Tybee Or Not Tybee

Special Florida Edition

On Saturday we drove to Savannah and Tybee Island to meet up with Kari and Nora, to explore the city some, and to hang out for the weekend. Kari and Nora made the trek down from Atlanta early in the am, and we left Jacksonville just after breakfast. 

The 2.5 hour drive from Jacksonville was uneventful, if you ignore the constant rain (that nobody seemed to be able to predict…I think that there are only two weather computers in the country, and all weather people feed off of just those two) and the construction-caused traffic. We encountered what has now become probably my least favorite roadside sign: “Construction for next 32 miles.”

Despite coming on a 2.5 hour drive from the south, and a 5 hour drive from the northwest, we all arrived within 10 minutes of each other and met up at The Sentient Bean, a coffee shop in downtown Savannah. It was a cool place that was a center point for a lot of the political action that surrounded the G8 summit there a few years ago. Since it was raining when we finished our drinks and lunch, we decided to head out to where we were staying on Tybee Island – a beach community about 12 miles from Savannah. 

We had been looking into places to stay in Savannah for a little while, and discovered that attempting to stay in the historic/downtown area of the city was going to cost about as much as a new car. We were left with a decision on where to go, and instead of an interstate hotel, we hit up an inn on Tybee Island called The Hunter House. It was a good price for a two-room suite with a bedroom and a pullout queen couch, so we made reservations. We had read about the place in a few travel books, and figured that we had a good find. 

Then we got there. The island isn’t the quaint little place that we had envisioned, as we discovered by the billboards on I-95 advertising Tybee as “Savannah’s Beach.” But we held out hope until we saw all of the typical touristy places: t-shirts galore, lame restaurants, and cheesy painted homes. We pulled into the inn and were taken down to the suite on the first floor. It was run-down, had old crappy furniture, a questionable bathroom, a 15 inch TV (which may have been nice in 1986, but isn’t now). The bedroom was sparsely furnished, and the pullout bed was terrible at best. The place was livable for a night, so we decided to make the best of it and tough it out….but if you are ever looking for places to go on Tybee Island, run fast from The Hunter House.

We went back into Savannah for dinner, then returned to the place for the night. Ahna, Ezra, and I spent the night in the living room; and pulled the mattress off of the couch and slept on the floor. It wasn’t a terrible night of sleep, but it was far from good. Anyway, it certainly makes for good stories.

The next morning I woke early (not because it was time to rise, but because my back was on fire from the night’s sleep) and headed to the lighthouse to take some pictures while everyone else was waking up. It was cold that morning – 52 with a strong wind – so the pictures were taken fast since I only brought along shorts, short-sleeved shirts, and flip-flops. 

Following a good and greasy breakfast a some local establishment, we ran down one block to the beach so Nora could play in the sand. We stumbled upon a local surfing competition and watched that for a few minutes. Afterwards, we headed back into Savannah to wonder around. The weather broke overnight and presented us with a very pleasant day. We walked around the historic district, through some cemeteries, through lots of squares, around lots of horses and buggies, down River Street, and next to all sorts of cool and old buildings. We ended the time together with some coffee and snacks in a park and headed off in our different directions.