Blogs from St. Marys, Georgia, United States, North America

Cumberland Island National Seashore, St. Mary's, Georgia I think I understand the difference between a National Park and a National Monument. With some exceptions (like Dinosaur National Monument, which should really be a Park), Monuments are much smaller and are designed to protect just one cultural or natural resource. A fort, for example, makes for a good monument which can pretty much be seen in its entirety in a day or even a few hours. A Park, on the otherhand will always take several days to fully appreciate because it is geographically big and embraces so many different kinds of resources. Then, as I'm compiling The Bucket List, I run across a handful of entities called 'Seashores' or 'Lakeshores'. Being from the Rockies, we don't have a whole lot of those - none, actually - so ... read more

Crooked River State Park, St. Mary, Georgia It was a short drive for us - less than a hundred miles. We headed north on Interstate 95, looped around Jacksonville, said our goodbyes to Florida, and crossed the state line into Georgia. Got off at mile marker 3 and proceeded to Crooked River State Park. If Faver Dykes in Florida was the wild side, Crooked River has it all tamed. Vegetation is the same, but the campsites in this park are all manicured and they are huge, probably designed for big motor homes. They have a miniature golf course here and a visitor center with rocking chairs on the porch. There is a sign advertising a sunset boat ride on Friday which we just might join. This is a State Park designed to just lay back and ... read more

Over the holidays we went to stay with family in Georgia. It was so nice to get away for a solid week (rare with work & school schedules). While there, we went on a little excursion with two of my siblings to the Tabby Ruins, the former site of a sugar mill built in 1825. Though little but the walls remain, it is the largest and best preserved of all tabby remains in the Southeast part of the United States. 'Tabby' is the nickname of the material used to build the mill- a mixture of oyster shells, sand and water. It has been in a state of ruin since a fire there in the mid-1800's. The weather was a little nippy, but the sun shone so we enjoyed our brief exploration. Everyone but me ended up ... read more

Cumberland Island - die verwunschene Insel vor der Kueste Georgias Genau vor einer Woche war es bei mir so weit: Mein Trip nach Cumberland Island stand endlich nichts mehr im Weg. Voll bepackt mit Wanderrucksack, Schlafsack und Isomatte sowie Essen fuer 4 Tage bin ich zusammen mit 6 anderen Maedels per Van nach St. Marys gefahren. St. Marys ist eine kleine, verschlafene Hafenstadt von der wir aus am naechsten Tag per Schiff nach Cumberland Island uebersetzen sollten. Einmal in St. Marys am Donnerstagabend angekommen, blieb uns eigentlich nichts anderes uebrig, als unser Zelt fuer eine Nacht auf einem Spielplatz aufzuschlagen, damit wir am naechsten Morgen um 9 mit der Faehre endlich nach Cumberland Island uebersetzen konnten. Dieses Unternehmen verlief wider Erwarten auch reibungslos. Und so setzten wir am Freitagmittag Fuss auf eine kleine Insel, von der ... read more