Riding in Style

Monday brought an end to our fun weekend in Georgia, which meant it was time to hit the road back to Jacksonville to hop our flight.

Tommy (the uncle mentioned in the previous post with the fabulous house in Brunswick) had already loaned us an Acura SUV to use for the weekend, which allowed us to ride comfortably in style as we drove all over Darien, Brunswick, St Simons and even to Savannah. However, the ride to the airport topped it all as Tommy drove us in a limo from his car dealership:

I believe it was the Ford Expedition limo, which meant that there was plenty of room for our bags:

You could tell from the interior that the limo was commonly used for wedding and prom rentals:

Although we skipped drinking any bubbly on our trip, we all had a fun time checking out the interior on our hour-long ride to the airport:


Including the snazzy lights on the walls:

I only wish every trip ended with something fun and out of the ordinary, to cushion the return back to reality!

Sitting on the Edge of the Dock...in Brunswick

After the family lunch on St. Simons, we headed off the island to the next town over, Brunswick, to visit Tommy and Ginger, another uncle and aunt of Andrew's. Their house was one of the nicest I had ever seen as they had designed it from the ground up and Tommy had personally spent time finishing all the different wood floors in the house. As nice as the interior was, the exterior of the house was equally as fabulous.

This is the view of their backyard from the second deck of the house - you can see the long dock that leads to the marsh, which is just a few miles out from sea. In fact, during warmer months, Tommy and Ginger often boat through the marshes out to sea to spend time on neighboring islands.

This is the pool, hot tub and gorgeous brick work they also have in the back - what you can't tell from the pictures is that the "pool" is actually filled with heated water (104 degrees) and the "hot tub" has the cooler temps:

I was excited to go on the dock to get a closer look at the scenery:

This is the view of their house from the dock:

As it was low tide, you could see all the marsh mud along the water line - Andrew's cousin Mason described it as the foulest smelling substance if you have the misfortune to fall into it (while jet skiing) but lucky for us, you couldn't smell it the day we were out. And even more scary, it's common for alligators to roam in this area, which is why Tommy and Ginger have installed a special stone retaining wall along their property:

I wished the day was warm enough for us to take the boat out, but it was still a lovely sight and wonderful to breathe in the fresh air:

Obligatory shot of Andrew and I enjoying the view from the dock:

We headed back to the house to lounge on the second floor deck, as it was getting close to dinner. Tom snapped this shot of me taking a picture of Andrew:

And here's the picture that I took:

Here's a shot of how beautifully decorated the deck was - it gives you a clue of how nice the house was overall. There was just enough of a nip in the air to make a fire feel very welcome:

Once the sun started to set, I joined Andrew's cousins on the deck to take a few more shots of the marsh:

It was a beautiful end to a great weekend!

Best. Bread. Basket. EVER!

Based on Amanda's research on Yelp, Barbara Jean's was selected as the site for the last family lunch together and it was the site of my favorite meal all weekend (followed closely by Clary's):



Can I say that I'm still dreaming about the bread basket? Due to our party's large size, we actually ended up being split into three separate tables which meant that Andrew, Amanda, their cousin Ilana and I shared a table. The reason I mention this is because our bread basket came with around 7 pieces of bread and we ate two baskets worth of bread between the four of us! The favorite by far was the pumpkin bread, but the jalapeno cornbread (complete corn kernels) and the wheat roll (sounds boring but incredibly good):



As you may have noted from Barbara Jean's sign, they are known for their crab cakes and so the whole table decided to order them. I was almost tempted by their menu option to have five sides as your meal (I often feel like I enjoy sides more than entrees sometime) but I was swayed by the fact that a simple crab cake meal came with two sides. Andrew and I ended up splitting our sides, so I got to taste four different things.


My 7 oz crab cake with squash salad and ambrosia salad (a heavenly combo of coconut, marshmallow, mandarin orange and pineapple):



Andrew went with the crab cake/shrimp combo with cheesy grits (the only grits that I actually liked from tasting them all weekend, as these were very savory and resembled potatoes) and spinach:


We were really too full for dessert, but yet again, couldn't pass up on the opportunity to indulge in some Southern specialties.

Amanda went with the key lime pie - very good but we both agreed that Clary's still holds the title as best:



Buried under all that whipped cream is peach cobbler - I was able to cajole the whole table into eating some with me:



Afterwards, we headed to a neighboring park to take a last set of family photos. Granddad was the one constant in all the pictures, so everyone took turns taking pictures with him.

This series of Amanda and Granddad was one of my favorites (taken by Tom):




A shot of the four of us (and the lovely green bag that Amanda and Adam got me for Christmas):



Finally, a group shot of everyone that made it out for lunch - Cousin Mason and his girlfriend Jaime; Tom, Amanda and Charlotte; Aunt Sue, Granddad, Uncle Doug; Cousins Ilana and Meredith and Meredith's fiance Adam:

Sunday on St. Simons Island

Saturday may have been rainy but Sunday ended up being nice and sunny and warm.


We headed back to St Simons island for a more thorough tour of the island. After a thwarted attempt to see luxury homes and The Cloisters (luxury hotel) on neighboring Sea Island, we stopped by the King & Prince resort to check out stunning beach views (and for Andrew, Amanda and Tom to reminisce about a past stay) - although clouds had started rolling in at that point, it was still beautiful out.




If you're noticing a funny expression on our faces, I think it's because it took Tom longer than expected to start taking the picture and we weren't sure when we were supposed to smile!

Next, we headed over to Coast Guard beach:

Can I say that it was truly amazing to wear sandals in January and be comfortable? Of course, this is January in Georgia rather than Boston, but it was still cool!


As my sister calls us, a nice shot of JoyceDrew and the beautiful weather behind us:



Amanda truly got into the warm weather, she kicked off her flats and walked barefoot on the beach:






I spent the whole time walking on the beach looking for sharks' teeth. Apparently, this part of Georgia is known for being a popular shark breeding ground (shudder) and Andrew, Amanda and Adam used to find teeth all the time washed up on the shore. Alas, I didn't find a tooth despite my efforts but I did see a jellyfish:


Our last stop before lunch was visiting the historic Christ Church, the second oldest Episcopal church in Georgia and where a famous Georgia novelist - Eugenia Price - is buried:


Again, the atmosphere was incredible, especially with the live oaks and Spanish moss everywhere:

We stopped for pictures in front of a mammoth tree - this thing looked like it had been around for hundreds of years!

I also managed to take a decent shot of Andrew with his family (all that was missing was his brother Adam!):

A passing rain shower convinced us it was time to head into the village part of St Simons to meet up with the rest of extended family for lunch.

Saturday in Savannah

Saturday morning found us eating at B&J's in Darien, Georgia.

Andrew's dad deliberately chose it since it's one of his favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants. He wanted us to get a taste of a real Southern breakfast complete with atmosphere, as in, everyone around us was a shrimper or a hunter in a camouflage clothing.

I think everyone definitely pegged us as out of towners, but everyone was friendly (in true Southern fashion). After all, who could resist our smiling faces?

Onto the food - we opted for the breakfast buffet since it let us try a little of everything. Keep in mind, I didn't even come close to finishing everything on my plate but I wanted to try everything.

It was totally a unhealthy (but delicious) meat overload - bacon, a hunk of sausage (one tiny bite of this convinced me to leave this alone), eggs, a sausage patty, gravy, grits, potatoes and a biscuit. I ended up making a mini sandwich with the sausage patty, gravy and the biscuit, yummy.

As you can see over Tom's shoulder, the rustic interior matched the casual vibe of B&J's. After dropping Andrew's mom at his granddad's place, we drove up the coast to Savannah. Since it was the one rainy day of the weekend, our tour of the city and its gorgeous historical homes was limited to what we could see from the car.

For lunch, we had the chance to eat at Clary's, a Savannah institution that appeared in the movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil":


The restaurant was hopping, and I was charmed by the stained glass windows, including one that simply said "Clary's Cafe" over Andrew's shoulder:

And the other showing the iconic statue "Bird Girl" that appeared on the cover of John Berendt's novel that the movie was based on:

The menu was incredible! The breakfast menu looked so good that I considered having another meal with breakfast foods. In the end, I opted for a light meal to leave room for dessert. No regrets on that front, my Greek salad was pretty ordinary (so not picture worthy) but the french onion soup was wonderful - tons of gooey cheese, flavorful broth and sliced onions:

Amanda followed the same soup and salad strategy for lunch, and enjoyed a creamy tomato bisque that she also deemed excellent:

I think one of Andrew's favorite meals in the world is eggs benedict, so for lunch, he had the crab cakes benedict with a side of cheesy grits - he signalled his approval of the meal by clearing his plate:

Tom went with a hot dog with all the fixings (I admit, I almost ordered this when I saw it on the menu) with a side of fries:

Now for the best part, the classic southern desserts!

The best key lime pie that I've ever tasted - I was the lucky one to have ordered this:

Amanda's pecan pie with vanilla ice cream (long story, Andrew had ordered this originally but once Amanda decided to get dessert, she decided that the pecan pie looked good and he decided what he really wanted was lemon meringue, so a switch was orchestrated):

Andrew made a wise decision to switch - the lemon meringue was again, the best I had ever tasted. A nice balance of sweet and tart with some heavenly meringue on top:

By the time we arrived back at Andrew's granddad's house, the whole family had gathered for a celebratory birthday dinner. I put the camera down for this part of the festivities, but let me say that the Moroccan chicken and couscous that Andrew's Aunt Mary and Uncle Dave made were delicious! I made sure to get a copy of the recipe and will definitely be making it in the future.

Next came the gift opening portion of the night - we were celebrating granddad's birthday in addition to Mary's 60th birthday:

That's all of Andrew's cousins (plus significant others) watching the gift opening with a few of Andrew's uncles and aunt in the background:

That's Mary in white, closest to the camera, with the rest of clustered in the back (you can just see my head poking out from behind Amanda) - this picture is courtesy of Andrew's dad Tom, which is why you don't see him in the picture!

Andrew, Amanda and I take a few seconds to mug for the camera, with the beautiful toile carpets swags in the background:

And one of the highlights of the evening, a family shot courtesy of the timer on Tom's camera: