DAY 2
The second day we woke up bright and early courtesy of our three mini Magnolias. We decided to head down the stairs to the Grand Dining Room for breakfast.
The Grand Dining Room is gorgeous!
I'm not going to lie. Mr. Cute was a little nervous. The moment he saw white table clothes and our kids wild energy he thought we should take them to somewhere a little less formal. But his nervousness was for nothing. It was completely family friendly and the staff was amazing with children.
I also love the kids menu. The kids thought it was so much fun to inform people they were future millionaires. #fingerscrossed
They have a super yummy breakfast buffet, but I opted for their omelette and breakfast potatoes. So so yummy!
After breakfast we made our way down the Hall of Mirrors to explore a little bit before heading to the pool.
The kids loved this area of the hotel too. It's a shame they have no personality.
After a quick post-breakfast walk we made our way to the pool. The kids were so excited because when we arrived we had the pool all to ourselves.
The pool was heavenly and still warm enough to swim, even in late September. There were plenty of towels, chairs, and umbrellas no matter how many people there. We staked our claim towards the shallow end and unleashed our tiny humans.
The other big draw to the pool for the kids was that it had a deep deep end. It went up to 9ft, and that meant they could do some super sized cannon balls.
We splashed, jumped and swam for almost three hours!
The kids would have kept swimming, but hunger was winning out.
We decided to eat at The Pool House so that we could stay close to the pool and not have to change out of our swimsuits just to get right back in them.
It is located right off the deep end of the pool and is an open cabana casual style restaurant.
I loved that it matched the hotel decor and was decorated in blue and white, but it had surprising pops of tropical fun sprinkled throughout.
We ordered a couple of light items to share, and the food was delicious!
Any day I can have chips and salsa is a good day.
After lunch we decided to switch gears from swimming and headed to the put put course on the island. This is located on the same property that Red Bug Pizza and the playground I mentioned in yesterday's post.
There are two 18 hole golf courses. One a little easier and one a little more difficult. We opted for the difficult one, but both would have been fine for kids our ages.
We had the hole course to ourselves. We learned later that we showed up right towards the end of the day. It closes by 5:30p.m. during the seasons it is open.
The easier course had slightly more characters to it, but the difficult course has more obstacles, and the kids thought that would be a little more fun.
We had a blast, and even though we were eaten alive by mosquitos (bring bug spray!!), we were so glad to have let the kids enjoy the afternoon with a little old school style fun.
We laughed when we spotted the Bulldog. There are tons of little Bulldog things around the island. UGA fans have staked their claim on Jekyll Island!
After mini golf, we had a little down time before we needed to get ready for dinner. The Jekyll Club is located in the heart of the historic district of the island, so we decided to explore some of the shops and grab a snack.
I love love love history and historic buildings so this was right in my wheel house. All of the shops and restaurants are set up in some of the buildings original to the island. Some even before the club opened. Jekyll Island has a really fun and unique history, and it is impressive to see how many important figures have passed through or how many major decisions in terms of our country were decided here.
Not to mention how huge and grand the homes were for the late 1800's! If I could pick one of these up and take it home with me I totally would. Or I could just move there.... ;)
The shops contained a lot of boutique style items - some locally made and some from other parts of Georgia. This was so fun for us!
So many talented people in our great state! We loved these fun serving pieces and even came home with a few. We loved the tongue and cheek humor of a few!
It was fun to just browse, and the kids were well behaved considering some of the friendly shop owners handed out ring pops.
No old fashioned snack is complete without an old fashioned Coke.
This little stop was a fun one because it had a large children's section. The owner of The Island House and I spoke for awhile. She was such a wealth of knowledge and I left feeling like we were old friends.
Her boutique was adorable, and we ended up with several souvenirs.
The kids went back and forth between a fun book and some fun stuffed puppets she had on hand.
We are now the proud owners of an extremely large leopard shark and parrot stuffed puppet.
Don't let L.C.'s face fool you. She was saying Parrot was sad we didn't get him a friend. Sorry girlfriend, did you see how many bags we brought. The trunk can only hold so much. As can my sanity.
After we worked up an appetite shopping, we changed and made our way to dinner. We had spotted Tortuga Jacks across the way from the mini golf area, and it looked like a fun spot. Fun was an understatement.
We opted to sit on the outside patio because the weather felt amazing. The restaurant is right on the beach and water so it had great views too. Everywhere you turned there was a little something fun.
The signs were cracking me up!
The food was YUMMY!
And in the name of journalistic integrity, I just had to try the margaritas too. Y'all...best margaritas I've had in awhile. And I've done my fair share of taste testing. So so good!
The atmosphere was so fun, and the kids had a blast playing with other little ones on the small stage they had. Funnily enough a family that we met here we ran into at dinner the next three nights. We became vacation supper buddies and all our kids were the same age so they had a blast playing together. It was a great night, and I already can't wait to visit again to taste test the rest of the margarita menu.
After dinner we took a peek at the beach, and then called it a night.
DAY THREE
Surprise! We woke up early again! #parentlife
We got dressed and made our way down to breakfast. Instead of the Grand Dining Room we made our way to the Club Cafe.
The Club Cafe is a casual restaurant that offers both home made to order food options, as well as grab and go items.
The ladies were super sweet with us as we poured over all the yummy selections.
The treat case was hard to tear your eyes (and tongue) away from.
We ordered some fresh smoothies, scrambled eggs and an assortment of pastries. Because who can pass up fresh out of the oven pastries?
Clearly not this family.
Everything was so yummy and this quickly became our go to place the remainder of the trip.
We all enjoyed the yummy food as well as the laid back atmosphere. You can take your food anywhere but there are tons of seating options both inside the restaurant as well as outside the restaurants. Those gorgeous porches aren't just for looking at!
After finishing up breakfast we decided to make our first trek to the beach. The Jekyll Club's beach club was shut down for the season, but you could still get access to the beach. It was actually one of the few places you could access the beach post Irma on the island. The clean up crew were still taking care of this part when we arrived.
Because the club was closed for the season we figured it didn't matter what beach we went to so we went a little further down to a different part of the beach.
We weren't there a minute before L.C. screamed in excitement that she found a sand dollar. The hurricane washed up a ton of sand dollars, and in no time the kids had a bucket full.
They spent hours searching up and down the beach for them. Not to mention the beach was completely empty. Like we didn't see another person for at least the first hour and a half we were there. It was amazing!
We actually got to sit in our beach chairs for once (when one of The Cutes wasn't taking over). We always bring them, but in seven years I can't think of once where we've actually sat in them. Typically we are running through the crowds trying to contain the littles. Or sitting on the sand with them. Or swimming. Or playing a game.
You get the idea.
But sitting and relaxing? Unheard of.
There was something though about that big wide open space that happened to relax everyone and occupy The Cutes for a longer length of time. By this point I was ready to full on move to Jekyll.
It was so relaxing, we made a day of just sitting on the beach and exploring when we wanted to. We gathered shells, made sandcastles, and just relaxed. It was like having your own private island. Fall Break at the beach might just be our favorite.
As the sun started to set, we decided it was time to make our way to dinner.
I loved that the weather was warm and I was able to break out some of my warm weather favorites still, including my favorite oyster shell necklace.
 |
| | Dress (similar) | Sandals | Sunglasses | Watch | |
The Wee Pub had a great atmosphere. The kids loved that there was a musician to sing to us, and keep trying to make requests.
Despite the Irish decor and name, they had a little bit of everything on the menu.
For some reason the Baked Potato Soup just spoke to me, but after sampling a little bit of everyone's I quickly realized all the food was tasty. We've been lucking out on this trip!
The Cutes' favorite part of the meal was that it was served in a fun take home frisbee. They loved it and couldn't wait to give them an official test run. They might have attempted an unofficial test run, but mommy put her foot down on that. Sorry Mr. Musician!
Even after all that food, Mr. Cute decided to stop by and grab one more little treat for everyone.
As we were leisurely driving back to the hotel, we spotted a deer! And then we spotted half a dozen more. We did't realize there were so many deer on the island, but once it gets dark they all come out. The kids thought it was hilarious that deer were at the beach. But now that they knew, the rest of our evening were filled with post dinner/pre-bed time deer scouting.
That wraps up the middle part of our vacation! Tomorrow I will share the final days of our vacation. Until then!
JEN
No comments:
Post a Comment