Kaleberg Archive for Keyword: georgia, Page: 3

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11/26/23 - Fort Frederica and the Journey to Little St. Simons Island It was a rainy day, but we made a point of getting out to explore Fort Frederica. There was a whole town there and a fort. The British were braced for a Spanish invasion. The Spanish were right down there in Florida. Now it's an archaeological site and a pretty place to walk around. Then, the rain picked up. We drove north to the marina and boarded the rain soaked boat that would take us and our soon to be soaked luggage to Little St. Simon's Island. It's a privately held nature preserve. Like everything in this part of Georgia, the waters were flat, but we were cold and soaked through by the time we reached the dock at the lodge.	Fort Frederica
Oranges!	All that's left
More oranges	The fort
Watch on the river	Mistletoe
More of the site	The dock at the marina
The long ramp through the rain	A hunkered down egret
A rainy journey	This eagle is a regular at that sign
Further along and freezing	Hard to see clearly in the rain
Roseate spoonbills	Another terrible photo of roseate spoonbills
A better picture of an egret	Warming up by the fire

Keywords: georgia

11/25/23 - Guale Reserve To work off some of our Thanksgiving dinner, we explored the Guale Reserve on St. Simon's Island. It's flat, but we took a long loop, so we burned a few calories.	A typical stretch of trail
Instead of hills, they have palmettos. No thanks.	More of the trail
A little mushroom	More palmettos
Dark forest	Deadly blue things
Green trail	Yet more mushrooms
More forest	Even more mushrooms
Deers tongue, still blooming	A sandy stretch
Amazing funghi	More of the same
Pine cones and needles	Another flower
More pine cones and needles	A cardinal
Another section of the reserve	This section goes to the river
The trail there	Another glimpse of the river

Keywords: georgia

11/24/23 - Sunset at The Cloister We stayed at The Cloister. We could see why the G7 was happy there. We ate on the patio at Tavola, so we got to see the spectacular sunset.	A view from our window at the mysterious conclave
The main atrium	An Atlantic beach
Someone else enjoying the beach	More beach - The Atlantic Ocean smells different.
Another view of the beach	Some Christmas cheer
Tavola sunset	The Cloister - It's chock full of such passageways.
More sunet	Late sunset

Keywords: georgia

11/22/23 - Savannah - Day Two We spent the next day exploring Savannah. The city is full of parks and gardens. The trees are covered with Spanish moss.	Some steps
One of the squares	Flowers in bloom
Another square	Christmas is coming.
Another sign of Christmas	A hidden garden
More flowers	More Christmas
A last gardenia	Another square
Another garden	More Savannah

Keywords: georgia

11/21/23 - Savannah - Day One We made it to Savannah in time for dinner. The traffic from Atlanta was ridiculous. We walked through the old downtown to Husk where we had an excellent dinner. Then we walked to our hotel and collapsed.	A bridge over the river
On our way to dinner	One of the many gardens
Husk	Husk again
On our way back	City lights

Keywords: georgia

11/20/23 - Early Morning Flight We took an early morning flight to George from Port Angeles.	Spectacular sunrise
Lots of color	Bustling Fairchild International Airport
The Rocky Mountains	More
And more	And even more

Keywords: georgia

12/02/21 - Little St. Simon's Island to Charleston We got up early on our last day at Little St. Simon's Island. There was still a red glow in the sky. OK, we didn't get up that early, but it was early enough to take a little walk and say goodbye to the vulture tree before breakfast and our drive back to Charleston. Wow, we really don't miss I-95. We expected Thanksgiving holiday traffic. What we got was a half hour delay thanks to some huge thing two plus lanes wide being hauled slowly up the interstate. We have no idea what it was, but everyone had to squeeze around it. Luckily, our little Chevy fit just fine. We finished up with dinner at Husk, the one in Charleston. We had even more shrimp, fried oysters, slow smoked pork ribs and fried catfish. We loaded up. We were heading back west the next day.	Saying goodbye to Little St. Simon's Island
Last of the dawn's light	Yes, we got up early.
More dawn light	The lodge
Last visit to the vulture tree - We had to say goodbye.	Countryside
A fire in our cottage	Seen from the ferry back
The view from our table at Husk in Charleston	En route to our hotel
Charleston streets	The city at night
More Charleston	Yet more Charleston - It was a nice long after dinner walk.
Back to Zero George	Lights at the hotel

Keywords: georgia

12/01/21 - Little St. Simon's Afternoon Walk That afternoon, we had one of the naturalists drop us off towards the north end of the island so we could get a long walk back to the lodge. This time there were alligators as well as lots of birds, an armadillo and a variety of countryside. We stopped and checked out the various observation towers and viewing blinds and had a long, tiring but fascinating walk back to the lodge.	Some egrets
The drained land	An alligator and an egret
View of the water	Another view
The road	Another alligator
Lowlands	A bit of shade on the road
More birds	Yet another alligator
Scenery with an egret in flight	A view from an observation tower
Christmas colors	More of our road home
Another egret	A more forested part of the road
Another armadillo	More welcome shade on the road

Keywords: georgia

11/30/21 - Little St. Simon's Morning Walk Little St. Simon's Island has trained naturalists who will take you on various walks. They'll drive right out with you to one of the trailheads, but we decided to start walking towards the beach and let our guide catch up with us and pick us up for the rest of the way. We had to work off breakfast somehow. The beach itself was brilliant. To get there, we had to pass through a storm of mosquitoes, our only real encounter with the insects. They were vicious, but they didn't follow us onto the beach proper. Then we walked and explored and our guide explained things to us. There were skate eggs, a tunicate, dolphins and all sorts of birds.	The lodge in the morning
Heading to the beach	Swamplands
A channel	An egret
Cactus	More of the land
And some more	The beach
Some shore birds	We're not sure what this is, but it's pretty neat.
Skate eggs.	A heron
A dark cluster	A tunicate, they're the vertebrate wanna-be phylum
Our photo of a dolphin	One of our traveling companion's picture of a dolphin
More of the beach country	And some more bright colors

Keywords: georgia

11/29/21 - Little St. Simon's Island Little St. Simon's Island is a private reserve with a small hotel. We had booked a cottage for ourselves and our friends, so we settled in to rustic luxury. We arrived well before dinner, so we decided to take a walk and explore the island a bit. It was like our home country, flat swampland and lush vegetation. We made our way north along the main road. The island has a number of country roads and provides bicycles for those who haven't forgotten how to ride one. We passed a tree full of vultures, took side spurs to get better views of swamps, got a good look at an armadillo and made our way to the South Dike after taking a number of side spurs. There were palmettos, swamplands, old bones and Spanish moss. We didn't run into any alligators which was just as well.	Grasslands
The vulture tree	The vulture tree in context
The road north	One of the vultures
Palmettos	An armadillo
Foliage	Further along
A curve in the road	A mushroom
A water view	An old bone, most likely from an old feast
The dike road	Swampland
More such land	A conch shell
Acorns	Pine cones

Keywords: georgia

11/28/21 - Sea Island, Fort Frederica and On to Little St. Simon's Island This was a busy day starting with a last look at the Sea Island beach and the red morning glow of the sun, then a brief return visit to Fort Frederica and finally on to Little St. Simon's Island. We packed up and said our goodbyes to The Cloister and made our way north to the harbor where the ferry to Little St. Simon's Island starts. Our little Chevy was once again crammed with all of our luggage, and, since we were going to Little St. Simon's with our friends, they had to squeeze into the back with their luggage. There was no room left in the trunk. Luckily, it was only a short drive.	Sea Island again
The late sunrise light - to the east	More red light at morning
Sand	Yet another bird
Breakfast hunt	Fort Frederica again
Very different light	A modern bridge
The ferry to Little St. Simon's Island	Along the waterway
Our living room on Little St. Simon's Island	The garden

Keywords: georgia

11/27/21 - Sea Island and Fort Frederica The next day we wandered the beach at Sea Island some more, and we visited Fort Frederica. Ages ago, this area was near the border of the British Empire and the Spanish Empire to the south, so these islands were strategically important. Fort Frederica was the British outpost, and there are still ruins from the old fort.	The big Christmas Tree at The Cloister
Another day on the beach at Sea Island	A sand dollar
Porch, where we had lunch	Fort Frederica is quiet today.
There was a whole town here, but only the foundations remain.	More foundations
What's left of the fort	A strategic waterway, or at least it was
The kitchen garden at Fort Frederica	Another foundation
Back to the beach towards evening	Sand pipers
Another	And another
Even later	Sentry cormorants

Keywords: georgia

11/26/21 - Christmas on Jekyll Island We spent a day exploring Jekyll Island. It was once a retreat for the wealthy and powerful but is now a state park. We took the little guided tram and visited a number of houses that once belonged to this or that family. It was an exclusive club and, in many ways, like Newport, Rhode Island with its seaside estates. The big lure was once hunting, fishing and shooting. Now, it's tourism which is just fine with us as we were tourists at the time.	The flat, wet coastal lands
A little fellow	The Christmas tree
Interior decorations	Another tree

Check out that wreath	A close up - how Christmassy
Stained glass at the church	Outdoors

Keywords: georgia

11/26/21 - Christmas at the Cloister We found these pictures a bit late, but we're inserting them here. Welcome to The Cloister at Christmas.

Keywords: christmas, georgia

11/25/21 - Thanksgiving at the Cloister The Cloister is an old fashioned family oriented resort. It was a bit formal, one of the few places left where jackets are required for dinner, but comfortable and hospitable. We just couldn't face Thanksgiving indoors, so we arranged for a take out meal we picked up at the golf resort. There were four of us, one of whom didn't eat turkey, but they gave us at least an eight pound roast turkey, probably bigger and enough sides - sweet potatoes, green beans, stuffing - to serve maybe eight people. It was way more food than we could handle, but our friends took home most of the left overs. During the day, we explored the beach on Sea Island. It's a pretty Atlantic style sand beach, the kind that runs from Cape Cod to Key West. Since we used to live on the East Coast, we found it familiar though it had been a long time. We found sand dollars and a horseshoe crab shell. There were pelicans and cormorants. Inland, on the tidal waters, there were egrets and tall grass. We walked a fair ways and worked up an appetite for dinner which provided to be a very good idea.	Sea Island beach
Rocks	Birds - mostly cormorants
On the beach	Beach grass
Beach flowers	Signs of autumn
Christmas is a-coming in	More Christmas
A horseshoe crab shell	The beach resort
Our Thanksgiving table	Our Thanksgiving dessert
Inland waters	Towards sunset
An egret	Evening light
Later on, more color	On the Cloister grounds

Keywords: georgia

11/24/21 - Outdoor Dining With Alligators Our friends took us out to a seafood restaurant with a view of the bay and lots of alligators. We had boiled shrimp again, deviled crab, St. Louis ribs and corn on the cob. Then, we wandered over to the alligator pond and enjoyed the reptiles.	A big old fashioned seafood place
The alligator pond	Some alligators

Keywords: georgia

11/24/21 - A Morning in Savannah The next morning, we explored Savannah. One of our friends had lived there for a number of years, so she knew the layout and lore. It's a very pretty city with its old trees, old houses and shaded parks. Our friend is a lawyer, and the area was full of old fashioned, well connected law firms, so she had a gave us a good sense this aspect of Savannah culture and history. Savannah was, and still is, a port city.	Shade trees in one of the squares
An old building and shade	The view up
One of the famous squares of Savannah	More shade, surely a great relief on a summer day
Porches	Old brick
A door	A staircase
Another shady square	A modern street
Another park	Savannah style
A statue of a wild boar	More shade
And more shade	Great old trees
A tourist conveyance	Another old building

Keywords: georgia

11/23/21 - Charleston to Savannah We usually don't travel for Thanksgiving, but this year the friends we usually celebrate with were in Georgia. They even reassured us that the COVID prevalence was lower in Glynn County than back at home. We flew into Charleston and spent the night at Zero George which was both charming and convenient. The next day we picked up our rental car, a little Chevy. It was tiny and bit underpowered, but it was the Chevy that could. We drove to Savannah and stayed at the Marriott down by the river. It was an old converted power plant, so it was huge and still had its smokestacks towering over it. It wasn't Thanksgiving yet, but the elves were hard at work setting up Christmas trees, draping everything with lights and building gingerbread houses. We were told that our hotel and its environs is usually full of drunken bridesmaids, but we didn't see any. We met our friends for dinner at Husk and ate on the upstairs porch. Those old buildings were designed for the summer's heat, so they have a fair bit of protected outdoor space for dining. There's something to be said for vernacular architecture. It was a great meal. Naturally, we had some Carolina golden rice along with local oysters, peel-and-eat shrimp with peanuts, lily white biscuits, heritage pork with chestnuts and flank steak with a potato pancake.	The Zero George courtyard
The river in Savannah	A close up of the working port - According to Bloomberg, it's #1 for chicken foot exports to China.
Another view along the river	A gingerbread house under construction
Instead of alligators, they used to have these guys. That skeleton was too big for our lens.	Christmas and minerals
Husk	Husk outdoors
An evening urban walk	Urban lights - something we've been missing
More evening in Savannah	Christmas at the candy shop
The candy shop	Candy
The river boat	More evening lights with a touch of Christmas
More Christmas decorations as we neared our hotel	Evening lights in Savannah

Keywords: christmas, oysters, thanksgiving

Keywords: christmas, oysters, thanksgiving, georgia

11/22/21 - The Flight to Charleston There was some pretty impressive scenery on our flight from Seattle to Charleston. We flew other snow covered mountains, broad plains cut by river channels and then the flat lands. Most of the time the skies were clear, but as we neared the Atlantic coast, there were clouds below and perfect conditions for a glory. That's an anti-solar halo around one's plane's shadow. It was visible for much of our flight as we approached Charleston, but then, as the sun started to set and we had a beautiful sunset to watch. As with so many west to east flights, we started early in the day and arrived late in the day, but we had some great views en route.

Keywords: flying, georgia

08/26/15 - Arkaba - The First Day If you know us, you know that we are fond of such luxuries as well padded beds, air conditioning and gourmet room service, so it probably seems a bit of a stretch to imagine us camping, but a-camping we did go. We started at the luxurious Arkaba Homestead not far from WIlpena Pound which is a geological formation in the Flinders Range north of Adelaide. We started in the national park and headed west, crossing from one set of mountains to another. The "pound" itself, short for compound, is flat, but surrounded by mountains. The vegetation, wattles, gum trees and sycamores, was exotic, and the wildlife exotic. We followed the well blazed trails and soon ran into a flock of yearling emus who eyed us curiously, but warily. Then we climbed the west wall of the pound, old mountains in layers of red, gray and brown rock. We passed through the gap and left the national park heading down to the Hysen Trail, named for a painter who painted the area much as Georgia O'Keefe painted around Santa Fe. It was a steep descent and not all of it followed a well blazed trail, but we soon reached the main track in the valley, but we didn't stay on it long. We took an unmarked side track, not blazed at all, to our campground.	One of the walls of Wilpena Pound
Flat country	Our trail
Some emus	Another wall of the pound
A view from the gap	The Red Range before us as we began our descent
Another view of the Red Range	Red rocks
The spectacular layered mountains	Green

Keywords: australia, georgia

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