Travel – Page 16 – TORsAdventures

Spring Fling

January 25, 2016January 17, 2016

I am so excited that I just booked my Spring Fling trip. I can’t say that I came up with the name but it works for me! I will be going to the King and Prince resort on St. Simons Island. If you are not familiar St. Simons is a small island off the coast of Georgia. I have been there many times before but never in the spring time.

“The community and the island are interchangeable, known simply as “St. Simons Island”, or locally as “The Island”. St. Simons is part of the Brunswick, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area, and according to the 2010 census, the island had a population of 12,743.

Located on the southeast Georgia coast, midway between Savannah and Jacksonville, St. Simons Island is both a seaside resort and residential community. It is the largest of Georgia’s renowned Golden Isles (along with Sea Island, Jekyll Island, and privately owned Little St. Simons Island). Visitors are drawn to the Island for its warm climate, beaches, variety of outdoor activities, shops and restaurants, historical sites, and its natural environment.

Originally inhabited by tribes of the Creek Nation, the area of South Georgia that includes St. Simons Island was contested by the Spaniards, English and French. After securing the Georgia colony, the English cultivated the land for rice and cotton plantations worked by large numbers of African slaves, who created the unique Gullah culture that survives to this day.” via Wikipedia

These are just a few of the things that I will be doing on my trip!

Visit the King and Prince Resort’s ECHO restaurant.
Tour St. Simons Island aboard the Lighthouse Trolley.
Culinary exploration of the finest Georgia Grown Products and Island Dining! Including Georgia Sea Grill, Gnat’s Landing and Sandcastle Café!
Learn to paint a gorgeous sunrise at The King and Prince with ‘Get Your Muse On’
Hop aboard the ‘Lady Jane’ for an eco adventure through the famed Marshes of Glynn
Spring Libations in the Oceanfront ECHO Lounge and Under the Stars~

Spur of the moment BEACH DAY!

January 22, 2016January 23, 2016

Sometimes you just need to get away to the beach and the salt filled air can fix anything. Well that might be just me but a friend of mine lives in Pompano Beach so it can’t hurt to check right? I hoped on Orbitz and saw that flights from Chicago were about $100! Yes you’re reading that right $100 round-trip! I decided to book a 6 day getaway and also catch a hockey game while I was in town. Last year at this time I was living in St. Augustine and came down for the same hockey games and had blast. But back to the beach …

After fetching my rental car that cost more than my flight I picked a spot on the map and drove straight to the beach. Fort Lauderdale was the closest. I grabbed a slice of pizza from a beach side cafe and just sat in the sand for at least an hour. After that I drove to my fiends house changed into my suit and found a beach a little closer to her house.

That’s where Deerfield Beach comes in. I navigated myself to A1A and knew I would find something. This place was great. It has these huge rocks on the shore and the waves were crashing onto them. That might be one of my favorite sounds on the planet. Sure is relaxing.

Ruby Falls – Tennessee

January 11, 2016January 11, 2016

I found a delightful pit stop off the I-24 highway when I was headed south. You see quite a few signs for Ruby Falls when you’re on the highway and might think that its a tourist trap but it was actually pretty cool. In 1928, Leo Lambert and a team of excavators found a breathtaking waterfall located over 1,120 feet below the surface of Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, TN. Lambert named the falls after his wife, Ruby, and opened the area as a public attraction in 1930. Today, Ruby Falls welcomes thousands of visitors each year. Come tour the falls for yourself and see why it has been one of the best Chattanooga attractions for over 85 years. – Via www.rubyfalls.com

The cave when you walk in is so low that I could touch the ceiling without being on my toes. I am 5’6 but it was very easy. I know that my Dad who is 6’4 would have had some issues walking around and even getting to the waterfall.

Ruby Falls Cave, unlike Lookout Mountain Cave, had no natural openings and could not be entered until the 20th Century; it therefore does not have the various artifacts which are often associated with caves in the southeastern United States. In 1905 the natural entrance to Lookout Mountain Cave was closed during the construction of a railway tunnel. In the 1920s a chemist and cave enthusiast named Leo Lambert thought that he could re-open the cave as a tourist attraction, and formed a company to do so. He planned to make an opening further up the mountain than the original opening and transport tourists to the cave via an elevator. For this purpose, his company purchased land on the side of Lookout Mountain above Lookout Mountain Cave and in 1928 began to drill through the limestone. In doing so, they discovered a small passageway about 18 inches high and four feet wide. Exploring this opening, Lambert discovered the formerly hidden Ruby Falls Cave and its waterfall. On his next trip to visit the cave, Lambert took his wife Ruby, and told her that he would name the falls after her.

In 1954, the pathway around the basin was cut in order to allow tourists a better view of the falls. This began the tour-related quip regarding not drinking the falls’ water. Though pure and thus safe to drink, it has large concentrations of magnesium from the strata of the mountain, which makes it a natural laxative. Via en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Falls

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