Feeling Beachy... Part II

Ten things you must do when visiting Tybee Island (in no particular order)!

ONE:

You must walk to the Pier for fresh grilled hot dog or hamburger and chase it with a hand-dipped waffle cone!!! Yummy! A favorite tradition of mine!

TWO:

You must walk to the end of the pier which goes WAY out into the water and look into the ocean, smell the salty breeze, and see if all the people fishing are catching anything! (If you are freaked out by things swimming in the ocean with you, you might want to put this activity off until your last day!) ;-)

THREE:

No picture here, but you absolutely must go to the tacky beachy shops that are right there a off the beach. What's a vacation without cheap-O touristy shops with funky souvenirs and over sized shells of unnatural colors! :-)

FOUR:

You must visit the Tybee Island Lighthouse! There is a little, charming lighthouse on the way to Tybee called the Cockspur lighthouse, but that is not the official Tybee Island lighthouse. The one you see above is the real deal and it's a short bike ride from anywhere on the island (as the island is only 5 miles long at it's longest points!)

FIVE:

You have to spend LOTS of time sitting on the beach and sitting on the balcony enjoying cold tropical beverages and reading great summer reads! That is what the beach is all about to me... sitting and laying around, resting your eyelids or reading while you listen to the waves - is there anything better than that?

SIX:

You have to GET IN! Okay, so I somehow escaped photographs of me IN the water, other than this one, which doesn't really show what I mean. When I go to the beach I have to get in... I mean really in... hair wet, tossed around by the waves, scrape your knees on the sand, kind of in! :-) I will always be a water-bug at heart and I still LOVE to play in the waves!!!

SEVEN:

Eat LOTS and LOTS of seafood! Especially those WONDERFUL Georgia Wild Shrimp! I especially recommend A-J's Dockside Restaurant on the back side of the island. They have GREAT seafood and ALL of their seating is outside on the docks! It's fabulous and although I didn't see dolphins while eating dinner, I hear it's a common sight and that doesn't surprise me because I always see dolphins when I visit Tybee!

EIGHT:

Have fun and be super silly! When you're at the beach, you just gotta a let go! There's no better place to let it all go and be silly than the Crab Shack! It's another GREAT seafood place on the water outside! They have lots of alligators that you can feed (from a distance), lots of silly things to do while you wait, and the best low country boil you can find!!!

NINE:

Take or rent a bike. Don't laugh, I know this sounds totally CrAzY coming from me and it's not anything I ever would have dreamed up or even considered on my own, but I gave into peer pressure and agreed to get on a bike for this first time since I was probably twelve or younger! I was a little rusty at the balance thing and the foot break thing, but once I got to peddling it was... well... like riding a bike! :-) Our bikes had baskets on the front and we had SO MUCH FUN!!!! We rented them one night and road on the beach down to the pier and back. The next day we rode (in the rain in the AM) to the lighthouse, had lunch, and then biked around the whole island on the back streets to see the marshes and beach houses and enjoy the day. I will never go to Tybee again without renting a bike for at least a day to peddle around the Island - it was great fun and cheap too!

TEN:

Go to Savannah! Although I didn't actually go this trip because we were only there for a few days, I would recommend it to anyone headed that direction... especially those of you who have never been to Savannah! It's a beautiful city with some great shops, beautiful squares and gardens, fun tours, and wonderful restaurants!

So there you have it! Have I made you want to go to Tybee yet? I promise I don't work for the Department of Tourism in Georgia... the place truly is just that neat! So... now I am curious... have any of you ever been? If so, do you share some of my sentiments? Have you done some of my top ten things?