Highlights of the past week:

Cumberland Island, GA

This island is a National Seashore, part of the NPS. It has been inhabited for hundreds of years from Native Timucuans to Spanish soldiers and missionaries, the British, enslaved African-Americans and finally the Carnegies. We stopped first at a place called Plum Orchard, a Georgian Revival mansion built by Lucy Carnegie for her son's wedding present in 1898.

Unfortunately the house was not open for tours but we did peak through the windows to see an entry hall with a gorgeous wood stairway and a couple rooms with very neat looking wallpaper. We asked some maintenance men working on the grounds about the house and they said that someone had actually hand painted over some of the original wallpaper pattern. The most surprising room we could see though was the swimming pool!

From here we went about  7 miles down river to Sea Camp on the southern part of the island where there is a Ranger Station. Near here was the first Carnegie house, Dungeness, which was built in 1884 by Thomas Carnegie and burned in 1959, so only ruins remain today. There is also a very nice museum in the old ice house that includes the entire history of the island. On the northern end of the island which we could not visit is the tiny First African Baptist Church established in 1883 (and rebuilt in 1930) for free African American workers who lived in The Settlement. Interestingly, John Kennedy, Jr. and Caroline Bessette were married in this church. 

About a half mile from Sea Camp, through a tunnel of live oak and Spanish moss and past campsites, is the Atlantic. We finally got to get our feet in the sand and bodies in the ocean. It was a really hot afternoon and the water actually felt a bit too warm, but the waves were good and the wind hitting us getting out was very refreshing! 

Wildlife and the ICW

Many dolphin, some right next to the boat, several flipping their tails and one that jumped totally out of the water.
   
About a dozen white pelicans on the beach near the bridge at Brunswick, GA. We did stop in Brunswick long enough to see a bit of town and purchase four pounds of shrimp right off the dock. Delicious!

Roseate Spoonbills, my first siting of them. They are unmistakable with pink showing up from some distance.

Then one hot afternoon after anchoring I decided to at least dangle my feet in the water and when I looked down at the step I saw a blue crab hanging on! Good sized but no, it was not our dinner!

We pass by shrimp boats often and they are a magnate for sea gulls of course. Sometimes out on the open water, the birds appear like a black cloud around the boats. On this one, if you can enlarge the photo, you'll see an egret was enjoying the ride too.

Jacksonville and friends

We rolled into Jacksonville on Friday and were met at the marina by friends Marilyn and Steve. Although the weather did not cooperate, raining all day Saturday and canceling thoughts of biking the beach and enjoying the ocean, we had a wonderful time visiting. A family dinner last night capped off the weekend and the rain finally did quit allowing us to walk the block from their house to the beach and see the full moon.  On this morning to St. Augustine and happy to say the sun is shining!