Savannah. Cool, shaded Squares filled with statues of heroes, leaders, and businessmen. Streets paved with century old cobblestones from ballast of merchant ships that took port here so long ago. Magnificent old buildings like The Cotton Exchange harking back to the days when cotton was king as well as grand homes and Churches of every denomination. Oh yes, and southern food; wonderful pralines that made their way here from New Orleans, local, wild caught shrimp, not quite as tender as Gulf Coast shrimp but very tasty. Kent even had shrimp and grits…I sampled it and have to say it wasn’t bad. Georgia pecan pie was delicious, no surprise there.

MOSQUITOES. Oh my gosh. They had a little rain here on the Georgia coast and the mosquitoes are horrible. With a good dose of repellant they won’t bite for a couple hours but they still buzz around your ears and actually bump into you. Ack. We have managed to check out the nature trail here in camp but they are pretty distracting. Hopefully they will calm back down soon.

They use honey to treat open wounds on sea turtles. It is a natural antiseptic that seems to work well to fight infections without introducing antibiotics into the turtles’ environment. Of course, sometimes they use antibiotics for internal infections and stuff but it is cool that sometimes “home remedies” work.

Cumberland Island is another place where the Spanish must have left stock. They have over 100 horses here and the Island is only about 15 miles long with best grassland here on the South end where we spent time. We saw lots of them.

The history of many of the barrier islands reads similarly. For Cumberland Island it was the Carnegies’ private refuge. At Jekyll Island it was “The Club” where the world’s wealthiest around 1900 came to play; JP Morgan, the Rockefellers, and the Vanderbilts. We saw ruins and restored stately mansions (they called them cottages….really now!) they often had 40+ rooms. The one built by Mr. Crane was said to have an inordinate number of bathrooms…humm.
They are beautiful islands with white sand beaches and dunes facing the sea backed by a nearly continuous canopy of spanish moss draped live oak throughout the center of the island. We saw a few new birds, even a threaten Wilson’s Plover that is nesting here. We walked a few miles of quiet beach. Nice visit

Most of the Okefenokee refuge has burned over the past 10 months or so beginning from a lightening ignited wildfire last April. They reminded us that lightening fires are a regular visitor in this part of the country but the scale is amazing here. Many of the trails are closed as they work to clean up hazards and take this opportunity to thin pine stands to reestablish prairie lands. I had read online about the fire but was still disappointed at how much of the refuge is closed off. We will have to return some time.

The Castillo De Marcos stood through many sieges and changes of hands since the 1500s with no major damage. But guess what, one corner settled and opened huge cracks after movie makers filming Distant Drums in 1951 flooded its never-intended-to-hold water-moat. The water seeped under the foundation and caused a lot of damage.

Jail, masonry fort, wooden schoolhouse…..St Augustine has a bunch of oldests. We have begun what promises to be a full summer of historical places and reenactments.
We even stayed for the canon firing demonstration at the fort, Castillo De San Marcos. I love it.