Tybee Island and Oatland Island Wildlife Center

As I noted yesterday, we arrived in Savannah a little late in the day. We checked into our hotel - stayed in a Wingate by Wyndham. Very nice hotel - down comforters, fluffy towels, hot breakfast - really nice. Tuesday morning we headed out to Tybee Island where we hoped to take a boat ride to see dolphins. After the adorable (not) Miss Aggie led us in a most roundabout way, we finally reached Capt Mike's Dolphin Tours. We arrived at 12:50 PM - the next tour was to leave at 1 PM. Great timing in spite of our GPS! We walked down to the dock to board as the tour guide was counting heads - oops! It seems that the 4H tour neglected to include the bus driver and counselor in their head count when they made their reservations. So sorry, they said, but you'll have to wait for the next trip at 3:30. 

Off we go to visit the lighthouse and its museum - oops! It's Tuesday, so both are closed! Fine! We'll go to the Marine Science Center - which could have easily fit in anyone's family room (with the exception of one nasty snake that my husband hid from me - thank you, Mike). I really have a most unreasonable fear and dislike of such things - cannot even discuss them. We walked up to the pier to take a look see - people fish off the pier, and you can also walk down the stairs to the beach. There are concessions that aren't open during the week this time of year, but they did have pretty cool restroom doors. Unfortunately, it was very embarrassing when I was caught taking a picture as a gentleman exited - I did explain that I was really only trying to take a picture of the door.

We walked around the block a bit - afterall, we did have over 2 hours to kill. There were just the usual tourist gift shops - mostly junk, a couple of restaurants, and ice cream store - so we got Mike an ice cream and me an iced coffee. It was very warm - in the mid-80's, so we got back into our air-conditioned car and drove around the island. Wow! There are some really fantastic homes - many of them are available for vacation rentals. Most of them are so big - I can't imagine needing that much space!

We finally drove back to Capt Mike's with just a short time to wait. We piled onto the boat with about 3 dozen kids and 10 adults, plus the captain and the guide. The boat left the dock, and we were on our way to see dolphins - everyone was looking really hard to see them splashing in the water. We saw a few here and there, and the farther out we went the more we saw. I tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to get some pictures, but they are really fast. The zoom on my camera also decided to stop working earlier in the day, so what few pictures I did get, you can barely see anything. After about an hour, the boat returned to the dock. It was interesting and informative - well worth the cost.

Wednesday morning (the 13th) it was time to head South again. On the way out of town, we visited the Oatland Island Wildlife Center with natural habitat exhibits of wildlife indigenous to the area. The setting is very natural, with paths winding through a forested area. There are not a lot of different animals, but their "homes" are well designed. There are also some very old buildings from the 1800's that were taken apart and rebuilt on the grounds by volunteers. My photos are not what I had hoped for, not having the zoom available, but some of the animals were close enough for decent pictures. All in all, it was an enjoyable walk through an interesting environment.


Next stop - the oldest and continually occupied European established city in the continental US