Roadtrip to Florida – Day 5 in Tybee Island, Georgia

Well, one of the beautiful things about just going and having no plan is the pleasant surprises you could find.  That happened today.  We left SC this morning expecting to spend the day in Savannah, then driving through to Orlando to spend the night.  It turned out to be such a beautiful day that I decided to make a beeline for a beach.  I’ve heard great things about Tybee Island but have never been anywhere around these parts.  It’s a small beach town, with several restaurants and bars – and a few tourist shops.  It’s very quaint and I think they want to keep it that way.

We pulled into town starving so we grabbed a bite at Spanky’s.  There is a nice public parking lot right next to the pier and beach – $2/hour for prepay tickets.  We ran in to Spanky’s as it was right there (I wanted on the beach dining but there isn’t any).  It wasn’t bad and moderately priced.  They have a specialty – basically fried sliced potatoes (breaded).  I didn’t have any as I am watching the gluten but there seem to be a lot of happy diners and for being off season, they had a decent crowd.

I asked for a hotel recommendation – hotels.com gave me several options at a reasonable price (most on or under $100/night).  It is off season and a weekday so the Hotel Tybee was available for $84.  Even though I booked an inside room, the lady at the desk nicely offered me an ocean view king.  The hotel seems a little need of renovation but they have done a nice job of updating decor and keeping it very clean.

We walked right out onto the beach and made friends with a family from Atlanta.  It was a gorgeous day, the water was perfect (one or two rather rough waves) and perfect for boogie boarding.  They have chairs and umbrellas for rent right on the beach.  We were perfectly content playing in the temperate water for hours.

Our new friends (Natalya and Bobby – and family) invited us to tag along for dinner at Sting Ray’s.   The adults each got the steamed platter – a large platter of shrimp, clams, mussels, crab legs, crawdads, corn, potatoes and sausage! WOW – each one was plenty for two.  We took a short stroll up a couple of blocks to the ice cream and candy shop Seaside Sweets.  They have their ice cream made fresh by a chef but they were running out.  Ellie and I had a delicious banana fudge chunk.  Reminds me of a chocolate banana – banana chunks and large pieces of chocolate- YUM!

We walked back to our hotel where Ellie and I went for a walk on the beach.  It was a perfect night and a walk out to the end of the pier was a perfect ending to the day.  There were people taking romantic strolls and even people fishing in the dark.  Ellie’s down hard now – a day at the beach will do it every time.

Good night y’all.  Next time you need a little beach getaway think about Tybee Island, you won’t be disappointed.