The very first blog I wrote was about our new adventures at SSI Casa de Playa.  So, it’s only fitting that today, the day we closed on the sale of our beloved beach getaway, I share with you some parting thoughts and memories from this particular chapter in our journey of life:

1. My first impression of St. Simons Island is still the same.  It is a wonderful, quaint place to relax and forget the day-to-day stresses of life.  Whether coming over the causeway or driving beneath the canopy of the Live Oak Trees draped in Spanish Moss you will slow down…..you will breathe in….you will exhale….you will relax.
   

   Spanish Moss drapes the overhanging trees of Old Demere Rd.

   2.  The island is filled with so much beauty…..in my view it truly  is the crown jewel of the The Golden Isles of Georgia

   

   Awakenings – Sunrise, East Beach, Gould’s Inlet

   

   Georgia Brown Eagle Settings: AVf/40; TV 1/100; ISO 800; 400mm

   

   Car Carrier Passing the Village Pier

   

   Sunset Over the Sidney LanierBridge

   

   

   

   Gould’s Inlet SSI

   

   Walk on the beach at low tide

   

   Bird in Flight

   

   SSI Lighthouse

3.  I’m still humbled by the experience of our little island home.  As I mentioned in my first post,  we were excited, cautious and humbled about this journey.  My husband and I did what we do best at SSI Casa de Playa……like an artist with a blank canvas, we carefully and artfully transformed it, leaving pieces of ourselves behind.  In a sense it is our way of showing gratitude for being able to experience such a wonderful place.

4. And, lastly…….We will return.  Indeed, this passage is bittersweet.  But, the friends we met and the memories we made will keep drawing us back to this special place by the sea. Of course, we can’t leave this beautiful place without mentioning our dear friends, Meg and Bart without whom we would have never discovered all of the beauty, the history and the warmth this island has to offer.  “Life is a journey, not a destination…you are the artist paint what you will.”

As I close out this post I thought it only appropriate to share with you an excerpt from a poem “The Marshes of Glynn” which was written by Sidney Lanier (2/3/1842 – 9/7/1881):

“As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod,
Behold I will build me a nest on the greatness of God:
I will fly in the greatness of God as the marsh-hen flies
In the freedom that fills all the space ‘twixt the marsh and the skies:
By so many roots as the marsh-grass sends in the sod
I will heartily lay me a-hold on the greatness of God:
Oh, like to the greatness of God is the greatness within
The range of the marshes, the liberal marshes of Glynn.
And the sea lends large, as the marsh: lo, out of his plenty the sea
Pours fast: full soon the time of the flood-tide must be.”

Sidney Lanier Bridge, Golden Isles Georgia