Cumberland

We returned last night from a trip to southeat GA. The girls were glad to be back after being gone for a week. While Bruce was working in Alabama last year, he signed up for a program with the hotel he was using and he ended up with enough points to stay for 1 night in Savannah or 3 nights in Kingsland. We hied us hence to Kingsland! It is just in land from St. Marys. Cute place and the launch for Cumberland Island. I've heard so much about Cumberland and was quite excited to see it. Honestly, it's a lot of walking. However, if this doesn't deter you, you really must see this place. To get a concise history of the island, go here: http://www.ameliamaritime.com/tour/cumberland2.html
We left as early as we could. At the first stop are the Carnegie houses. Thomas Carnegie (younger brother of Andrew) and Lucy (Thomas' wife) raised their family on this little island. It seemed so bizarre to me to picutre the island with almost no live oaks, but the plantation owners had just about cleared the island for crops at one time. It was also amazing to think that the ladies who lived on the island wore all those clothes. It was HOT!
Around lunch, we caught the second ferry to the second dock for our visit to the beach. The second dock is at the narrowest part of the island-only 1/2 mile to the beach. It is also where you can camp, which we plan to do one day...
The walk between the dock and the beach is one of the prettiest things I've ever seen. Rather like walking through a fairy tale with all the wonder and just enough menace if you let your self think about it. The dunes are very wide and high. What dunes on this coast should look like were it not for all the development. The beach was astonishingly wide and shallow. We got there at low tide so it seemed even more so. Bruce and I had a blast throwing the baseball and he and the girls ahad a great time in the water. I neglected to wear my bathing suit. THAT won't happen again.
We made it back to the dock early to catch the boat back to St. Marys. On our way back a buttfly/fairy led us along the path all the way to the dock. It was a bit strange. Because it was low tide, the river side of the island water was low and there were thousands of small fiddler crabs on the banks. Ysabel figures she could herd them around and began to use then to chase Molly. Hysterical!
When we got back to St. Marys, we were starving, so we stopped at a quaint (I hate that word but it WAS!) hotel restaurant and I had the best shrimp and grits! They tossed in some spicy andouille sausage, too. YUMMO!
We got back to the hotel for a swim and serious sleep.
I can't really describe what Cumberland did to my senses. All fairytale and all history and all nature and how does one make all of this combine.