Late in the Day

I'm a bit late, today...Bird had to have another round of dental work (the last, I hope), including having that dad-blasted snaggle tooth pulled. Talk about tenacious - that baby tooth was determined to hang on by a thread until the kid went to college!

He is now ensconced in one of the horrible chairs, wrapped in a blankie and trying to eat a Frosty with fascinating and frankly hilarious results. It's hard to eat even half-melted ice cream when you can't feel half your face!

That was what irritated him the most - he told me as soon as they were done that he wanted his face back, pointing to the side that's numb and drooling as he spoke. Poor little guy...

Boy, was he mad I took this, too...snort...lucky thing he doesn't read this blog...

The Sweetest Thing

There was a package waiting for me when I got home, come all the way from the Yukon by special snail.

In truth, it arrived last Thursday, but as I was halfway to St. Simon's when it came, I had to wait until I got home to open it.

I have a friend in Canada to whom I sent a hand-crocheted scarf (one of these days I'll post the photo of it) because it gets bloody cold where she lives and I thought she could use a bright, soft, long hug from Georgia.

In retaliation return, she shipped me a care package!

It had a bunch of terrific swag in it:

As soon as I saw the pillow, I hugged it and then showed it to the boys with the stern admonition that "This is MY pillow, MINE, and you are not to use it as a butt pillow, or for anything else. No touchy!!" Really, you wouldn't think I'd have to say it...

Isn't it sumptuous??I couldn't do it justice with the camera - it's all moss and chocolate and gold and squishy...

Check out the mug - it reminds me of henna, and it's a good size for tea. And how about that? There's a tin of Arctic Wildflower Tea tea from Aroma Borealis that will go nicely in the mug! There's also an Aroma Borealis (isn't that an awesome name??) chocolate chai soap and lip balm (hmm...I wonder if I can get away with a three day bath??), and a chocolate bar aptly named "Lunatic". How did she know??

Thank you, Mizz R (I'll out you if you like, but thought I'd protect your privacy so you don't get inundated with requests for lovely, thoughtful boxes full of wonder), and I love you, too!

Back at the Barnyard, and My First Ever Blog Contest (with prizes, even!)

Home again, home again, jigetty, jig.

Whew.

We slept a little later this morning - poor Mum wasn't feeling tops when we first woke up, so it took a bit longer to get started. We skipped breakfast and headed on out, thoroughly pleased with our trip, already planning to come back, and anxious to get home.

Bird is fine - he's taking some sort of medication to combat the stomach bug and he has kept everything he's taken in down - mostly water and popcorn. He was happy enough to see me when I got home, but I wasn't as engaging as the computer NASCAR racing game he was playing...guess I know my place in the order of things! He did give me a very sweet hug and kiss, though...

I have so many more pictures to post, I think I'm going to write the posts and put them in January of 2007 so they don't take up a flat ton of space here. Whenever I get 'round to that, I'll post links, because I know you're just desperate to see forty different perspectives of the same lighthouse. Who wouldn't be?

I came home to a package from a friend* and a kitchen that should really have been firebombed, or at the very least cleaned while wearing a Hazmat suit. I decided that the package could wait until I sorted out the mess. Sinks and counter were full of dishes, food that belonged in the pantry, and trash...and the dishwasher had the dishes in it that I ran through on Wednesday! T told me "I'll do that in a few minutes", but I was too irritated to wait and replied "These have been sitting here since before I left and I can't wait another few minutes, they need to be put away now" and suited action to words. The sinks still have a few glasses and cups in them, but the dishwasher is humming along and the counters are clean-ish. I will get to the floor tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I opened my package** and grinned, then got busy shooting photos of the prizes for my First. Ever. Contest!!!

So - while on St' Simon's, Mum and I came across something, somewhere, and into my mind sprang the thought "Hey, I should do a contest where I post a picture of this something and see if anyone can figure out what it is and have a prize for it, and the prize should be some kind of thing from St. Simon's, but it can't be big or expensive or hard to ship because I'm lazy and broke." Even when I talk to myself I'm long-winded like that. Mum thought it was a fine idea, too, so we hunted high and low for the perfect items to give as prizes, something that reflected St. Simon's Island and my classy blog.

First, the rules. Wait...do I have rules? Let me think. Hmm...OK, I know - the first person to correctly guess what the something is gets their choice of one of the prizes. The second person to correctly guess what the something is gets whatever the first person rejected because it sucked didn't match their delightful personality. In the absence of a correct guess, the two best answers (made me laugh, were far fetched, weird, or creative)(totally subjective, of course) win. If nobody plays, I'll cry. Enter as often as you like, contest ends next Sunday at six-o'clock PM Eastern Standard Time because between now and then I have appointments, housecleaning, more appointments, and a race to be Tower Communicator for, and next Sunday will likely be the first time I can give this contest more thought. Residents of Casa de Crazy may not enter, even though I haven't told them what the something is, because I may talk in my sleep and let the secret slip, and how fair would that be?


OK, on with the show.

What the Hell is That?!?!?!:




The fabulous, unique, extremely valuable (I'm sure there's a tribe somewhere that would trade you an island for one), hard to find, never before seen on this blog prizes:



*there's a blog post in this, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.

**It really was delightful, and you'll just have to wait...

What Say You?

St. Simon's, Day Three

Today was our last full day here - tomorrow we head home where a sick child and a tired T await me.

We slept a little later this morning, not waking until about eight-thirty. It was the bacon again, luring us out of our room on very tired legs. My left knee had a long talk with me this morning about how it felt regarding climbing that light house.

After a quick breakfast and a jaunt to Starbucks for a little extra caffeination, we made our way to the Maritime Museum/Coast Guard station, and East Beach (with a side trip through the Oak Drive on the way). I called T, who told me our son was sick, vomiting blood, and what should he do? Umm...call the pediatrician? He did, and they told him to bring the kid in. T said he would call me, and to go about my day. Right, to the Maritime museum it was!

My family is a somewhat seagoing one - my maternal great-grandfather's boat is still a light ship somewhere, and my maternal grandfather served in the Coast Guard during WWII. My maternal grandfather and my paternal grandfather had boats for pleasure and as a way to be rid of a bunch of pesky money, and my father still has a boat (although she does give him fits from time to time - she hasn't been the same since she got struck by lightning!). I love boats, the ocean, and combining the two whenever I can...which isn't often...so the Maritime Museum was fun. As before, I have many more photos than those here.

The maritime Center/Museum was once a Coast Guard station.
A plaque commemorating an incident off the coast of St. Simon's.

Mum wearing one of the hats provided for dress-up fun, posing with Ollie, the museum's fictional tour guide. Don't they make a cute couple??

After we left the museum, we parked by the beach and had a nice walk along the sand. It was a windy, rough water day, and if I'd had my swim suit on, I would have happily frolicked in the waves.

How come the bubbles in my bath aren't this durable??

We blew bubbles, watched dogs frolic, and enjoyed ourselves. It was like coming home...next to a proper Winter, I miss the sea the most, where I live.

We got ourselves out of the wind and I called T for an update. No answer, so on we went to The Bloody Marsh. Nice name, huh??

Ubiquitous plaque number nine-hundred and twelve.

The stone monument to which the plaque is affixed.

The Bloody Marsh (all cleaned up)

The story of The Bloody Marsh - enlarge and you can read it quite clearly.

Just as we were leaving, T called to tell me Bird has a bug and will be on medication for a few days, nothing to worry about (much). He said I didn't need to hurry home and he'd see me tomorrow.

We followed The Bloody Marsh with our final planned stop, The John Gilbert Nature Trail. It was put together and is kept up by a local club, and it's a nice little trail through the woods to the marsh and back out again.

John's tree - so big, it need two photos and you still can't see it all!

Note the benches - this is meant to be a nice place to simply sit, maybe picnic, be a little Zen.

We weren't alone on the trail - this little fellow posed for a few pictures before deciding not to encourage the paparazzi. He ran off before I could give him my card with the blog address on it - I guess he'll never know he's famous on the Internet.

There were several places to rest along the way, not because it's a long trail, but because sometimes one wants to sit, mull, and stare out at Nature.

The view from the bench.

There were several of these bird houses along the trail.

A groovy tree we saw on the way out.

We left the trail and went back to the pier village, intent on some lunch - all that walking made us hungry!

We lunched at Iguanas, a touristy place with indoor or outdoor dining, a seaside village kind of menu (lots of seafood, award-winning fried shrimp, a few burgers and sandwiches), and lots of character. We chose outside seating so we could enjoy the lovely breeze and some pretty decent people watching while we ate.

The staff at Iguanas was very friendly (greeting and treating us like old friends) and accommodating, even dashing up the street to find us a map of the island that was more detailed than the touristy little thing we'd been using all this time. The atmosphere was casual, the music was Jimmy Buffet, some country, laid back stuff (not too loud, either), and the menu was varied but to the point, if priced a little higher than I would have liked for the kind of fare they served.

Mum had a Corona with lime to drink while I enjoyed a beautifully mixed Arnold Palmer (that's iced tea and lemonade for those not in the know) and a glass of water. We ordered our lunches and they were served quickly, Mum having the crab cake sandwich with onion straws and me having a BLT and fries.

The crab cake sandwich came on a Kaiser type roll with Iguanas home made remoulade on the side, and a sauce for the onion straws that is much like Outback's Bloomin' Onion sauce...only with more horseradish in. Mum reported that the crab cake was lovely, especially when she forwent the bread entirely. The onion straws were delightful. Evil, but delightful. The made me eat them even when I didn't want to.

My BLT was just what I wanted - a basic lunch. The tomato was especially nice, and the bread was toasted beautifully. They did the fries right, too, crispy outside and soft inside. I would have eaten more of them, but the evil onion straws wouldn't let me.

Our lunch, including drinks but before tip, was $25.83. I would definitely go back.

We spent several hours walking about the little shopping village there at the pier, ducking into and out of shops and browsing their wares. We were both a little tired after all our walking yesterday, so this afternoon we just took it easy, meandering where we wanted and enjoying some unstructured time.

I found a cute pair of denim capris on a sale rack...but the sale price was thirty, down from eighty, and I decided that it's not a good idea to purchase things from delusional people - it only encourages them.

We met a cat name Morty who was as sweet as can be - he's adopted part of the village as his home and tolerates human adoration with grace and civility. He let me pet him, scratch his chin, and generally get a good kitty fix (I miss my three when I'm away).

We ended our tour of the district with a stop at the Dairy Queen for dipped cones, some reminiscing about when Mum was a girl and DQ cones were a treat, and then walked back to the van, tired but happy.

Mum got in some quality time with the Internet and then napped while I put my feet up and read a bit.

We dithered over what to have for dinner - while I love seafood to the point of madness, I didn't think I wanted it a third night in a row (yes, I'm well, thank you for asking), so we looked for something else. Outback? Bonefish Grill? Blackwater Grill? What was close?

We settled on Bonefish Grill as it was close by, easy to get to, and looked interesting. The door was certainly cool, being a large, heavy revolving door with giant fish for handles. It was loud inside...loud people, loud music, and a wait. We opted to go next door instead and scored big.

Nazzaro's Italian Restaurant is quiet, unassuming, and dark in a cozy kid of way. It looks small, at first, but we were lead through the front dining room to a side dining room that had more than enough space for us and several other pairs plus one large party that came in later.

The background music was quiet, pleasant, a mix of Rat-Pack era tunes and contemporary music, all in Italian...including one of my favorite Neil Diamond songs (I Am, I Said...)!

Our waiter was friendly, attentive, and not at all disturbed by our very casual attire...although Mum joked about being put in the back room because of how we were dressed, I figured it was because the front was full and they didn't want to seat us on the floor.

The menu was truly Italian, lots of the standard choices and a few chef's specials that sounded fantastic...if only I hadn't noticed they had chicken picatta, one of my favorites. They have a Martini menu as well as a wine list, but I stuck with water tonight - I'm not accustomed to drinking anything but the old H2O, you know? Mum ordered a glass of wine and the veal picatta, I had the chicken, and we both had un-sauced angel hair pasta on the side, and salads.

While our meal was prepared, they brought us a basket of warm bread, some butter, and a fascinating dipping sauce. The dip was a combination of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, black pepper, and Parmesan cheese. It was certainly different, and would make a fine salad dressing, too!

Our salads were salads, nothing terribly special about them, but welcome in their simplicity, freshness, and flavor. Our entrees were nicely done, flavorful, with generous amounts of capers (some places only put one or two - I think Nazzaro's uses the whole jar!) and just enough sauce to twirl the pasta through.

They had cannelloni, tiramisu, and a few other items for desert, but Mum has a mad passion for creme brulee, so she ordered that and espresso while I decided spumoni and coffee was the way to end my meal. Mum's creme brulee had a very satisfying sugar crust on top, crisp and thick, and was creamy and smooth underneath. She ate the whole crust but left much of the custard behind. Heh. I made it though half the spumoni before I had to throw in the towel. Both coffees were strong, flavorful, and well brewed.

We walked out happy, satisfied, and more than willing to add Nazzaro's to our list of places we'd go back to, if not every day. Their pricing was moderate to high, the portions large but not overly so, and the service was superb. Total cost before tip was $71.48, a fair bit to drop on a meal for two when only one had a glass of wine, but not as bad as I've seen in Atlanta and about on par for a tourist area.

Now we are back in our room, packed for tomorrow and settling in for the night. There's thunder rolling about the island outside our window, and the grey skies of our weekend have turned to rain. We're replete, relaxed, refreshed, and ready to go home, but we've also been talking about coming back with T and Bird for a longer stay, maybe next year (sooner if I win the lottery).

Some numbers: Hours spent traipsing about, shopping, admiring fabulous boots and vintage clothing, snorting at tchotchkes and touristy crap, and generally enjoying St. Simon's - 9. Steps taken - 3946. Miles walked - 1.74. Calories burned - 246. Calories consumed - three-million, two-hundred-thousand, nine-hundred-seventy-six. Bottles of water drunk - four. Number of times I thought something was radically overpriced - I lost count. Contests I thought up for my blog* - one. Prizes bought for contests I thought up for my blog - two. Radically overpriced items I bought as prizes for a contest for my blog - none. Bubbles blown on the beach - I couldn't count, they were flying away too fast. Perhaps the good people of Timbuktu could tell us, as I'm certain that's where the bubbles landed.

Finally, I wish to point something out, because I think it needs to be said - I could never have made this trip the way I did without Mum...it would have been camping in the van and bologna sandwiches for three days instead of a lovely room with two sinks, a nice shower, air-conditioning and all these fancy eats. Thanks, Mum!!

Also, T did yeoman's duty last night and today, cleaning up the various liquids that leak or are hurled with great force from a six-year-old boy with a stomach bug. He has done laundry, comforted, driven to the pediatricians alone (something he's never done before), medicated, fretted, and refrained from calling me home in a panic when I know he wanted to, all while feeling a little under the weather himself. Thanks, T.

Right, time for bed. Sweet dreams, y'all

*Tomorrow night, I will be posting my first-ever contest, and there are prizes and everything!

What Say You?

St. Simon's, Day Two, Part Three

We left the van parked at the pier and walked to the lighthouse and the keepers house. We had to pay a fee to get inside, but it was worth it, and will get us into The Maritime Museum tomorrow, too. Again, lots of photos, only a few here, blah, blah, blah...

The Keeper's house, and what he Kept.

The lighthouse is made of brick and has iron steps that spiral all the way up...and down again.

The narrow iron balcony. Despite being afraid of heights, I ventured out onto the balcony. The narrow, iron balcony. That's bolted to the bricks. Near the sea with its salty air. Salt corrodes iron...did you know that? I knew that. La, la, la, la, la... We were so high up, we were level with an aeroplane! That speck is the plane...

From the bottom, looking up - I climbed that??

Feet firmly back on the ground, we collected the van and drove 'round to Gascoigne Bluff. We were going to visit the maritime Museum, but it was close to closing time and we wanted to take our time.

Gascoigne bluff has a feature we were anxious to see - tabby slave houses leftover from the plantation era. These houses represent a time long gone, but never to be forgotten.

The ubiquitous iron plaque.

How many people lived in this tiny cabin? It's about the same size as my two-car (or one van and lots of junk) garage.

The circle and rectangle in the walls give one a look at the tabby material - otherwise, these cabins are plastered and whitewashed, giving them a smooth, clean look.

The local garden club holds sway, here, and it's lovely...at odds with the history, no?

A skinny doorway and tabby detail.

An African Daisy, not to be confused with a frikkin' daisy...

We were worn out after this stop, so it was back to our room for a rest, some reviving tea and cookies, and planning dinner. We quizzed the nice young man at the front desk, who helped us narrow down our choices to one - Catch 228. I have no idea why it's called that.

Catch 228 is much like a strip-mall hole-in-the-wall joint in one of the shopping villages near our Motel. Their primary style is seafood everything, but they do have burgers and chicken on offer. One may dine inside or out, and it's definitely casual. We chose indoors, but would have been better off outside - the interior is all hard surfaces, so voices carried and it was loud!

After ordering drinks (wine for Mum, nice, and rum and coke for me, just fine, and water for both, which was...wet), we gave the menu a good going over. It isn't a huge menu, but that's OK - it had a variety of fish and shellfish prepared a variety of ways, and that's what we wanted. After debating one thing and another, we ended up ordering an odd combination of three things - boiled shrimp (peel 'n' eat), low country boil, and crab legs, all to share. Mum was hungry.

While we waited for drinks (they took a while and our waiter ended up comping them because the bartender didn't poor them for quite a while) and our meal, we drew on the brown paper table cover. The paper is there to make clean-up a cinch, but they give patrons crayons for fun, and we love to doodle!

After about fifteen minutes, it got loud in there. I must admit to being particularly irritated with one family that had several children with them, two of whom were running about the place unsupervised. The little girl nearly tripped a waitress, and she and the boy were pounding on the fish tank and shrieking at high-pitched top volume for quite a while. I don't tolerate that kind of behavior well - rest assured, the Evil Genius does not get away with it ( I have removed him from a restaurant before and would do it again).

Our meal arrived in short order, and what a feast! The portions were generous and cooked beauifully, although Mum thought the crab was a wee over cooked and not salty enough. Their cocktail sauce had a wonderful kick to it, and I used plenty on the shrimp (I mostly ate that, partly because I wanted to and partly because I was afraid Mum would go after one of my fingers like a crab leg if I reached into the basket for one).

Replete with our dinner, we enquired about desert.

Guess what?

Catch 228 doesn't serve desert. It's a seafood place, and there aren't any key-lime-pie fish swimmin' around out there!

We didn't really need desert, per se, and could have driven to the local Dairy Queen, but we decided that enough was enough and trundled back to our room.

Total cost for a complete pig-out seafood feast? $41.70 before tip and with drinks comped.

A few totals: Hours of sleep last night - 7, excluding the few hours we spent drifting in a bacony haze this morning before we got up. Total hours spent walking around, over, up, down, and through - 6.5. Total steps taken - 6,282 plus or minus a few. Miles walked - 2.77, give or take a bit. Calories burned while walking about - 392, more or less. Times I squatted, hunkered, lay down, bent over, bent backwards, reached, stretched, and contorted to get a good shot - countless. Number of photographs taken on my camera - 508. Number on Mum's camera (including the awful one of me that she has sworn she'll delete before anyone but us has seen it) - 102. Twizzlers eaten to help boost flagging blood sugar - 12 at various times. Litres of water drunk - 3 (nowhere near enough). Number of public restrooms visited - two.

Now I'm off to bed (Mum's been asleep for hours) - tomorrow, we have a lot more walking to do, more photos to take and not post, and more restaurants to visit. Cheers!

St. Simon's, Day Two, Part Two

After we left the fort, we went to Christ Church, the first church on the island. It has a lovely garden cemetery, a mixture of old and new grave sites, flowering bushes, mossy trees, and all sorts of tomb architecture.

The church itself is sweet - we didn't get to go inside, as it's only open in the afternoon, but there was plenty outside to enjoy. I thought it would make a fine place for an Easter-egg hunt.

We had a nice walk, shot more pics (only one-hundred or so, this time), and then decided we needed lunch. As with the fort, I'm only putting a few of the church pics here...the rest will get an entry when I'm home and not worn slap out!

An angel in the garden.

This seal/symbol was placed on the center wall of the...er...columbarium? The place where cremains are placed in a wall with a plaque.

Flowers In Her Hair
(Wisteria was everywhere, and this shot reminded me of a fine old woman with flowers in her hair, dancing on the sand, graceful, beautiful...)

One of many, many photos I took of the church exterior. I adore the roof shingles!

Of course, on the way to lunch, we were distracted by a yarn shop and had to go in...and on the way out? We say the most amazing tree carving - apparently on several trees on the island, someone has carved faces where branches have fallen off/been removed, and we just happened to see one!

We stopped for lunch at The 4'th of May cafe, a place right in (well...near, anyway) the touristy part of town, close to the pier (our next destination). It's named for the women who founded it who all had the same birthday - the fourth of May! On the way in, we noticed they had an "Economic Relief Menu" posted - daily specials that came with a choice of one side, bread, and drink for under $7.00. Today's special was crab cake, but we didn't order it - we wanted sammidges!

Mum ordered the Cuban and I had the Reuben, and we shared an order of fries. Both sandwiches were excellent - the pork on the Cuban was cut thick and was quite tender and juice, and my Reuben was as thick as my thumb is long and served on their own seedless rye bread. The fries were OK, just fries. We both drank iced tea, Mum's sweet and mine half sweet, half unsweet, and it was well made and refreshing. We could have shared one sandwich between us, they were so large, and we left plenty on our plates, in part because it was a lot of food, and in part because we wanted desert - French Silk Pie, to be precise. We did share that!


The 4'th of may is a nice little cafe with prompt, friendly service. Their lunch menu is on the smallish side, offering a variety of sandwiches, a few soups (including home-made she-crab) and some specials, and a few dishes using locally caught seafood. They also serve breakfast, the standard eggs, pancakes, French toast that sounds yummy (Butter pecan? Peanut butter and apple? Save me!), pancakes and so on, and a few special items (Like huevos rancheros, one of my favorites!). Moderately priced, we both lunched for $26.59 before tip. We would definitely go back!

We headed to the pier after lunch, where we shot a few more photos and walked off lunch.

The pier and a fabulous twisty tree that I wanted to bring home with me and love it and pet it and admire it and pay it homage...

Mmm...gnarly tree...

Can you see the butterfly? The dancing lady?

Oh, my...

...goodness...

...gracious!

Continued...(coming up, the lighthouse, Gascoigne Bluff, and dinner)...

St. Simon's, Day Two, Part One

Our day began at about six-o'clock, when we smelled bacon. We promptly rolled over and went back to sleep...or at least, Mum did. I lay in bed with my eyes closed telling myself I should sleep in, and no, I wasn't going to get up and blog hope while Mum slept because I'm not that much of a junkie. Hah!

We got up around nine and moseyed to the lobby where breakfast was winding down...but there was still plenty of it. Can't accuse the Holiday Inn Express of stinting the eats! We shared a bagel and had tiny, cute, perfect little omelets, paper-thin bacon that was so crisp, the edges so sharp you could shave with it, and I had a cinnamon roll because I could. Not bad for motel food, huh? The lady who made sure everything was fresh, bountiful, and palatable was friendly and quick to refill the OJ dispenser when we pointed out it was empty.

After breakfast, we headed to the North end of the island and Fort Frederica, our first stop of the day. There's not a lot of "there" there, but it's truly lovely - there was a quality to the silence that was almost Zenlike, a peace at odds with the purpose of the place, a military installation. There were a few ruins, some signs pointing out roads, alleyways, and building sites, and incredible trees covered in moss. The grounds were clean, despite tourists, and Seville orange trees were dotted about, providing a pleasant perfume to the morning. There were several places where I felt all goose-pimply, like I'd walked through a shadow, perhaps a place where someone lingered or past and present overlapped.

There is continued archaeological activity at the fort, some of which involves local school children - how cool is that??

I shot over 200 photos! Don't worry, I haven't posted them all here...

An artist's rendering of what the fort may have looked like.

The plaque explaining the fort's history - enlarge and you can read it!

The fort as it is today...not much left of all those lives, struggles, tragedies and triumphs...an object lesson in the impermanence of things.

All that's left of a two-storey house, and an example of the huts that many people lived in while in the fort.

The candle-maker's house - or what's left of it.

The last bit of The King's Magazine...

...which isn't much compared to what it was.

The obligatory cannon (cemented closed to prevent shenanigans). There were three of them, and I have photos of them all, but not enough blog space to post them.

The remains of the barracks.

The burial ground.

Nobody home...

When I get home, I'll post something more thorough (maybe somewhere else and link it here to save space and boredom for anyone not interested...I know not everyone's as keen on ruins and history as I am...)

To be continued...(next - Christ Church and lunch!)...