Thoughts from Jekyll Island: Being Part of The Millionaires Club or Looking Up from the Bottom

Jekyll Island, Georgia is where I was taken for my birthday. It was a phenomenal trip. We truly relaxed and allowed ourselves to enjoy the beauty around us. We walked, rode, drove, sat still and enjoyed a true quiet we haven’t heard in a while. We let ourselves be a part of the Millionaires Club for just a little while, and it was fun.

Jekyll Island has an interesting history that I had a blast digging into. The Rockefellers and Vanderbilts, JP Morgan and more were part of a group of wealthy business men and their families who purchased the island and set up a retreat like no other, on it’s shores. Kris and I are not millionaires (yet) but Kris has been saving for this trip for quite some time and had budgeted for a few extras along the way. Still, even in such an environment and even with the encouragement of my husband to choose “whatever” I wanted to do, it was hard not to consider cost. I realized I have been too long entrenched in the mindset of having less than the elite, to not consider my view as looking up from the bottom.

The interesting thing though, is not that I couldn’t enjoy the luxuries, because I assure you that I did. Once my mind was used to the idea of getting a pedicure and a massage at the spa after our bike ride on Thursday afternoon, I enjoyed it very much.

More interesting was looking back at what I enjoyed the most.

It wasn’t the spa, the best of the restaurants (in fact the most expensive ended up being the most disappointing), it wasn’t the opportunity to do “whatever” or shop without boundaries.

It was the view from the bottom that I loved the best.

I didn’t need a pass to the resort club, I didn’t need a cloth napkin at every meal, or fancy clothes and toe nails to take in the environment, the best of the island. I spent the first afternoon there wandering around feasting on the trees and flowers, gazing at the beach and marveling at the architecture. I knew right away that I would not be satisfied until I could capture at least some of it with the camera.

I will probably publish several picture posts from this trip. In this one I wanted to convey some of the man made beauty. This is what a few families with unlimited resources created over 100 years ago on an island that could only be accessed by boat. I’m still impressed.

This is the star of the island. It’s where your camera wants to go no matter what you intended to take pictures of. This spire is visible almost as soon as you see the island, and this is the view as you approach the entire resort area. The resort, and mainly this building at first, is where the millionaires first rested. It’s where they sat around the fireplace and talked. The picture at the top of this post is the main stairwell of this building. Every detail of it’s trim and it’s views was well planned and well executed. Several of the following pictures are of different parts of this same building.

The annex. This portion of the resort shoots off as an east wing of the hotel. It’s pretty even from a distance but I couldn’t help but admire the intricate detail put into even the lattice under these windows. Typically I despise lattice. I think it’s because I have always wanted it to look like this.

As each guest drives in they are welcomed into this carport awning. I loved the rounded look that framed the openings and the gorgeous azaleas flanking the structure.

I couldn’t decide which of these two similar angles to show you, so I included both. This is the resort from the North West side and the way it looked as we approached it each morning for breakfast. Our “cottage,” which I will reserve a separate post for, was just north of the resort hotel and had it’s own restaurant but did not serve breakfast. We were forced to endure walking to the grand dining room each day to start our day. The first photo is much closer to the building and you can see the spire much better. The second was actually earlier in the morning and includes a portion of the winding pathway and the warmth of the lights on the porches. Everything was welcoming and comfortable at every turn.

These photos show the back of the annex and resort in early morning light. The bottom one being my favorite of all the architecture photos. There is so much more to show you but this post is already painfully long. I didn’t even show you the porches yet. I think I will have to have a separate post dedicated exclusively to the porches.