100 days on the road!!! Here we come Jekyll Island

Ironically, while going over the calendar for school today, we realized that we had been on the road exactly 100 days!  Well, this is a cause for celebration.  Luckily, we are in an amazing place to venture out for the day.  School, well school became a trip to Jekyll Island to visit the sea turtle sanctuary about 15 miles from our camp site.  Matt, who has been working a lot lately, even took the day to celebrate and enjoy with us.  I checked Groupon on our way to the Island and guess what?!  A groupon popped up for the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.  It was our lucky day.

Follow the turtle signs!


 What an cool place this was!  A true sanctuary and hospital for the sea turtles that often end up on the beaches of Georgia.  We were able to see the staff treat the turtles and we learned all about the special turtle patients in their care. 

Each vat of water had recovering turtles.  Some were underweight and hand fed.  One was missing his fin.  Each had it's name and stats in a book. 

Baby hatchlings.  Some that don't make it out of the nest, so they are rescued and released later

I loved this t-shirt in the shop.  I'm much to cheap to actually buy all the t-shirts I love.

 We can't keep the kids out of the trees here.  Fantastic climbing trees.

 

Biking the island is a MUST with trails all over.

Matt discovered that the island had clay tennis courts and wanted to check them out.  A friendly guy in the office offered to stay and play with him.  The kids and I got to hit some balls on the next court.  A definite highlight of our trip for my husband.

 

Trying to get clever with my photography skills of this amazing scenery

 The cool history of Jekyll is that the millionaires of the 1900's such as Rockefellers and Crane (the toilet guy) wanted a place to call their own.  They gathered on the island and built homes and this clubhouse below.  It has fantastic southern charm with screened in rooms, and a crochet field in front.  Eventually, it was opened up to the public and now, it's all a state park with bike pathways to tour the homes, and stay at the hotel.  One side of the island is a marina of shrimp boats and the other is the beach.  I would consider it "the most amazing place EVER", IF the beaches were better.  They aren't bad, but the water is muddy and the waves are small.  Other than that, the island has most items on my own special checklist of "places to thrive". 

 We couldn't end our day without a fun celebratory dinner.  Our kids choose Golden Corral every time.