We spent much of our time just walking about either on the island roads, hiking trails or the beaches and enjoying the wildlife and scenery...and trying to walk off some of the many calories we consumed!

The island roads are well marked and the sand is packed well enough for bicycling on the single speed cruiser bikes on the island. It's flat, too, so walking is easy peasy.

Paul amongst the outbuilding at Dungeness. 

Wild turkeys!

Beach birds 

Beach bum :)

The hiking trails were also pretty flat and like much of this area were palmetto forests, pine and live oak.

We saw several armadillos. This one refused to have a full frontal photo.

Our last hiking day along the beach was overcast, windy and very beautiful. 

Overall, I would rate a trip to coastal Georgia as worthwhile and Cumberland very highly--- and encourage anyone with the means to go there. It was relaxing, pastoral, historical, delicious and many other superlatives. We definitely plan to return. 

We live in a state with a wonderful climate and plenty of natural beauty, from the shores of Cumberland Island to the Chattahoochee River to the Blue Ridge Mountains. - Author: Roy Barnes

Paul's Ponderings:   Wow, what a great find Cumberland Island was.....not for everyone perhaps, but great for us.    This is a very rural, pastoral experience and there's no internet/TV/etc, but it's a great place to relax and enjoy some peace and quiet.   It can't get too crowded due to the lack of accommodations and what's not to like about sitting at the Carnegie dining table in a house they built?   We are already plotting a return!   

January 3-5, 2021: Okefenochee is OKAY!

 

. "I think of my own life, how it embraces a great quest to know every cog of nature--the names of oaks and ferns, the secret lives of birds, the taste of venison and Ogeechee lime, wax myrtle's smell and rattlesnake's, the contour of bobcat tracks, the number of barred owl cackles, the feel of Okefenokee Swamp water on my skin under a blistering sun. I search for a vital knowledge of the land that my father could not teach me, as he was not taught, and guidance to know and honor it, as he was not guided, as if this will shield me from the errancies of the mind, or bring me back from that dark territory should I happen to wander there. I search as if there were peace to be found."
Janisse Ray

In south Georgia lies the Okefenochee Swamp. Home to 25,000 alligators, an enormous number of wading waterfowl (including sandhill cranes) and moss covered trees.

When I was in grades 2-5, my family lived in Warner Robins, Georgia. Not exactly the swamp land... but in the summer, I was sent to Bible camp in Valdosta, Georgia which is very near the Okefenochee Swamp. On the ride down with my church buddies, we would hear tell about the gators getting the grannies, etc and although I remember being a little frightened at the stories, I wanted to see this haunting place. Now nearly 55+/- years later. I am finally getting the opportunity. 

The Okefenochee is the largest blackwater swamp in the USA and comprises about 438,000 acres. As with many words of native American origin, there are many tales about how it got it's name, but it probably comes from Hitchiti words for "bubbling waters." The St Mary's River which flows out to the Golden Isles area of Georgia and the Suwanee River (of Stephen Foster fame) both originate in the swamp. 

While we were touring the swamp in a boat with a national park naturalist, I noted the canal we were on looked awfully straight to be a product of nature and postulated it was the result of the Army Corp of Engineers. But he said it was dug by the Suwanee Canal Company who purchased the land and intended to drain the swamp. That venture went poorly and after the bankruptcy (which seems to have been environmental as well as financial), the Hebard family of Phildelphia purchased it and conducted a cypress logging operation until the late 1920s. Eventually, the swamplands were acquired as a National Wildlife Refuge.

In addition to the wildlife in the park, which is aplenty, the park maintains an old homestead of the Chesser family. The original Chesser family raised seven children on this modest property. This homestead reminded me a lot of my grandparent's farm in south Alabama--they pretty much grew everything they lived on and had chicken coops, gardens, smokehouses, woodshops, pigpens--you name it!  The Chesser Island Homestead is deemed eligible for National Register listing. This 19th to early 20th century farmhouse is located deep in the swamp and was home to several generations. Its ability to survive the wet swamp conditions serves as a reminder of the hardy swampers who once lived there. These structures and this world famous swamp offer many opportunities education and heritage tourism.  

The house still stands despite being built in the late 1800s. There are numerous useful outbuildings that kept the family supplied with their needs.

I'm sure whichever generation got this screened in water pump and a tub were pretty ecstatic!

We were fortunate to get a gorgeous day to go and explore the swamp on a small watercraft and to arrange a private outing for an amazingly reasonable price. Kayaks and canoes are available in the national park for rental for the more adventurous humans. 

Paul with his new binoculars prepares to sight wildlife.

We saw seven alligators total on a fairly chilly day. This guy was about 12 feet long. He was not overly enamored with our visitation. 

For anyone considering a venture to this very beautiful area, be aware that it is pretty remote.  Access to groceries, lodging,  internet and even cell phone service is sketchy. The closest towns are Folkston, Georgia which has a couple of restaurants and a mom and pop type hotel. We found a couple of airbnbs--pretty basic-- were available, but we opted to stay in the Stephen Foster State Park cabins near Fargo, Georgia.  We never ventured all the way to Fargo, so cannot tell you what is there other than a gas station and mini-mart according to Googlemaps. The state park had no internet/cell phone service, but it was very comfortable, they provided linens and kitchen equipment, and there was a TV. We saw a very large alligator right on the side of the dock immediately upon arrival and were greeted by deer in our yard. It's worth the trouble to get there and spend some time unplugged with Mother Nature. Also, it is notable that it is an hour's ride back to the National Wildlife Refuge from the state park, and the state park ALSO conducts wildlife tours (but not private ones which might be a consideration for some during COVID. )  We are told the best time to visit is March and April. But we can attest that January isn't bad. Summer is hot and buggy.

Lie on the bridge and watch the water flowing past. Or run, or wade through the swamp in your red boots. Or roll yourself up and listen to the rain falling on the roof. It's very easy to enjoy yourself.------------------- Tove Jansson

Paul's Ponderings:   This was an interesting day....we stayed in a rural state park and it was a bit of a drive on a VERY rural but well-paved  highway circling the swamp over to have a boat ride and a walkabout.   Thankfully it was sunny and pleasant!    The photos here tell the tale of the day, more or less.    The swamp, no surprise, is pretty shallow and we skimmed around in a boat with a guide.    Lots of birds native to the area were spotted and, of course, alligators.   The latter seemed to care less about us than we did about them!    The plant life is interesting and certainly not the same as East Tennessee.   Definitely worth a trip, although maybe not a week unless you are really into this sort of sightseeing.    Another one off the bucket list!

December 31, 2020- January 2, 2021: The Golden Isles of Georgia--Hospitality, Beaches, Forts and Turtles!

 

A little memento of our anniversary #9 on Sea Island, Georgia

“Forever is a long time, but I wouldn’t mind spending it by your side.”

                                                  ----Anonymous

Since our anniversary this year was "covidized," and it was "my turn" to plan the getaway to celebrate, I looked for a really nice place with temperate weather in driving distance and came up with---The Golden Isles--- Jekyll Island, St. Simons and Sea Island, Georgia. We settled for the anniversary itself and the next few days on Sea Island at the Cloisters.

Sea Island is a private island whose hospitality heritage was begun by Hudson of the defunct automobile manufacturing fame. 

You have to have a reservation and a pass to get about on Sea Island, but it is pretty nice. There are many types of accommodations. We elected to stay at the cloister which is basically a swanky, service-oriented  hotel with outstanding service and Mediterranean style spacious rooms. One consideration was the availability of restaurants, as being NYE and such, we weren't sure what might be shut down due to COVID. We knew this hotel would serve guests. We had a great NYE/anniversary meal at TAVOLA, the Italian variant within just a few yards of our room. 

On our way in, we visited Fort Frederica, a British outpost of the pre-Revolutionary War era overseen by "the father of Georgia," James Oglethorpe. This was a planned grid-like city and post inhabited by soldiers and immigrants of the English debtor prison variety. As you walk the site of the old town today, ruins are intact in places, and the exact business or inhabitant has been delineated via old diaries and public records. A definitive battle against the Spanish, who disputed the ownership of this area near Florida took place in the "bloody marsh' nearby and ended the conflict with Spain. (That is, the British won that one.)

Fort Frederica

Cannons in 1750 but peace signs in 2020

There are oak trees up to 300+ years in age and beautifully draped in Spanish moss.

We enjoyed the visit here and learned a bit of Georgia history. 

From here, it was onto Sea Island itself. On New Years Day, we slept late, then embarked on a walk of discovery around Sea Island both through the neighborhood "cottages" and out on the beach. Famous inhabitants include Ben Affleck, Davis Love III and numerous other famous golfers as well as former Braves pitcher John Smoltz. The houses range from huge and ornate to really freaking huge and crazy ornate. 

A little bitty ole Sea Island "cottage"

There was a lot of variety in the construction but suffice it to say they were all gargantuan, showy and expensive. This is a very exclusive community. I am surprised they let us on the island!

We also walked along the beach for a long distance watching the calm Atlantic and kicking over the shells of deceased horseshoe crabs. The island is about 5 miles in length and has plenty of empty beach in the winter. Probably less so in summer. Our room was on the marsh which I believe I prefer for the peacefulness and bird life.

The beach of Sea Island on a temperate and overcast January day.

We enjoyed walking through our host island and seeing how the other half lives. We also might have enjoyed a ($30) couple of ice creams. 

Today, having seen part of St Simon's Island and a good bit of Sea Island, we thought we would take a nice long walk on Jekyll Island. This area has many dunes and is a state park. We followed (mostly) the bike path and got a pretty good lay of the land. 

Although a good bit of the walk was on paved bike trail, we enjoyed the strolls through the palmetto forest on soft sands as well.

Don't miss the driftwood beach. It is stunning and stark. We saw a wedding taking place amongst these barren trees on white sand near sunset.

Birdlife is pretty fun to watch in this area. We also saw kingfishers, painted buntings and woodpeckers as well as usual shorebirds.

This snowy egret was on a mission and didn't mind us getting near with a camera.

Paul in the driftwood forest on the beach.

Rescued baby Ridley sea turtles

 We also were fortunate to get to visit the Georgia sea turtle hospital where there were a number of rescues.  Most of the turtles were injured by boats although some were injured by predators or had a form of hypothermia called "stunning." These folks do their very best to nurse them back to health. We enjoyed seeing their efforts. 

The food on Sea Island has been good, especially Tavola, the Italian restaurant and Colt and Alison, a steakhouse. Some of the restaurant remained closed presumably due to decline in occupancy as well as possibly social distancing. In general, they have enforced mask use and distancing pretty well.

"The Golden Isles is a place well named. A landscape and a legacy that is, in every way, golden. One needs only to witness a gorgeous sunrise over the ocean or bask in the beauty of the sun setting westward beyond the mainland to know the namesake of this stretch of Georgia’s coast."

Paul's Ponderings:  What a great couple of days on Sea Island....I was familiar with this area only by reputation and geography, but not in person.   The fort was great to see as a start and the accommodations on Sea Island (plus the dining) was outstanding.    We had some great walking (not really hiking, it's flat as a pancake here) both days and the weather was pretty pleasant overall.   Hope to be back at some point!