Grinch to the Golden Isles

Seeking sunshine, rolling surf and a weekend of room service, we arrived in a blanket of fog after 8:30PM to find the hotel lobby in the ravages of construction and the kitchen closed. We were now green, lean and mean.

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

Parking fee for Jekyll Island has been increased to .00 each entry.

Apparently we picked the very worst time to visit. The hotel is in the ravages of reconstruction. The lobby had been stripped to bare concrete and the restaurant was closed. The second night free promotion seemed less of a deal. The mattresses and pillows were rock hard. The second day, we complained to the desk and moved to another room. The beds were no better, but my husband conceded to give me the one good pillow. The dead bolt did not work. The staff were surley and unsympathetic to our dissatisfaction. Maybe the fog and construction noise had grinched them green.

Hungry for hot food, we slid into a booth and ordered Denny's Grand Slam breakfast with coffee and juice. After a 25 minute wait in a near empty restaurant, my husband left the table to seek service. Our food was delivered by the indifferent waiter, the eggs and pancakes stone cold, a smear of cold grease rimmed the platter as if in warning. Disgusted, we left without eating. Having missed dinner the evening before, we were now more than a little hungry. (see Huddle House journal)

Talk about fast service! Four minutes ( we timed it) after ordering we were wolfing down hot bacon and eggs. We also listened to the locals discuss sentiment toward the economy and weather. Apparently the Huddle House is where the natives gather for morning coffee. The comforting lull of much talk about nothing and the hot breakfast soothed my frazzled nerves like oil on water.

What could be more fitting to the feeling of this flop of a weekend than to watch "The Grinch." I could certainly empathize with this green Who, for I too loath the commercial flim-flam and artificial cheer of Christmas.

Only Jim Carrey, the master of rubber faced comedy, could capture the essence of the nasty green villian. As the Grinch sabbotaged Whoville's hopes for Christmas present (pun intended), I joined the audience in riotous laughter. I laughed in release, I laughed in youthful high spirit, I laughed in exultation at hazards overcome. Yes, isn't it amazing what laughter can do. I left the theatre in a different mood and spent the rest of the afternoon Christmas shopping. :o)

The bookstore is located in the 19th century Furness Cottage. It offers excellent shopping for out of print and local interest books. It also sells small gifts and soveneirs. I purchased "It's a wonderfully Lovely Place: The Letters Of Kate Brown, February- March, 1917" and "Ghost Stories and Superstitions of Old Saint Simons" and retired post-haste to the hotel to peruse my treasures.

Kate Brown worked as a tutor during Jekyll Island's high season of 1917. Her letters provide a delightful and sometimes humerous insight into the hey-day of Jekyll Island history. Reading it has given me a new appreciation for the island which was once reserved for the select 50 families belonging to the elite millionaire's club.

Following a restless night on stone hard beds and granite pillows, we opted for a walk on the beach. Fog enveloped the island like a shroud. We could hear the surf but there was no definition between sand, sea and sky. Even the sea gulls huddled in miserable clusters, their feathers water-ladened from the fog.

We were afraid to wander far as we could not see the walkway, across the dunes, to our hotel. The wet blanket of fog dripped from the live oak trees like winter rain.

Oh well, when you can't sleep or exercise, you can always eat. Or can you? (see journal on Denny's Restaurant).