St. Simon's and Jekyll Island

I'm 40. It was a bigger deal than I thought it was going to be. Birthdays have never really been a big deal to me, I have always actually looked forward to growing a year older. Having said that, the day before I turned 40, I felt the same way...until the next day. I'm over it now, but it was a bit of an odd day coming to that conclusion. Thankfully, the feeling has diminished and now I feel like 40 is a rite of passage. Bring it on! We celebrated my birthday with dinner and cheesecake :-) The boys had a fantastic time playing cornhole and running around the amphitheater while Ben and I sat at a patio table and hung out. The following weekend, Mimi was an angel and came into town to watch Ethan and Caden while Ben and I drove her convertible down to St. Simon's Island. It was an AMAZING long weekend away! We stopped in Savannah for dinner on Friday night, drove down River Street, then parked and walked down the historic stairs and along the water. Fiddler's Crab House was a great place to hang out on their upstairs patio and watch the action along the river.

Then we drove on to St. Simon's and checked in at the hotel. The next morning, we headed over to the lighthouse. The history museum and lighthouse were so interesting and walking the 129 steps to the top was so enjoyable!

The view of the ocean from the top of the lighthouse

After walking around the village in St. Simon's, we spent the rest of the day at Jekyll exploring the historic downtown of the Jekyll Island Club and the previous homes of the Rockefeller's, Macy's, and Morgan's, then we returned to the hotel to dress for dinner at Southern Tide, one of the restaurants at the Sea Island Beach Club. After dinner, we walked along the beach beyond the Beach Club and picked up shells to take back home to the boys. While we were walking we found...

a Loggerhead turtle's nest.

The next morning we returned to Jekyll and checked out the beach. Jekyll Island is in between St. Simon's Island (seen in the background) and...

Cumberland Island on it's opposite side.

Then we drove over to Driftwood Beach. What a cool area!

Then we rented bikes and rode along the awesome bike trails that extend around the perimeter of the entire island! It was one of the highlights of the trip for me!

Along the way, I stopped to take a picture of the suspension bridge that takes you from the mainland into Jekyll.

After returning our bikes we stopped for ice cream and visited a couple of the shops in Jekyll's Beach Village one last time. Then we went back to the hotel to dress for dinner at Mullet Bay, a restaurant that Ben had been to years before. After checking out of the hotel the next morning and stopping be the Village one last time, we drove back through Savannah to walk through a Confederate cemetery to look for one of Ben's ancestors. What a great part of history that we got to experience over the course of the weekend! It was a fantastic little getaway!