Day Trip to St. Marys Georgia

Yesterday was a beautiful day so we decided to head to St. Marys, Georgia (the last town before Florida) to see the sites and scope out the National Park Service to Cumberland Island, a trip we plan on taking at a later date.  What a cute little town with a neat little riverfront!  It's not big, but it is enough to make these two retirees happy.  We stopped at the visitors center to check things out and to get our bearings.  No problem since only two streets make up the main center of town.
We headed first to what is called the Orange House.  No, it is not orange.  It's white.  See.

Susie, the docent met us in the parlor where we chatted for a quite awhile and discovered that she had moved to St. Marys eleven years ago from Media PA.  Lo and behold!  Another Pennsylvanian who has moved to Georgia for it's milder, gentler climate.  Once Susie gave us the historic background of the house we roamed its rooms freely.  It was fun to see the basement rooms that were used by the Union Troops during the Civil War.  I loved the brick walls and the white washed rafters.

Our next stop was the historic Presbyterian Church, immediately across the street. The Orange House was in fact built to house the Pastor and his family.  Not your typical rectors home but it was built for the pastor and his new wife by the happy father-in-law.  Nice, huh!

We then headed to the riverfront where we decided to have lunch at the Riverside Cafe as recommended by Susie.

Surprisingly, it is a Greek/American restaurant.  Gyros, spanokopita, braised lamb shank, greek salad along with crab cakes, burgers and salads.  Ron had the crab cake and I opted for the spanokopita.  The portions were very generous and the food was good.  After seeing the dessert case we decided to come back later for our pick.

We walked the waterfront and went to the Information Center for the National Park Service where we got the low down for our Cumberland Island Trip, i.e., ferry schedule, what you can and can't bring, how to dress etc.  The island is completely wild so you need to be prepared for where you are going.  Here's a picture of the ferry that takes you across the St. Marys river to the island.

We took a stroll to a beautiful park along the river and spent time there just admiring the surrounding beauty and chatting with other friendly visitors.  We headed back to the Riverside Cafe to make good on our promise to return for dessert.  We sat outside on the porch overlooking the river side and enjoyed Ron's cheesecake and my Napoleon.  Decadent!

Peace and love to all!