Just a few last St. George Notes

One last post about our vacation on St. George Island. These are just a few of the special things that I wanted to document so I could remember them in years to come. This is our pool. We shared it with seven other houses which would mean that 48 people could conceivably be in that pool at one time. John and I only use the pool for washing off the sand when we come up from the beach. (A big No No, but it is not our pool, so...) Anyway we made some new friends around this pool. Piper and her family for one and the Bob Getzen family. The one bad part about this pool was that one day, a "neighbor" of ours said that there had been a snake crawling around the inside of the fence. Now, I did not witness said snake, but the whole idea of a snake being this close to my residence was not a good thought. I have a snake phobia and I preferred to believe that "our Island" was snakeless!

We took our bikes all the way to Florida on the back of our trusty Taurus, which by the way has made all 13 trips to the Island. Whenever we take our bikes along on a trip we hope that we use them enough to warrant the extra time and gas to take them along. Well, I am happy to report that we did indeed ride our bikes often on this trip. On this particular ride, our first, we rode 16 miles and I barely made it home due to being so hot!

This is a new water/jump house area on the Island. It is rather disheartening to see our Island turning little by little into a more commercial resorty area, but the good news is that we never saw even one person using the play area. Who needs this when the Gulf is right there?

We were fortunate enough to be on the Island during a full moon. It is at times like this that I wish I knew how to take better photos because I just could not capture the beautiful moonlight. I tried with the flash on different settings, but this is the best I could do.

This was our second day of biking. We rode over to Connie and Paul's on the plantation which is the guarded area of the Island. Their house was very near the guard house, so it was only about a 5 mile ride and an easy one at that. After visiting with them we decided to ride further into the plantation to explore a bit. Of course, as always happens with me on bike rides, going in was easy, but coming out was long and hot again. That day we again rode 16 miles and most of it during the heat of the day, but we did survive to tell about it.

I always pick up shells on the Island, always many more than I need. I have boxes full of them from previous trips and even though I always say, "I am not going to pick up shells this time," I always pick them up. Here are a few of the more unusual ones I found this time. Note to self: Next time, no shelling.

This is an area at the very west end of the Plantation called Bob Sikes Cut. It is actually a channel that someone (I am assuming Bob Sikes) cut in the Island connecting the Bay with the Gulf. Our friends, the Dobbratz's love this area so John and I had to check it out. We, personally did not see what the big attraction is, but...

This was taken at St. George Island State Park which is at the East end of the Island. John and I think this is one of the most beautiful places on earth. All you can see for miles is our chairs just waiting for us. We spotted our first dolphins from here, too. This area was hard hit by the hurricane in 2005. Most of the park was closed due to all the sand that blew over the roads, but with time, the dunes are back and the park is once again open and beautiful.

This friendly bird was eyeing up our cooler. He probably would not have wanted the Diet Cokes that were in there!

These are the two singers that entertained us at Eddy Teach's Raw Bar after our dinner at the Oyster Cove. Usually John and I do not partake in the night life. We usually like to be in our home by dark, but this night was different and a lot of fun. We enjoyed a few Miller Lites and this couple's music into the wee hours of the night. I actually do not think there ever was much night life on the Island, that too, seems to be on the increase.

This is the deck in back of the Oyster Cove where Courtney and Paul had their wedding reception. The stage was not there at the time, Gretchen's band played right on the deck. There were little white tables and chairs with daisies for everyone to sit at while enjoying the great food, drinks, and music. It was a great party indeed!

This is me with one leg on the plantation beach and one leg on our beach. Even though there is a guard gate, one can still walk right into the plantation on the beach. As far as we could see, there was no difference in the beaches at all, imagine that...

As we were driving home near Troy, Alabama at dusk, we saw the most beautiful sun and sunset ever. The sun was a huge round orange ball, but again, my lack of skill as a photographer was evident. We see some awesome sunsets right out our back window here in Watertown, but I have never seen anything like this before.

On our last day on the Island, we had lunch at what used to be That place on 98, but is now Captain Snook's. We noticed these baggies filled with water and a penny hanging on the ceiling. We found out that they are there to scare the sea gulls away. John and I could not figure out why that would scare them, but maybe because it looks like some kind of animal. There is always something to learn on the Island.

One of John's favorite movies is, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." If you have ever watched the movie, you will remember that they are all searching for a treasure buried under the "W." Well, we found this "W" on our first visit to the Island and we always take a picture of it. We have never tried to dig under it for treasure, however.

So, there you have it, the last of my Island posts for this trip. Tiz will be arriving in a bit to spend sometime here, so I will post about that next time.