Whew! It’s been a long couple of days. I’m exhausted and (unfortunately) coming down with something that’s giving me a wicked awful sore throat. But, I’ll try to post everything for you nonetheless. (I would just like to mention that this is going to be a very photo-intensive post. If for some reason not all of the pictures load - there should be 18 of them - right click on the spot where the photo should be and select “show photo”)
Tuesday morning (the morning of the 4th of July), mom and I went over to my house to work on cleaning and hanging up blinds. We discovered that there had been some vandalism done to the front windows of my living room. It was either simply malicious vandalism or someone trying very ineffectively to cut through the glass in order to unlock the window. We’re not sure how long that’s been there, since we’ve had the curtains in the living room closed for a while, and only noticed when we opened them to begin hanging the blinds (although mom says these scratches were not there when she hung the curtains). I’m starting to think seriously about burglar bars, although my mom seems opposed to the idea. Thoughts?
Tuesday morning (the morning of the 4th of July), mom and I went over to my house to work on cleaning and hanging up blinds. We discovered that there had been some vandalism done to the front windows of my living room. It was either simply malicious vandalism or someone trying very ineffectively to cut through the glass in order to unlock the window. We’re not sure how long that’s been there, since we’ve had the curtains in the living room closed for a while, and only noticed when we opened them to begin hanging the blinds (although mom says these scratches were not there when she hung the curtains). I’m starting to think seriously about burglar bars, although my mom seems opposed to the idea. Thoughts?
The damage to my front window.
The scratches aren't deep, just unsightly and unsettling.
Mom, hanging blinds
After spending the morning at my house and returning home for a short nap, we drove down to Frank’s house in Live Oak, FL to celebrate the 4th of July. Mom and Frank rode around on his new motorcycle (a Yamaha 650) while I explored the nearby sinkhole (something I pretty much do every time I visit Frank). After dinner, it was time for fireworks. Frank had invested something like $300 in fireworks, and his display was quite incredible.
Mom, decked out in 4th of July gear and new motorcycle helmet
Frank and Mom on the Yamaha 650
Frank, shooting fireworks off his porch.
After the fireworks display ended, mom and I drove back to Waycross. Why not just stay the night? Because we had somewhere in GA to be bright and early Wednesday morning. I collapsed into bed around 1:30am, only to get up at 5:00am (mom had it worse, going to bed at 2:00am and getting up at 4:00!) We left Waycross around 6:00 and drove east for about an hour and a half until we reached the coast. We had reservations to take the GA Department of Natural Resources tour of state owned Sapelo Island, and we had to be at the ferry dock by 8:00am. The day was absolutely gorgeous, and I took a lot of pictures of the sky, reflecting perfectly in the water.
On the way to the island, dolphins swam along side the ferry, leaping and playing in its waves. This isn’t the best picture of a dolphin by any means, although considering that usually when I try to take dolphin pics, I usually end up with a shot of the water where a dolphin used to be, I’m pretty proud of it. I actually took this one while standing in the bow of the ferry and looking down – he was swimming and leaping almost directly in front of the boat!
The island itself was very peaceful and beautiful. Back in the day it was home to a slave plantation, which grew cotton and sugar cane. It was owned by a couple different wealthy families before being sold R.J. Reynolds of cigarette infamy, who used it as his vacation retreat until selling it to the state of Georgia. (I learned that RJR died of emphysema. Hah!) While most of the island belongs to the state, there are parts of it which belong to the descendents of the slaves from the plantation. Nearly everyone who lives on the island is a descendent of its original slaves. Sapelo reminded me a lot of the setting for the book Mama Day, which is one of my favorites. Now I want to read God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man.
The island itself was very peaceful and beautiful. Back in the day it was home to a slave plantation, which grew cotton and sugar cane. It was owned by a couple different wealthy families before being sold R.J. Reynolds of cigarette infamy, who used it as his vacation retreat until selling it to the state of Georgia. (I learned that RJR died of emphysema. Hah!) While most of the island belongs to the state, there are parts of it which belong to the descendents of the slaves from the plantation. Nearly everyone who lives on the island is a descendent of its original slaves. Sapelo reminded me a lot of the setting for the book Mama Day, which is one of my favorites. Now I want to read God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man.
Isn't it beautiful?
We drove around the island, and then toured the RJR mansion (if you have a group of 16 people willing to shell out $160/night you can rent the place out) and the historic lighthouse. Sadly, we didn’t have time to go to the beach.
The RJR mansion reminded me of an older, classier Graceland.
Too bad the reflecting pool was empty.
The place was surrounded by gorgrous live oaks...
although they made it difficult to get a decent picture.
The solarium was incredible.
What is now that brown floor used to be a swimming pool.
Can you even imagine?
The Sapelo Lighthouse
We caught the noon ferry back to the mainland and drove to the nearby town of Darien for lunch. Darien is a tiny little place (population roughly 1700) and didn’t have much in the way of restaurant choices. We stopped at a country restaurant called Granny Lee’s – delicious down-home Southern cooking. Afterwards, we began to head for Waycross. We stopped at several places along the Altamaha Waterfowl Management Area and saw (among other things) a mother and baby osprey!
Look at the little baby!
The mother tried to frighten me off. It worked.
Okay, I’m off to shower, gargle and rest... hopefully I'll feel better in the morning.
4 comments:
Thanks for the update Jane. Sounds like a beautiful place. Hope the both of you feel better tomorrow.
I don't think the scratches in the window were an attempt to get in. It is easy to break the window to get in. I don't like the bars idea. I would feel like I was in a prison. Why don't you mount some motion lights on each side of the house? It wouldn't be expensive and they work well.
until you begin collecting/feeding local cats, the motion lights would be a great idea. after that, how about a dog in the house?
I actually read a book about Sapelo for my African Diaspora class in college called "Sapelo's People". Very good book from what I remember - you should check it out sometime.
Post a Comment