Back to Jekyll

Jekyll Bike Path

We're back on Jekyll Island for a week. Since the entire island is a state park, the local beauty is promoted and maintained. The residual beauty of the shores and the historic district are wonderful. We like those things.

Private homes, hotels, a water park, a little shopping center, golf courses, and of course a campground take up some space, but by law 65% of the land must remain undeveloped. A couple of the hotels are old and ready for replacement, and such decision are always controversial, and the controlling board decided one recently.

The campground offers monthly rates which we find favorable. Some campers thing the campground should be improved. The roads are dirt, and dusty when there's been no rain. There's no community room, so gatherings are difficult. The campground installed a large tent to serve this purpose, and it seems to work OK for potlucks and dinners, but other typical campground activities are thwarted. The Christmas dinner was held in a room at the golf course restaurant. The restrooms and showers are aging and impossible to look pristine, but we don't use them so it's no big deal for us.

What we do like is camping among the live oaks and yellow pines, with all the squirrels and birds flitting about. November is acorn season, and every now and then we hear a CLUNK-ponk-rattl-rattle as one bounces off our roof.

Entrance road

December is the season when Jekyll lights itself up for Christmas. This is the 3rd time we've been here in December, and in general, the lights seem more subdues this year. I like them better, especially in the historic district.

Last night, I spent a couple hours with my camera trying to capture the Christmas lights. I had intended to experiment with High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography, so I took my tripod anc captured several shots of each scene, each one with a different shutter speed. When I got home, I assembled each set of images in HDR software, but the results were less than pleasing. What you see here are just selected exposures from each set. Pretty nice, but neither spectacular nor unusual. But I like them.


Du Bignon Cottage

This cottage was one of the prettier ones, I though. Simply yet clearly lit, festooned with evergreens, it remined me of my New England Christmas roots. The building is one of the museum pieces that the Historic District has restored with period pieces and is open for tours.


The tree on the green and Goodyear Cottage

The green area was on that was much less flashy that I remeber from our visit in 2004. The live oaks had their arches all lit up along the main road, but there were no flashing wire sculpture lights to take away from the simple beauty of the cottages and their lights.


Jekyll Island Club Hotel

The hotel was once the clubhouse for the richa nad famous folks who had their winter homes here in the late 19th century. The Christmas lights offered a cheeriness which brightened the classic victorian style if the buildings.


Our pre-Christmas visit will end here tomorrow, when we leave for Naples and 10 days with Consuelo's family. Just before New Year's, we'll return here for 3 months. I'll have more pictures of the rest of the island then.