We are now at the US Navy Submarine Base in Kings Bay, GA, at a very nice RV park surrounded by pine trees, ponds and swamp. There are lots of shore birds here, and we've seen flocks of ibis, tricolored herons, little blue herons and egrets passing overhead. Wood storks can be seen in the afternoon riding the thermals with the turkey vultures. Pretty neat.
Everything here is steeped in history. Old St. Mary's on the St. Mary's river is the launching spot for boats going to Cumberland Island Nat'l Seashore. This is an island once frequented by the wealthy, and there are ruins of mansions that the park service will walk you through. Wild horses run up and down the beach and the entire island is a preserve. John F. Kennedy, Jr. was married at a small chapel on this island.
Last week we drove down to St. Augustine, found The Fountain of Youth (a spring and historic site), had lunch at an open air treetop restaurant with a cool breeze blowing, and tried to tour the old fort on the waterfront. But it started to rain and there were a few lightning strikes, so the park service closed it up. St. Augustine is where the Spanish set up their first colony.
Patti Pratley and Tom Regan are now in Brunswick, GA with Tom's boat where they will leave it for the summer. We drove up there yesterday and they joined us for a tour of Jekyll and St. Simons Islands . . . also old, old, old buildings, plantation ruins, all amid live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. We tried to have a drink at an exclusive resort, but they wouldn't let us in! Still quite an exclusive tourist area. We did get into the Sea Turtle Preservation Center and learned all about several species of turtles. They perform surgery on the critters here and rehab them in tanks for all to see.
Tomorrow we leave for northern South Carolina (Spartanburg) to visit Eugene Crabb, a cousin of Gene's dad. They live up in the mountains where we hope it will be cooler. Then it's off to Great Smoky Nat'l Park for five nights before heading to Ohio for the 4th of July with John Crabb, Gene's son.
Attached are photos of Patti and Tom, the fort at St. Augustine and the Fountain of Youth entrance. Hope all is well with family and friends.
2 comments:
Hi! Thanks for the great pics of Spain. I can't wait to get our trip under way (Friday -- we're in NYC Friday night, where we'll see Boeing, Boeing, the hot new play). Then we fly out Sat. to Venice and we're on our way. Spent this past weekend at J & K's place in Flag and saw Phil & Tricia, who is the same. Only interesting news there is that when Kevin and Sue went to leave for England, his passport was missing, having been dropped accidentally in Phoenix, where it got caught in the internal mechanisms of the airport snooping equipment. Eventually he got it back and they were on their way.
Continue to have a great Trip. Love, Kath
sounds like you guys are having a blast!!! miss ya lots and talk to you soon :o)
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