Smoky Mtns Trip Day 6 - Savannah & Jekyll Island

We woke up to cloudy skies the next morning - luckily no rain at least! We had a day of driving ahead of us.

Our initial trip plan had us going from Charleston to Savannah over to Perry, GA. That would line us up for our visit to Andersonville on Day 7. When Matt mentioned our itinerary to his boss, she told him that we needed to check out Jekyll Island. We looked online at what Jekyll Island had to offer (I'll share more later) and decided we needed to try to make it happen. With this decision made, we revamped the end of our trip, adding an extra day for Jekyll, adding more drive time on our first day (Home to Knoxville, TN) and subsequently taking something from one day and adding it to the previous day. It got pretty crazy for a few days as I cancelled hotels and found new ones, double checking that we hadn't doubled up for any of the nights!

We left Charleston and headed to Hilton Head. We wanted to drive around the island and see all of the golf courses! As we drove along the South Carolina & Georgia coast, we loved the marsh wetlands that we kept seeing. When I think of South Carolina, this is what I see in my mind...

We headed on to Hilton Head Island and drove around a bit. We stopped for a letterbox - Matt & Kaitee went on the hunt while the rest of us stayed secure in the van (away from mosquitoes and alligators!) Matt was happy to report that no alligators were spotted...but the mosquitoes were happy to see them.

 We wanted to drive to Harbour Town to see the lighthouse while on Hilton Head. When we got to The Sea Pines Resort, traffic was backed up with not much movement. With that happening as well as the weather looking pretty dreary still, we decided to turn around and leave the island. We were getting tight on time as well - needing to arrive in Jekyll between 3-4.

We arrived in Savannah and really didn't have any agenda once we got there. I had looked up an image search of the city and saw a neat park - Forsyth Park. We found a parking spot and set out on foot to see the fountain and statues. Another beautiful city - a lot of character, much like Charleston. Stately houses, old trees with tons of Spanish Moss growing on them. Savannah was everything we envisioned it to be!

Check out the steps on this house...as well as the chandelier above the front door!

I loved the lights on the front porch of this house.

We left Savannah and drove the final 90 minutes to Jekyll Island.

This is the stop that we hadn't planned on - the one recommended by Matt's boss. We are so glad that we made the adjustments to fit this into our trip! We had a few things on our itinerary for our visit to Jekyll - tour the Sea Turtle Center, explore Driftwood Beach & find some nesting turtles on a night walk. The best part of all of this - we were going to get to do all of this with our dear friend and fellow Letterboxer, Mandy Bryan! As soon as we figured out our schedule for Georgia, we contacted Mandy to see if we could meet up. We've never met in person, but thanks to social media, we've gotten to know each other over the past 9 years (I looked Mandy! It was Feb 2010). Mandy mentioned kindred souls and I would agree with that! She was excited when I mentioned Jekyll and we decided to meet there for the afternoon/evening.

We arrived on the island close to 3:00 and toured the Turtle Center. This center is a rehab hospital and education center. We enjoyed seeing all of the different turtles and even watched a feeding session.

 As we finished up our tour and got the text from Mandy that they were on the island. We finally got to meet her and two of her boys!

We left the Turtle Center and drove to Driftwood Beach. This beach is amazing! We could've stayed there for hours - climbing, exploring, running and playing in the sand. As it was, we stayed there for a few hours and took lots of pictures! The kids had fun hunting down crabs and digging holes in the sand to stand in.

The Hart kids with Eli & Titus Bryan

Mandy & Becki - finally meeting in person!

We left Driftwood Beach and headed to dinner - a small pizza joint on the island. We enjoyed our time together, sitting outside on the patio and sharing stories. We got done eating (after watching a magnificent sunset) and headed back to the Turtle Center to go on the night walk in search of nesting turtles.

Unfortunately, our night walk was a bust - no turtles nesting or hatching (that we came across at least). It was a beautiful night though with a million stars in the sky! It was a memory none of us will soon forget - being on the beach after dark. No lights, only the sound of the lapping waves and the beauty of the heavens shining down on us through the stars. We were all bummed that we didn't see any turtles. That would've been awesome!

Back at the pavilion, we gave hugs and said our goodbyes (until next time). We thoroughly enjoyed our time with the Bryan family and pray that our paths will continue to criss-cross over the years!