Explore the Great Outdoors on Jekyll Island

Many people who think they know me better than I know myself make a basic assumption about me. They think that because I gag at the thought of camping or using a hole in the ground as a toilet that I am hostile towards the great outdoors. Maybe I feed this assumption because I frequently state that I would rather stay at a five star hotel than sleep under the stars. But. . . preferring a soft, comfortable bed and toilet paper does not qualify me as an outdoor hater. I am here to set the record straight.

I actually love the outdoors. I grew up in a small Missouri town where I fished with my dad. I can remember running along the banks of the man-made lakes searching for small bugs that could be used as bait and digging up big, juicy worms that I was certain the fish would gobble up instantly. The smell of horse, cow and pig manure are still familiar to me. I had a large amount of good friends who lived on farms and we would spend all day long jumping into hay bales stacked up in their rickety barns, jumping bare back onto a horse and running into the woods reenacting Little House on the Prairie.

I also have wonderful memories of summers spent hundreds of miles and several states away from my small Missouri town. It is this place where my family (a husband and two daughters) still journey to as often as we can. We live in a state where there are an abundance of outdoor activities and huge lakes for water sports. Many of our friends and family are able to satisfy their nature cravings with popular destinations like the Lake of the Ozarks, Bennett Spring and Mark Twain Lake. Not my family. We have to travel over 900 miles southeast to our hidden gem.

Jekyll Island, Georgia. This is my outdoor paradise that is beautiful, untouched and welcoming. At least every other year my family and I allow this island to wrap its arms around us and take us into its' natural beauty. Jekyll Island is a small island, about 7 miles long and 8 miles wide, that is part of a large chain of islands off the coast of Georgia perfectly named The Golden Isles. There are other islands worthy of mention, St. Simons, Sea Island and Cumberland Island, but Jekyll Island is where you can go and escape into the great outdoors and find familiar yet exotic adventures.

Jekyll Island was colonized in 1735 and by the 1886 century was a playground for the rich and famous such as the Morgans, Rockefellers, and Vanderbilts. In 1947 the state of Georgia turned Jekyll Island into a state park. This means that 65 percent of the island must stay untouched by development. Because of this there are limited hotels, limited restaurants, limited businesses, but unlimited outdoor adventures.

My great-grandfather and great-grandmother made this island their home for many years where my great-grandfather owned a fishing wharf that is now a restaurant called, Latitude 31. They lived on this island until the early 1980's when my great-grandfather's health caused him to move inland. If an ambulance was called, they could not take the chance of it being held up by the drawbridge that may open to let a shrimp boat through. But before this move, my father would take frequent trips on a train from St. Louis to Brunswick, GA to visit his grandparents. This is how he fell in love with the island. This love he passed on to my brother and I. Now, I have passed it on to my family.

Jekyll Island is a great family get-away and can be as inexpensive as you need it to be. Obviously, we have established my accommodation needs so there is definitely an upscale hotel on the island called The Jekyll Island Club Hotel. They have a pool that is spring-fed and cool on the skin. My father swam in this pool, I have and so have my children. But there are other more budget-friendly hotels like the Days Inn, the Holiday Inn and Comfort Inn. You can also find the Jekyll Island Campground where there are 206 sites for tents and full-RV hookups.

My family and I are going back to the island this summer for a week and a lot of people wonder what we could possible do for an entire week on an island that isn't in the Caribbean and blessed with the scuba and snorkeling adventures you would find in those crystal clear waters. Well, let me tell you . . . there is plenty.

First, we will spend hours on a beach that never looks like the West Coast Orange County Beaches that you will see on the television. On these beaches, you can put out your towel and be half a mile away from the next beachcomber. We will dip our toes in the ocean and watch the shrimp boats on the horizon and the dolphins jumping at the chance to get a bite to eat. I will read a book, my husband and my 4-year-old will build a fortress out of sand and my 12-year-old will do what preteens do best . . . ignore us and listen to her music.

When the suns rays have kissed us just a little too hard we will change into our street clothes and head over to the miniature golf. This miniature golf facility has probably not been updated since 1960, but the game is pure and will give us an hour of enjoyment. When that is done maybe we will rent some bikes from our hotel and spend a relaxing evening winding around the island. If we have made it to the island at just the right time, May - August, we will go on a guided turtle walk with the Georgia Sea Turtle Center armed with our flashlights on the beach and hope to catch sea turtles coming ashore ready to lay their eggs.

Of course, the rest of our week could be spent fishing, boating, golfing at the largest public golf resort in the United States, horseback riding, kayaking, canoeing and indulging in the cuisine of the island - shrimp, shrimp and more shrimp. Forrest Gump didn't even come close on describing how many ways you could prepare shrimp.

Jekyll Island is well worth the 14 hour drive from our suburban Missouri town. I actually still live in that "small" Missouri town, but we all know about urban sprawl, residential growth and commercial devouring of our green spaces. Sometimes, it makes me sad to think about how far I have to go to find a place that is still the same as it was thirty years ago. But at the same time I feel lucky to be able to have this place to share with my husband and my children where they can create their own definition of what it means to love the outdoors.

www.mo.gov
www.mostateparks.com/lakeozark.htm
www.mostateparks.com/bennett.htm
www.marktwainlake.com
www.jekyllisland.com
www.georgia.gov
www.goldenislesinfo.com
www.jekyllclub.com
www.jekyllisland.com/accomodations/camping.asp
www.jekyllisland.com/activities/seaturtles.asp