This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Jekyll Island Authority. The opinions and text are all mine.
Spring break came and went without much fanfare in the OKDani household. We decided we’d take a fun summer trip as a family to a theme park or a beach, but luckily the opportunity came up to visit Jekyll Island in Georgia and we jumped at the chance.
This was our first time at Jekyll Island (and John’s first time in Georgia – except driving through it on his way to/from New York). We only knew that it would be a quiet and nature-filled area and had no other real details about it. In this post I shared some of the amazing ways your family can enjoy Jekyll Island. Now I want to give you my family’s recap and the activities we enjoyed the most. We were able to jump in and get active walking and hiking trails, climbing trees on the beach, walking the shoreline and playing mini golf. If we weren’t at a planned outdoor activity, we were hanging out by the fire pit and the kids were running around on the sand enjoying the springtime sunshine.
When we arrived after a 6 hour drive (not bad with two monsters in the back seat and lots of pit stops) we quickly checked in to our hotel, had a snack and headed out for our first scheduled activity: Gators and Hiking!
In the Gatorology 101 class, we learned all about the American alligator and we got to touch a baby alligator named Tiny. Rohan is still talking about his “pet in Georgia” named Tiny. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did, but alligators are kinda fascinating. Can you picture a huge, fully grown alligator with an egg in her mouth, gently and delicately cracking it open with her razor sharp teeth, to get a teeny tiny baby gator out? Well, that’s legit how it happens. Isn’t that sweet?!
After the gator fun we hiked through the beautiful maritime forest on our own. Hiking was actually one of the highlights of our trip. It was a first for Kaya, but she was a trooper ’til the end. We saw the most beautiful foliage, and Ro tried to find snakes. Thankfully, he had no luck. But, we did spot lots of beautiful bright red birds and tried to spot eagles…failed again…but there are bald eagles on Jekyll Island, so when you go…look up!
We also really enjoyed the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. I learned so much about turtles there, I swear I can teach a course on it now! The staff and volunteers do so much to save, protect and care for these beautiful creatures. Honestly, I loved watching the kids run from exhibit to exhibit learning, playing, touching, reading and asking so many questions. There were a bunch of hands-on activities, and a viewing gallery to watch the staff caring for hurt turtles.
The center is split in two parts. The first area, is the exhibit gallery which has various centers for the kids (and adults) to learn everything there is to learn about the turtles of the area that are treated in the rehabilitation pavilion which is the second area.
Rohan was so interested in this “turtle hospital” that he interviewed one of the staff for a good 10 minutes. She was awesome with answering his many questions like “where is the vet?” “why aren’t you feeding the turtles?” and “how many turtles can you carry at once”
Driftwood Beach is another fun springtime location to visit on Jekyll Island. It is gorgeous! There are loads of fallen trees that have been petrified by the sun and the salt water. They are strikingly beautiful and haunting at the same time.
They’re also fun to just climb all over.
We enjoyed a few great meals on the island and heaps of family time together playing mini golf and enjoying the park. The only thing I truly wanted to do that we didn’t get around to, was renting bikes to tour around the island. We are so doing that next time. On future visits we will be more prepared too. I love to plan our vacations out to get the most of an area, so next time I’ll use Jekyll Island’s Seasonal Itineraries to make a better game plan and not miss anything cool.
It was a really lovely and relaxing long weekend. The drive up was crazy with both kids losing their ever-lovin’ minds, but we wised up on the way home. We left around 7pm and they knocked out immediately so we enjoyed a silent car ride home.
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