Yep, we're still in Brunswick!

Enjoying the Shrimp 'n Grits Festival
with Richard and Jill

Nice day for a festival!

Super moon over Georgia

One of Mike's
favorite things!

Boater's Lounge at the Marina

First Friday Car show

Working on the movie set

Good looking Mercury!

Heading into the festival grounds

Lots of vendors!

Waiting in line for some shrimp 'n grits!

Good music!

Down home music on the porch

Calm day at the marina makes
beautiful reflections

Beautiful sky - red sky at night!

Hard not to enjoy this.....

Reflections on a calm day

Beautiful evening

We have huge tides here - this was just the beginning!

Water goes down -
walkway goes up!

View of the marshes from the dinghy

Beautiful view on Jekyll Island

So very peaceful

Passing out shots at First Friday!

Car Show - First Friday

Electric bike - not sure why.....

Part of the movie set being constructed

The "improvements" of some of the old buildings
will be left after the movie is made

Movie set is breathing life into this downtown area

Still haven't seen Ben Affleck!

I know the last time I posted we were gearing up for our trip north to Norfolk.  Well, the day we were supposed to leave, it blew up wind and rain.  In fact, it came and stayed for days.  We finally sat down and marked our trip on the calendar and realized that the only way we would make it there and back in time before it started to get cold would be to go straight up and back with just a very few stops.  This meant no playing in Charleston or visiting friends in Myrtle Beach and Carolina Beach – and no trip back home to Missouri.  This also meant no downtime concerning NautiNell.  It’s not good to plan a tight schedule like that.  Things can always happen that aren’t planned.  We know that all too well.  So we decided we’d go next year.  AND ……..after this last week – you can bet that we’re really glad we made that decision.  If we’d left as scheduled, we would have been right in the middle of the rain and flooding in the Carolinas and the remnants of Hurricane Joaquin.  We were very lucky this time.  We have lots of friends along the Carolina shores.  Thank goodness they haven’t had any damage. 

So we’ve been enjoying the last few weeks in Brunswick.  Patty and Bill came down for a visit from Jacksonville where they’re staying on their boat.  Richard and Jill also came over so we had quite a party.  We had lunch at Marshside and happy hour on the dock.  What a fun time!

Of course, then the rains came…….it seemed like for days……

But finally the sun came out one Saturday and we were able to go to the Shrimp and Grits Festival on Jekyll Island.  Richard and Jill stopped by and gave us a ride over to the Island.  What fun that turned out to be!  Good music – good food – lots of vendors – and good friends!  Oh, and sunshine!!!

Later that week we took a scooter ride –  checked out a lot of the antique stores in the downtown area and had lunch at Tipsy’s.  It’s a little cooler than we like it but it’s not raining!!

Jeff and Carolyn stopped by on their way to Maryland for the Trawlerfest (in the camper).  It was fun to visit with them.  They’re going to stop on their way back down and we’re catching a ride to Ft Pierce to get our car. 

On another calm day, we managed to take a dinghy ride to the other side of the ICW and finally made it to Jekyll Island by dinghy.  Mike had been wanting to do this since we’ve been here but it was never right.  This time the water was calm and the sky was blue.  We planned to go to the Rah Bar for some shrimp but it was closed when we got there.  It had been closed for a couple of days but was re-opening that night!  We were just a few hours early!  Oh well, we boated on over to the Jekyll Marina where we knew of another restaurant to find it didn’t open till 4:00 p.m.!  Wouldn’t you know we finally made it over here and we can’t find anything close by that is open!  So back to the mainland where we dinghied back to Marshside Grill.  Our good ol’ standby!  It was still a nice day for a boat ride!

Brunswick held its First Friday on their Main Street last week so we ventured out to that.  We visited several of the art galleries – listened to the music – enjoyed the car show and scarfed down a couple of brats.  Good time!  Oh and we also hit the local sweet shop – PamPam’s Cupcakes.  Yum!

With all the terrible weather around us we don’t really want to complain but it has been pretty dismal and cool.  We rode the scooters the other day and I about froze!  Think I’m getting soft...  It was in the sixties!  Anyway, we managed to enjoy ourselves.

Jeff and Carolyn made it back yesterday just in time for our Marina’s Potluck!  Good food – free beer!  They are hanging here for a couple of days.  Then we’ll catch a ride with them to Ft Pierce to pick up the Silver bullet.  We need to get it here so we can drive it home to Joplin next week.

The sun has finally come out but it’s still rather cool.  At least by my standards!  We all went to lunch at Marshside.  It’s turning out to be one of our regular hangouts.  Later on we decided to try happy hour so we headed out to Tipsy’s.  We got there just in time for one drink.  So we decided that we’d try JinRight’s Seafood House.  2-4-1s all day!  Well as it turns out that was the only good thing about it.  It had been recommended to us but it didn’t work out this time.  The server had the worst attitude I’ve ever come across.  She said that Mike had made her angry so she was ignoring us.  Now, no one at our table knew what Mike had said or done.  And y’all know Mike – he hardly ever makes anyone angry – makes them laugh is more like it…. SO - He apologized anyway, but that didn’t help.  Jeff and Carolyn went ahead and ordered food.  If they hadn’t we would have walked out.  Then their food came and it was the worst presentation ever.  Never going back – needless to say…  What is funny is Mike and I had just been talking about everyone in this area being so nice.  We have shopped at several stores and eaten at even more restaurants and the staff has been so very pleasant.  We’re not going to let one bad apple ruin our opinion of this area.  We have enjoyed it very much and plan to come back.

Tuesday morning we headed south to Ft Pierce to pick up the Silver Bullet.  We made it there about 2:00 and had lunch at the Tiki Bar at the City Marina.  The Silver Bullet started right up after sitting for almost three months.  It got us back home to NautiNell about 8:30 that evening without any problems.  Yea!

Now we’re gearing up for our road trip home to Missouri.  We also need to leave NautiNell “presentable” in case she has visitors (potential buyers) while we’re gone.  We’ll be gone about two weeks.  Then we’ll start our adventure back south to the Keys where we’ll again spend the winter months.  Tough life!    

Till next time!

Admiral "C"


 

Still in Brunswick - (best kept secret)



Peaceful marina

Beautiful Georgia sky!

We've had some really high tides

Quiet peaceful day at the marina

Love the reflection!

Some of the 'gators in the moat at
Copper Pig

Pretty interesting cooler for
the longnecks!

Waiting for our BBQ!

Bob and Katie
(Floating Stone)

Jill and Richard
(Finally)

Very cool place!

More of the 'gators!

Waiting for the Low Country Boil!

Really good band at the Labor Day festivities

Do you think we had enough?

Gathering around the keg

Sherry, our dockmaster
She did a great job organizing
our Labor Day bash!

Boaters do like to eat!

The mighty threesome!
Mike, Richard and Bob

This guy landed on the parking lot one morning
He was picking up one of his crew!

Huge and noisy!
Caused quite a wake!

Pretty reflection!

The Admiral striking a pose in St Simon's Island

This guy wanted his picture taken too!

St Simon's Lighthouse

Cool mural at the Iguana's Seafood Grille

Funky little shops on the Island

Very cool " Avenue of the Oaks"
Most of these trees are hundreds of years old

Our "chariot" awaits!

This is the ship that brings in the cars

some of the cars being loaded and unloaded

This ship is huge!!

Well, it’s September and we’re still in Brunswick.  Actually we really like it here.  Now that we’ve been out exploring on the scooters, we’re finding there is a lot more here than we originally thought.  The marina is rated as one of the best “hurricane holes”.  When we were watching to see what Erika was going to do, that was very reassuring.  We got a lot of rain from her but not much wind.  Hope the rest of hurricane season is that easy!  It’s starting to cool down somewhat also, so we’ll be leaving in a week or so – weather permitting!

Like I said, we’ve been doing a lot of exploring on the scooters.  We found a couple of malls and several restaurants and even a Walmart Supercenter!  That can be important once I need to replenish our supplies!   

Bob and Katie (Floating Stone) made it here about a week ago.  Just in time for First Friday.  We checked it out and had a few beers then went to Marshside for dinner.  It’s good to see our boating buddies!  They’re going to be here a while so I’m sure we’ll be having a few docktails.

It’s been raining here daily due to Erika.  Not just the typical coastal showers – they’ve been downpours.  However, one day we woke to sunshine so we decided to take another dinghy ride.  We went up to the area where the car-boats come in.  This is the Colonel’s Island Terminal – Autoport Facility (owned by the GA Port Authority).  It’s where they import cars from overseas.  In fact, it’s the 3^rd busiest port in the U. S.  The ships are huge!  We watched them unload several cars and they also loaded a few.  Pretty cool! 

We also found the Blythe Island Regional Park.  It was Labor Day weekend and there was a boat launch there so it was pretty busy. There’s a power hoist for smaller boats there (under 5000 pounds).  It wasn’t operating that day.  Not sure what the reasoning is for it unless it is something to do with the tide.  It looked like a really nice park – hopefully we’ll get another chance to really check it out.  

Wow, Labor Day weekend and we have had two straight days of NO RAIN!  Richard and Jill came over from Jekyll Island one evening.  We all went to the Copper Pig for dinner.  We had found it when we were on the scooters and it looked pretty cool.  It’s a huge BBQ place that also has fresh produce and a meat market.  The place is “guarded” by a moat that is full of alligators!  There’s even a mechanical pig to ride.  No – none of us tried it.  Although we really tried to talk each other into it! 

Labor Day was perfect!  The marina held a Low Country Boil.  They furnished the beer and Sherry’s own “Champagne Punch”.  Everyone brought side dishes and their appetites.  They even had a great band! The weather was perfect and the food was wonderful!  Georgia Shrimp can’t be beat!  Good food – good music – good friends! 

The next day it rained all day!  So we hung close.  Cleaning the boat – paper work, whatever we could do to keep us busy.  But then Wednesday, the sun was shining again!  We decided to ride the scooters over to St Simon’s Island.  We had never been there and wanted to be sure to see it before we left.  What a great little place!  St Simon’s Island has lots of history dating back to the Spanish era.  We took a trolley ride so we could learn more and see more of the Island.  It was a great tour!   The Island has lots of gorgeous trees and a really nice beach.  Of course, the main street is full of bars and shops.  We made several stops…….  We had lunch at Iguana’s Seafood.  They have free ice cream sundaes for dessert!  When we came over it was early in the day so there wasn’t much traffic, but it was a little hairy when we left.  It was close to 5:00 and the traffic had really picked up.  We have to cross two causeways and my little scooter felt like the little train that could!  I think I can, I think I can!  I did it! 

We’ve just made a decision this afternoon – that we’re leaving the marina on September 16.  Now our plans are always made in sand but at least we’ve set a date.  We’ll head north.  We’re only couple of days from Savannah where we’ll probably stop for a day or so.  We really plan to spend more time there on our way back south.  We have friends to visit along up the coast to Norfolk from here so we need to keep moving!  Besides we don’t want to be up there when it starts getting cold!  Ha!

That’s it for now!

I’m back!  Another weekend has passed and we’re gearing up for our departure.  We took a dinghy ride yesterday.  It has cooled off quite a bit and it was really refreshing!  Jill and Richard came by Saturday night so we all went over to St Simon’s Island for dinner.  We ate at a place called Southern Soul BBQ.  It is one of the places on the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  It was pretty funky – used to be an old gas station.  I think it would be fun to go to all the places Guy has visited.  Think I’ll put that on my bucket list. 

We got a call from our broker yesterday.  They are going to show the boat this afternoon.  Here we go again!  Oh well, at least we’ll have a clean boat when we head out!  We’ve spent all morning cleaning her. 

Patty and Bill (Conched Out Too) are at Ortega Landing (Jacksonville).  That’s only about an hour away by car.  They are driving over tomorrow for a visit.  Richard and Jill are coming back over too.  Sounds like a party!  Bob and Katie are leaving for Ohio tomorrow so they’re going to miss out.  L.   Oh well, we’ll see them again soon. 

Our plan is to leave Wednesday morning if weather permits.  So far it looks pretty good.  We’ll see!

Stay tuned!

Till next time!

Admiral “C”