DAY 101 : October 16/22 Sunday. Jekyll Island, Georgia. Day 2 (turtles and driftwood)

Lovely morning again at Jekyll Island State Park! Slept in until 8:30 & 9am! Strange to walk up with the awning out. It didn't get windy last night, so all was good. We just haven't used it as much as we thought we would. 

Ollie wanted to go the store while it was open, so I walked him down there to peek around (they had some good sticker choices) and then he walked me to the shower block and to sus out the laundry situation. I showered and he walked back to the site. 

When I got back, Oliver made scrambled eggs for everyone - delicious! and I went over and put two loads of laundry in the machines ($2.50 each) to get a start on things. Amelia made bracelets with her embroidery floss, and Jonathan and formulated a plan for the day. 

 

After breakfast, we walked down to the other end of the campsite to check out what was signed on the map as a Bird Sanctuary. Turns out it was a little area sectioned off with many bird feeders in it. Not what we were expecting, but very lovely nonetheless! We sat and watched loads of little birds come to the feeder... cardinals, and even a tufted titmouse (we've never seen one before!). Very cute. Also on the walk there, we saw the camphost's set up with tons of spooky halloween stuff - very fun.

On the way back I stopped at the laundry room and put our stuff in the dryer, and Jonathan worked on math schoolwork with the kiddos. Wrote some postcards and had lunch. 

Biked the 6.8km ride along beautiful bike paths back down the island to the Georgia Sea Turtle Centre. Passed the ruins of some of the old houses and mansions - past the Horton House ruins. Lots of old "tabby" walls... made from crushed oyster shells, sand and mud. Super cool ride. Felt very special and surreal winding along under the live oaks. The path was paved and flat and shaded by trees, which made the long ride for the kiddos totally doable in the hot sun. 

The Sea Turtle Centre was really neat and we were in time for a presentation in the hospital section that housed several large pools where the patients were kept. We spent from 2:30-4:30pm at the turtle rehab centre learning about the turtles and doing some of the activities inside the centre. 

We biked back along the awesome path another 6.8km to home, passing by casas and beautiful scenery. Really loved this ride. I could picture coming back here someday and hanging out, biking, swimming, eating at nice restaurants.... hmmmmmm.

 

 As soon as we got back we put our swim suits on and a beach bag with some towels and hopped back on the bikes to ride back up the other side of the island a short distance to Driftwood Beach. This beach was super cool... it's an old forest that got taken over by water during a storm and all the trees died and are strewn along the section of beach. Despite no one else being in the water, we deemed it warm enough for us Canadians and we were in it right away splashing and swimming and having a blast. Super fun swim beach because it was sandy and not too deep. Loved it. 

We explored the beach after our swim, took some fun photos of the kids. Meems rode daddy's bike back to the RV (on the pannier rack). Went for showers - (meems and I put more laundry in) Amelia and I saw a huge spider in one of the shower stalls. It was about 3" across at least with legs, and was surrounded by her many little itty bitty babies. We chose the stall next to it and heard another mum and daughter come into the shower section and say, "Whoa that's a big spider!" just like we did. Meems rated the showers a 2.5/5... they were okay, but kinda small and definitely could use some updating.

Back at the rv the kids prepped Ollie's famous guacamole and Amelia's famous fresh salsa for our fish taco dinner. I went and put the laundry in the dryer just before dinner so I could have it done and folded before bedtime. Had a nice walk/chat with my bestie while the clothes dried. Cell reception wasn't great, but it was nice to hear her voice. 

Ollie walked back to the laundry/shower house so I could show him the big spider, but sadly the mama spider was tucked up dead in the corner of the shower area. Couldn't tell if someone killed her on purpose or if she just up and died as she wasn't squished or anything, but did seem like she'd gotten wet. Very sad! her little babies were all around the floor near her. I was totally bummed to see it and more sad that Ollie had to see it, as we were both excited about seeing such a big spider.  :(

For the rest of the evening, we tucked in to watch the rest of The Goblet of Fire on the laptop, and then Jonathan read more of the Anne of Green Gables as I was too tired at that point and had tucked into bed right away.