Deeeep South Sojourn 2014: Tybee

We said goodbye to the Mississippi Gulf Coast a week and a half ago. After 10 hours of driving (with an overnight near Tallahassee) we returned to an old haunt: Tybee Island, Georgia. As we have done for the last two years, we're here for a week or two to chill before hitting the highway home.

Tybee is on the Atlantic, at the mouth of the Savannah River dividing Georgia and South Carolina and about 25 minutes from downtown Savannah. For a time called Savannah Beach, Tybee is where Savannahians go to swim, loll about on the sand, and party. It's a little tacky in parts, like Grand Bend or Wasaga Beach back home, but bigger and of course the season lasts a lot longer. In fact, it's about to get started now, with the onrush of spring and the run-up to St. Patrick's Day (more on this later).

Our place here is an old beach house (what we'd call a cottage). It's quite secluded and just a short walk from the ocean.

We're in the North Beach area, very close to the iconic Tybee lighthouse.

View of Tybee Lighthouse from our beach house

And at night -- it's still operational

The lighthouse, one of seven original colonial light stations (although largely rebuilt and heightened after the Civil War), is part of a historic complex of buildings that includes the head keeper's house. The Tybee Island Historical Society, which took possession of the property in 2002 under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, operates it today as a museum and tourist attraction.

View of Tybee Island from the lighthouse looking south-east

The Fresnel lens greatly amplifies the relatively small (750W) light source

Like most old resorts, Tybee in its heyday (1880s through the 1930s) had some wonderful big hotels, now long gone.

Hotel Tybee (date unknown) -- looks good to me too!

But in our neighbourhood, part of the Fort Screven National Historic District, there are still lots of buildings from the old resort era and the turn-of-the-century Fort Screven military complex. Mixed in are more-or-less sympathetic modern beach houses.