Jacksonville to South Carolina

Kim's Korner:

We crossed the Florida line into Georgia! It seems we have been in Florida for so long! Georgia brings the marshlands for us to appreciate – amazing and beautiful! And when the tide is out, the marsh speaks to us – it pops and crackles - I kid you not. What appears to be acres and acres of marshland are visible – so relaxing and I love seeing and hearing all the birds! I take pictures but the pictures do not do justice to the beauty which surrounds us. I’ve been told by many that it looks like boats are moving on grass and you will see them over and over again as they snake thru the ICW and that is exactly what we do see. I’ve heard that many do not enjoy this leg of the trip. I have thoroughly enjoyed this Georgia journey and would do it again in a heartbeat!
I need to back up a bit. I apologize for our blog being so late but we’ve been busy! We stayed at a beautiful marina, Ortega Landing, just outside Jacksonville, FL while bad storms and winds swept through. We had planned to do the St. John’s River by boat but since weather kept us in the marina, we did rent a car and drive to Palatka and Sanford, both towns on the St. John’s. The highlight was Blue Springs State Park where the water was crystal clear made possible by a spring that rose thru a crack you could see. Scuba divers are welcome as the crack leads to underground caves that can be explored. The swimmers we did see were quite cold when they emerged but were definitely enamored by what they had seen. During the colder months, manatees visit here by the hundreds but they had moved on as it had warmed quite a bit when we visited. We were able to see gar and sunfish quite clearly.
We made our way from Jacksonville to a mooring ball at Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island which totally has it going on! Restaurants, boutiques, and gift shops lined the streets and all were busy with tourists. We then crossed into Georgia to Brunswick. We were there on a Sunday and Brunswick downtown is absolutely dead on a Sunday! That place has so much potential and hopefully, one day, it will be a booming downtown on every day, Sunday included. Beautiful old schools, churches, homes and garden squares that the English colonists modeled after England. We did find a Thai restaurant which was open and enjoyed a delicious meal. We next anchored at Cane Patch Creek (31.817883,-81.133967) which was absolutely beautiful and well protected. The early morning brought calls and songs from birds I’ve never heard but would love to learn.
From there, we made our way to Isle of Hope Marina which is near Savannah and spent time seeing what we could. We took a tour in Savannah, ate at Mrs. Wilkes restaurant (which was amazing) and enjoyed walking the downtown area as well as the riverfront area. The most memorable place was the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist – when I entered, my breath was totally taken away – it was absolutely beautiful! The next day, we took our bikes to the Wormsloe Estate which was interesting. The most impressive part was the 1.6-mile driveway lined by 404 Live Oaks - of those, 396 had been planted several centuries ago – really nice!
Next was Beaufort, SC! We stayed at Port Royal Landing Marina which was very nice and we were able to ride our bikes from there into Beaufort. Beaufort has more beautiful antebellum homes and a really nice downtown area containing more great restaurants and boutiques as well as a very nice riverfront area and park. I’ll upload pictures from there when we get WiFi again.
Today, we are at an anchorage just 4 miles from St. John’s Yacht Harbor where we plan to stay the next three nights and see a smidgen of Charleston as well as visit my sister Beth and her husband Jim, whose 50th wedding anniversary is quickly approaching – congratulations Beth and Jim!
Whew – glad to get caught up! I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

David's

   Cane Patch Creek Pictures!

   Savannah Pictures!

Kim's

   Fernandina Pictures!

   Brunswick Pictures!

   Canes Patch Creek Pictures!

   Savannah Pictures!
   Beaufort Pictures!