St. Simons Island --- A hard-packed sand beach lines one side of Georgia's second-largest island, which is cut through by salt marshes. Gnarled live oak trees, dripping Spanish moss, arch over narrow streets.
"We spent every summer there, " Atlantan Sally Lowe Whitehead writes in her memoir, "The Truth Shall Set You Free." As a child, she watched her mother and father "glide across the dance floor like Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire" at the King and Prince hotel. As she returned throughout the years, she found that "St. Simons Island could restore me."
Part of the appeal of repeat trips is to revisit local landmarks, to reassess what the intervening years have brought. For first-time visitors, there's the chance to sample something new and vivid.
I went down recently for a long weekend, tagging along with friends attending a conference. We, too, stayed at the King and Prince, a beautifully landscaped hotel with Mediterranean-style buildings, tennis courts, pools and an attentive staff.
It was far more luxurious than my first trip nearly 20 years earlier, when I stayed in a small cottage without air conditioning --- though both were equally enjoyable.
Over those years, St. Simons has spiffed itself up, like so many Southeast beach towns. Its population of 15,000 doubles in the summer as visitors come to rent condos, beach houses or hotel rooms. Home prices have skyrocketed, more areas have been developed and new condos are still going up. It has a bit of a Southern Living look, with well-scrubbed children being shepherded out of SUVs, but the old island is there as well.
My friends and I looked up the old familiar places. We ate at the Sandcastle, an unassuming little restaurant with homemade muffins, on Mallory Street in the downtown area known as the Village. (On a weekend morning, go early or it will be packed.)
We strolled around to see the sights. The lighthouse --- built in 1872 and still guiding ships --- towers over the downtown areas. The lighthouse keeper's cottage is now a museum.
Nearby is the town pier, where you'll find people fishing and crabbing. Next to it is Neptune Park, not named for the sea god, but for a servant, Neptune Small, who brought his master's body home from a Civil War battlefield in Virginia. For that service, Small was given four acres, which eventually became the park.
In the evening, we stopped in at Sweet Mama's, the ice cream parlor you might as well walk to each night after supper.
Nearby, and side by side, are the Crab Trap and Crabdaddy's, one restaurant with fried seafood, the other with grilled. We made the requisite trip to Mullet Bay restaurant to eat seafood outside on its wide veranda.
We spent time on the beach, of course, where shrimp boats and large ships pass to the nearby port of Brunswick. On Saturday afternoon, a man showed off a 3- to-4-foot nurse shark he'd caught. Two large pelicans swooped down to make a catch. I looked up to see a group of dolphins frolicking close to shore.
Locals Cap Fendig and Woody Shelnutt offer a 90-minute dolphin-watching cruise from the Golden Isles Marina.
One year, my family kayaked through the marshes, weaving our way past the waving grasses to the sea. SouthEast Adventure Outfitters rents kayaks and offers a guided three-hour excursion. In addition, the owners of the Marsh Hen, a 26-foot pontoon, take passengers on a salt marsh nature tour up tidal creeks.
Another excursion is a visit to Fort Frederica, the ruins of an 18th-century British fort built to defend the island from the Spanish. It's near Bloody Marsh, the site of a 1742 battle between the British and Spanish.
Christ Church is a historic landmark dating from 1736. It was used as a setting by historical novelist Eugenia Price in her book "The Beloved Invader." Price is buried in the church cemetery.
This year, my friends and I found a new entertainment. We took a tour of the island led by Hamp Stevens, whose jeep pulls a golf-cart-like vehicle that can hold about 10 people. It cost $10 for adults.
A slightly longer tour, the St. Simons Trolley, is available for $20. Children's tickets are half-price for both.
Stevens pointed out the little house at 1104 Seacrest where Margaret Mitchell is said to have finished her novel "Gone With the Wind."
We saw an original tabby building (made of oyster shells, sand and lime), and we saw new condominiums going up. Stevens stopped to show us the oldest of the live oaks, many of which are hundreds of years old.
Finally, he pulled in the back driveway of a house near the Sea Island Golf Club. It was his own home, with a large lawn stretching to St. Simons Sound, shaded by a big oak with rocking chairs on the grass. We lounged in the shade for a little while before the tour ended.
On a Friday morning, my friend and I took a walk on the beach. Down near the point, we saw a conch shell strolling across the sand. Inside, of course, was a hermit crab, which became perfectly still when we examined it. Crows and gulls perched near the beach. A garter snake slithered across the boardwalk near the Coast Guard station. A block from the beach, outside our villa, mourning doves cooed with that peaceful, eerie sound they make.
Even returning to the same beach year after year, you never know what your vacation will bring. It could be the exquisite boredom of lying in a beach chair all afternoon, adrift in memory. Or it could be the excitement of some new adventure you'd like to try.
IF YOU GO
Where to stay
> King and Prince Beach and Golf Resort, 201 Arnold Road, is among the best known on the island. 1-800-342-0212; www.kingandprince.com. Summer rates run from $214 to $305 per night (through Aug. 5).
Others include:
> Queens Court, 437 Kings Way, 912-638-8459. Single room, $74 per night; double, $84; two-bedroom suite with kitchenette, $94.
> St. Simons Inn, 609 Beachview Drive, 912-638-1101. $119-$159 per night.
The Visitor Information Center (below) has information on real estate companies that rent houses and condos.
Attractions
> Fort Frederica National Monument, 6615 Frederica Road. Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. $3 per person. 912-638-3639.
> Christ Church, 6329 Frederica Road.
> Lighthouse Museum, in the Village at 101 12th St. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; 1:30-5 p.m. Sundays. $6 adults, $3 children. 912-638-4666, www.saintsimonslighthouse.org.
Tours
> Dolphin-watching tours. Call for times and reservations. $24 adults, $12 children. 912-638-5678, www.saintsimonstransit.com.
> Salt Marsh Nature Tour with Captain Jeanne or Captain Jim. Four to six passengers, $50 per person. Two hours. 912-638-9354, www.marshtours.com.
> SouthEast Adventure Outfitters. Kayak excursion is $50 for adults and $40 for children. 313 Mallory St. in the Village. 912-638-6732, www.gacoast.com/sea.html.
> St. Simons Trolley. Leaves from pier in Village. 90 minutes. Tickets or reservations not required. 912-638-8954, www.stsimonstours.com.
> Historic Island Tour offered by Hamp Stevens. Leaves from pier in Village. One hour. 912-638-7986.
Information
> Visitor Information Center, 550 Beachview Drive. 912-638-9014, bgicvb.com.
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