Jekyll Island Day 1

We only made one big mistake on this leg of our journey: camping. Normally, I don't really mind camping as long as there is a comfortable place to sleep and there are things to do. This much-anticipated detour, however, added one more thing to my camping list: It must cool off at night. Therefore, I think I will never camp in the South in the Summer during a raging wildfire ever again. We had planned to spend a full week engaged in fun activities, playing on the beach, looking for ocean life, and generally relaxing, but because all of our general relaxing time was so miserable and disgusting, we opted to cram everything in to two great days and be on our way with the promise to return when the weather is more temperate, the Okefenokee isn't on fire, and when we have a house in which to stay.

We set up camp on Monday, then Tuesday dawned beautiful with a morning walk for the boys while Liz slept in a bit and prepared for the day. We walked down to the fishing pier and enjoyed the high tide filling the inlets. It was a beautiful walk, although a little on the pestered-incessantly-by-bugs side of things.

We enjoyed some time at the beach looking for creatures and enjoyed lunch in the sand. We learned that low tide is abysmal for swimming, but great for exploring. We saw horseshoe crabs and jellyfish and hermit crabs and sea slugs and whelks and all kinds of other things we couldn't identify as we strolled the shores. We made our way out to the sandbar, only visible during the lowest of tides, and saw some interesting plant life exposed in the sand there.

We ran over to Driftwood Beach, named because the North part of the islands, and all the island in the area, is eroding and pulling the natural flora into the sea, the washing it to an aged beauty.

After dinner we opted for some real adventure—horseback riding! Jacob wasn't old enough, so he and mom had time together while the oldest boys rode forward. After mounting his horse and feeling the power there, Michael wanted nothing to do with that misadventure. He stuck it out, however, and soon he emerged as a natural horse rider—confident, calm, and commanding. He took to it beautifully, and I'm sure proud of him for conquering a fear.

Here's Joshua and Freckles:

Michael and Doc:

Dad and Prince:

We rode through the forest, along the beach, and even got to see a few dolphins playing in the waves off Driftwood Beach. It was a grand time, and our guide, Tay, was friendly, informative, talkative, and delighted in the way Joshua sang and chatted almost the entire time. He was even able to sing his horseback riding song later for me when I asked. It was quite spirited and had few words.

After our long, hot ride, we decided we needed to go to the beach again, especially since the tide was coming in, and we've become true lovers of ocean waves. We got ice cream and walked down a boardwalk through the dunes, and by the time the boardwalk ended, we were already in the ocean! There was no one else around that area, so we romped and played and crashed waves and had a grand time. We saw two of the 74 or so sea turtle nests on the island, and returned to camp throughly exhausted.