2009-09-07 Tybee Island

We went to Tybee Island today (Tuesday, September 7th).  I've never been there.  Many of my family and, I guess, all of my grandchildren have been there but I've never seen the islands off the Georgia coast.  It's a really nice place to visit.  I'm told Sandra Bullock has a home there.


The road to the island makes the place look a lot like southern Florida.  There are trees close to the road but its really marshy elsewhere.


Here's what the marsh looks like.


And here's a closeup of one of the trees.


On the island we saw lots of souvenir shops.


And before we knew it, there was a curve in the road and we were at the beach.


There is parking on nearly every side street.  You take one of these wooden walks at the end of the street and it takes you past two sand barriers to the beach.


As out of shape as I am Linda had to keep reassuring me the beach was indeed ahead.  All I had to do is walk a little further.


And "Whoop!"  There it is!


On the ground below me I noticed these vines with little white flowers.  Kind of cute.  Anyone know what these things are called?


Linda wanted to walk to the pavillion.  It was so far away you can't see it from this point.  We had to round a curve in the beach.  It was no more than a mile away, I'm sure, but walking in loose sand it seemed more like 10 miles.

We decided to move over to wetter sand where the walking was easier...


... and in a short 3 weeks, 4 days, and 17 hours we were there (not!).  It as acutally more like only half an hour but it seemed like weeks by the time we got walked there in the blazing sun.

The pavillion is really nice and very big.  There's a pier attached that reaches out into the Atlantic a bit for fishermen.


Linda and I were really interested in this sign that warned locals about storm preparedness.  The top of the blue paint mark (Cat 2) measures only about 11 feet.  I think this is very, VERY conservative but maybe that's the type storms that strike the mid-Atlantic coast.  Further south and around toward the Gulf of Mexico, the storm surge we're familiar with is much worse.

When we visited Orange Beach, Alabama a few years ago a year after a hurricane had hit we had to stay on the 5th floor of our hotel because the storm had wiped out the lower 4 floors except for the concrete super-structure.

The surge (tidal wave) was 40 feet high and that was only a Cat 4 storm!  But it was a direct hit and the hotel was right on the beach.  Across the highway and a little further from the direct path of the storm, the surge apparently dropped quickly.


Beach front streets were lined with shops.


Looking back toward the pavillion in the far right of this photo I got a better shot of this marker that shows the community was incorporated more than 100 years ago.


In one of the shops I found this cute little replica of a Fender Stratocaster guitar.  I didn't buy it but I marvelled at the accuracy in the way it was made.


A block from the beach there were less shops but more shade so we headed a mile up the street back toward where our car was parked.


As we passed a hotel, I spotted this strange looking tree.


I thought we had come too far so I told Linda I was headed back toward the beach to get my bearings.  She was right.  We still hadn't walked far enough but I got a look at one of the big seagoing ships in the channel near the beach.


Finally we found our walk back where the car was parked.


It was a fun trip but it was getting late and time to head for home.  We enjoyed the day so much I thought I'd share.  Hope you enjoyed it too.




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