Road Trip to Jekyll Island!

Dear Readers,

Thanks for hangin' in there over the past few days without your usual VV fix - I've been enjoying a little family vacation down on Jekyll Island - one of Georgia's beautiful coastal islands. We drove down there and surprised our 2-year-old and 4-year-old nephews. It was a blast.

This was my first trip to Jekyll. When I was young, my family would normally drive to Savannah, Georgia or Amelia Island in Florida during the summer - I can't believe we were missing out on this amazing place. Jekyll Island is a Georgia State Park. If you're into a laid-back, bare-bones beach scene (and I certainly am), then this is a great place to vacation.

But back to food . . . here are a few of the highlights from our road trip through Georgia!

We stopped for lunch on our way down in the town of Wrens, Georgia at an Amish restaurant called The Dutch House.

I'm here to tell ya, the Amish know what they're doing when it comes to food! Everything is fresh, from scratch, with high quality ingredients. Fried chicken, sweet potato casserole, and macaroni and cheese for me!

And a VV road trip through middle Georgia wouldn't be complete without a quick stop in Vidalia, Georgia - the sweet onion city!!

Sadly, their main street office was closed when we went by, but we peered in the windows anyway.

We also tried to stop by the Vidalia Onion Committee office to say hello to our friends there, but alas we gave up and hit the road for the beach.

Georgia shrimping season was at its peak when we arrived on the island, so there were tons of shrimp boats out and about, and lots of great meals filled with fresh local shrimp!

The island also has a neat little candy store that our nephews loooove to frequent. The Sweets Shoppe is housed in a historical building near the Jekyll Island Club, a historic Georgia resort frequented by the rich and famous during the 1890s. As you can see from the chimney, this used to be the Boiler House.

The little boys love these island-themed candies the best - they are white chocolate tinted with pastel colors and cast in the shapes of sea creatures.

And the nearby Jekyll Bookstore is home to a wide variety of cookbooks featuring recipes for Georgia coastal cuisine. It took great self-restraint on my part not to buy every book on this table:

One more store that's worth a stop is the Commissary. It features a collection of local gourmet food and gifts, including this tasty tin of cookies I bought for my parents to enjoy!

Thanks for letting me share a little bit of my journey with you. I'll be back to regular blogging tomorrow!!