A Trip to Jekyll Island - 2nd Full Day...

This day was a bit overcast at times. But not rainy. We opted to begin our day at The Pantry. It is in the Jekyll Island Club and was an easy walk under porches and across walkways. We found The Pantry and entered to pick out something for our breakfast. I was immediately taken with a chocolate turtle on display. I did not purchase it because I really needed something a bit more breakfasty. But it was really cute.

We ended up with me having a Cheese Danish and Claude a Lemon Tart and each of us getting a bottle of water. We sat on the porch of The Pantry and enjoyed fresh air. Then we were off for our sightseeing of the day. 

Our first stop was The Wharf. The Wharf was the gateway to Jekyll Island. From 1886 to 1942, the only way a person was allowed on Jekyll Island was by The Wharf. Access was only granted to members, guests of members and employees of the Jekyll Island Club. Originally The Wharf was located in front of Sans Souci. After years of wear and storm damage, the new Wharf was built in 1916 in time for the opening of the winter season. The members might arrive by a ferry from Brunswick or in their own personal yachts. But they had to go through The Wharf. Today there is a restaurant on The Wharf, you may charter porpoise watching cruises and the horse drawn carriages depart from here in the evenings.

As we walked back to our car, I zoomed in with my camera for these pictures. They are the Annex building to the Clubhouse. This is where our room was on the first floor the right end of the building.  

Our second tourist sightseeing would be Horton House. William Horton, Undersheriff of Herefordshire, England, came to Georgia in 1736. He built this home as his plantation residence and lived here until his death in 1749. Major Horton succeeded Oglethorpe as Commander of the Regiment of British troops stationed here. William Horton paid his own passage to Georgia and was given 500 acres in return for paying that passage. Horton left a wife and two young sons in England. After about 5 years when he was settled and established, he returned to England for his family. He was the first European to settle this land and had the first sustainable farm.

The Horton House is a Tabby House. Tabby was the material used to build walls, floors and roofs during the military and plantation eras. Tabby is composed of equal parts of sand, lime, water, and oyster shells. This is mixed with a mortor and poured into forms. The lime was made by burning shells from the Indian Shell Mounds which were the trash piles from oysters the Indians ate. The word 'tabby' is of African origin with an Arabic background. It means 'a wall made of earth or masonry'. This method of building was brought to America by the Spanish. Tabby construction was used in coastal Georgia into the 1890's. 

This is a map of the area around Horton House. We did not walk all of this. We didn't walk down to the Warehouse Ruins. However, we did take a mile long hike back to the Horton Pond. This was from the Horton House to the right for a mile in and a mile back.

Here is our hike back to Horton Pond. It was an envigorating walk as we were being a feast for the mosquitos. Our legs were covered in bites when we returned to the car. In the center of Horton Pond was a huge rock and sunning itself on the rock was a healthy alligator. We also saw lovely resurrection ferns on the trees.

Once back to our car we got in and slathered our legs with hand sanitizer. The hope was the alcohol would clean our bite spots and deaden the itching. I also had some cortizone cream but that was back in the room. 

Then we walked across the highway to the du Bignon Cemetery. 

Who is Dubignon you might ask? Well, here is the family tree beginning with the first Dubignon to come to Jekyll Island. Christophe Poulain du Bignon was a native of Lamballe, Brittany. He was a much decorated French naval captain. However, his loyalty to Louis 16th in the French Revolution forced him to flee his country. In 1792, on his ship 'Sapelo', he brought his family to Georgia. With four other Frenchmen, he purchased Sapelo Island and then Jekyll Island. By 1794 he acquired Jekyll Island as his own plantation. His residence would be the Horton House which he would enlarge. Sea Island Cotton was the crop grown and he did very well at it increasing his fortune. In 1825 Poulain died and was buried near du Bignon Creek with a live Oak to mark his grave. His son, Henri, continued the du Bignon legacy making the Goddess of Liberty the queen of the racing boats along the coast. Henri's grandson, John Eugene du Bignon, sold the island to a group of millionaire capitalist. The millionaires formed the Jekyll Island Club and start the Club Years period of Jekyll Island's vibrant history.

Claude and I spent a bit of time here enjoying the scenery and taking pictures. The cemetery is on the Jekyll Creek side of the island. Lots of marshy lands with birds a plenty. In the distance you can see the fishing ships. Simply Lovely!!

Now we were off in search of Driftwood Beach. The way to get there is to go to the Fishing Pier. We drove to the parking lot and walked out on the Fishing Pier. 

From the Fishing Pier we watched several kinds of ships. The huge Grimaldi freighters and the shrimp boats going out for another catch to be on someone's table that night. We also saw this big red object and couldn't tell what it was. I asked Claude what he thought it was and he said it looked like a huge ship on its side. I could see that after he said it. Fortunately for us, there was a lady and her husband on the Fishing Pier looking at the same thing. They actually came from the island where the red object was. She and her hubby were there to get a different perspective on this ship. She confirmed it was a huge freighter that was full of new cars. It hit a sand bar and capsized. A few of the workers on the ship were trapped for a period of time but they did get everyone out safely...eventually. They were now having to cut this capsized ship into pieces to move it out of the way. Now that is really something you don't see everyday! My personal favorite was the shrimping boat that came by just before we left the Fishing Pier. Flying all around this boat were lots and lot of birds knowing they would get something to eat if they stayed with that boat. So funny!

While on the Fishing Pier, we were able to get our bearings on where to find Driftwood Beach. There was another little foot bridge to walk across and there was Driftwood Beach. These are views of the bridge to Driftwood Beach and the beach itself from the Fishing Pier.

Here's where I was a little disappointed. When I studied Jekyll Island on the Internet in preparation for this trip, I was quite smitten with Driftwood Beach. I could see myself walking on this beach each day taking lots of neat pictures. The pictures on the internet showed lots of amazing pieces of driftwood. Not so when we actually got to the beach. It was lovely nonetheless. If you look closely, you will see a dragonfly in the grass picture.

The claim to fame of Driftwood Beach is a part of X-Men: First Class and some of Walking Dead were filmed on this beach.

Now on to find Glory Beach. It was labeled on our map as being by South Dunes Picnic Area. We found signs for that and parked the car in this picnic area. Then we walked until we found an entry to get to the beach. There was a sign indicating, if you climbed these stairs, you would find a lookout area. Thinking this would give a good feel for the lay of the land and possibly some great pictures, we climbed all those stairs. Claude indicates the lovely view was a little befuddling!

Back down the stairs we went and along a path in the picnic area. 

The last picture of the series of walking to Glory Beach is a little disceiving. I am always slower getting to where we are going because I keep looking for things to take pictures of and then pausing to take those pictures. It is not at all unusual for Claude to go ahead of me. This happened on this walk. When I got to this walk from the dune, the stairs were covered in sand. I was careful to hold the rail and get to the bottom of the stairs even with the sand. What isn't obvious in the picture is that, where the black sign is, there is a a drop off. The only option is to run down it in all the sand built up there. I looked over the edge of this and there was my hubby on the ground. He ran and slipped and fell as he tried to get his balance. He was okay but I was now concerned. Since falling in August 2019 and loosing my front 3 teeth, I have a phobia about falling. I was looking at my hubby trying to get up off the ground, a ledge of very loose sand and the only way down is to jump or run down. I opted to run down and made it fine. Ugh!! When we finished walking on the beach, we found another way back over the dunes with its own set of interesting adventures.

Here are pictures of Glory Beach. Why is it called Glory Beach? The movie Glory had scenes filmed on this beach. 

We took the next wooden staircase down Glory Beach. When we came down the other side of the dune, we were in the back of the Hampton Inn. Hmmm... We knew we needed to go to the left to get back to the South Dunes Picnic Area. The swimming pool area was in front of us and the only way out of that was through the Hampton Inn. I happened to see a parking area to the left past the row of patios for the rooms on that side of the hotel. We walked on their grass to this parking lot. My hope was this parking lot at least went around to Beachview Drive. We walked through this parking lot and, wonder of wonders, there was a path made by the guests at the Hampton Inn through the trees and into the parking lot of South Dunes Picnic Area. Yippee!! We would have to walk all the way across and through the picnic area but we were in a more public space and that felt better to us. We found my car and were very happy.

Back to the historic district. The day before, our trolley tour tickets included entering the Faith Chapel. We drove past it and were told our ticket would be accepted the next day as it was closing time for Faith Chapel. So this day we wanted to see the inside of Faith Chapel. Faith Chapel was non-denominational and was constructed in 1904

There are two key features in Faith Chapel. They are stained glass windows. The window by the front door of the was made by Tiffany. Tiffany actually autographed it. The other stained glass window is on the back side of the chapel and is the Armstrong window. This had the face of Mary as a reverse image in one of the wise men. They are both beautiful.

Now we went back to our room to take a few final pictures of that most enjoyed balcony.

Final pictures of the moss laden trees outside our room with resurrection ferns on them.

I have mentioned the care that is taken to remember the history of Jekyll Island. We learned that the red bricks in the parking lots and other places are actually the outline of buildings that once stood in the spot where they are located. I found this extremely respectful of history.

We rested for a bit. Then we drove to the pizza place we had located and ordered pizza. We took the pizza and stopped at the gas station (there is one on the island) and bought sodas for each of us. Then to our balcony for dinner and time to enjoy the evening as it closed one last time.

One other item we learned this day is that Jekyll Island was originally spelled with 2 l's. Somewhere along the line someone started spelling it with only 1 l. Research was done and they confirmed it should be spelled with two l's. And that is that interesting story. Jekyll Island it is!