June 12, 2021
My morning walk took me around the neighborhood. This Elks club is in a residential area with streets named as if we were back home. Pasadena, Burbank, La Brea, Ventura… I could go on. The homes are modest but so many of them have the beautiful live oak trees adorning them.
Today, we decided to go to Tybee Island. It is one of a gazillion barrier islands of
the Atlantic coast. Over the years, I
have heard what a getaway it is for rich and famous. Not that I care about them, but I wanted to
see for myself what makes it so popular.
It is about a 20 mile drive past towns, then past tidal marshes and
creeks. These marshes are ginormous with
homes here and there with their own docks with boats elevated to accommodate
tide swings. Onto the island we see
beach scenery. Small hotels, kayak
rentals, restaurants, homes and apartments.
On most of the side streets, there are walkways to the beaches. The entire island is one big parking
meter. We ended up at the pier and
pavilion area. It was early and we were
able to find a parking space (that we probably could have sold by the time we
left!).
Shops with tourist stuff… cheap tourist stuff – line the street. We walked on the beach (I had to get my feet wet – temperature in the low 70’s I’d say). Lounge chairs and umbrellas are for rent. People are doing the normal beach things, such as boogey boarding, swimming, and causing skin cancer. It is only 10 am and there was a whole lot of sunburning going on.
On the pier, as we listened to Ray Charles’ version of Georgia, we walked to the end and talked to the fishermen. There is a sign not to catch sharks as we watched somebody reel in a small shark and throw it back. These people seemed religious in their fishing, some with some pretty elaborate setups. Upon entry to the pier is a post with measurements of the tidal surge during various categories of hurricanes. Let’s just say if there is a category 4 or 5, the building across the street will get flooded!
We decided to give up our fabulous parking space and head to the lighthouse. It was originally built in the 1700’s, then partially destroyed and rebuilt in the 1860’s. Oh those wars are so into that. Only 178 steps to the top… Spouse was grumbling… he tried to shame me out of doing it. I said he didn’t have to go but he would not have it that I went and he didn’t so up he went. This lighthouse was in use during the revolutionary war, civil war, war of 1812 and other skirmishes. It offers great views of the Savannah river and neighboring islands.
Wanting lunch, we did not want to head back to the tourist
area, so we pointed to home. I had seen
a tiny marina and restaurant where you cross over the bridge tucked away so we
headed there. Bubba Gumbos was just
opening. It is a funky seafood shack
with more charm than any of those touristy places on the island. There is some tourist stuff going on here,
but I think this is more of a local place.
There are kayaks, and you could catch a boat tour to wherever, but there
are no frills, dirt lot parking and not a lot of it and it pegs the
funk-o-meter in a good way.
I am glad we checked out Tybee. I am sure there are places on the island that
are not overpopulated, you just have to know where they are, probably off all
those side streets. But we are not much
into sunbathing anymore. But we do like
our food and Bubba Gumbos definitely rang our chimes!
After stopping to fill our propane tank and get Rudy more food (we wouldn’t want him to claw our throats while we slept), we headed back to Hannah as the rain began. And it rained. There was lightening, and thunder and rain. And there was rain. We were cozy and dry.
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