So I suppose the most significant news at the moment was my loss of my contract at Coca-Cola. Fortunately, I had already paid for the hotel that I planned to take Julia for her birthday. We went back to the site of our first romantic weekend getaway, Jeckyl Island. We left on Friday and got back on Sunday.
On Friday, I picked Julia up at her house around 6pm. She had made me a nice sandwich and we went straight away. Traffic was insane in Atlanta itself due to the Final 4 of March Madness. Wahoo, poorly paid collegiate athletes being exploited for a multibillion dollar corporate empire! Yeehaw!
I had recently purchased a bluetooth enabled speaker which was cheaper than spending the money to fix my CD player. It worked great and the two of us listened to Pandora most of the way down, but there were frequent breaks because we listened to the Google Navigator app which told us to take a short cut in the middle of nowhere. If you are going to Jeckyl island, unless you really LIKE traveling the back ways of Georgia, stay to the high ways. Not only was it dark and not particularly pretty but there is no internet connection there whatsoever (at least wireless for MetroPCS) but there were also at least a DOZEN speed traps as the state highway went right through town with several rapid drops in speed designed to catch the unaware in hopes of generating local revenue. The view of the stars, of course, was fantastic, but you can't appreciate that too much when you are driving.
We arrived at Midnight and there was a mixup of rooms. They...(and I don't know what crack they were on) had originally given us two rooms on Friday night and none on Saturday. Moreover, they were full up on spring breakers and wedding guests. Fortunately, our concierge was able to get us a nice room. In fact, that was the ONLY error the entire time, and as per our last stay, the Ocean Side Hotel did a fantastic job and was a wonderful stay. The larger rooms are spaceous, have a beach view and also have a Jacuzzi. It is an excellent weekend getaway.
Saturday we took an initial long walk on the beach back and forth for about an hour and a half. After lunch, which was moderately OK, we went out and hung out on the beach on some chairs Julia's parents had leant us. It was quite nice. There was a steep cool wind which got slightly chilly but I interceded my chair between Julia and the wind, acting as a lee. Got a tiny bit of writing done but it became increasingly apparent that salt and sand are bad for computers so I took it inside and instead read on my kindle. Julia read several magazines and mainly enjoyed the view. The beach and the sea naturally recharge her, and she's had a hell of a past few months, so I can understand the need to get away from it all.
We had dinner at Latitude 31 by the harbor. It was OK. Julia liked their food. I discovered a lovely cocktail called a Strawberry Kiss which I need to learn to make/order, but my food was the daily special. Mental note: Do not order the special when they are expecting a large dinner party [like over half the restaraunt from one of the weddings.] It was, to say the least...bland. It wasn't BAD per se, but very pedestrian. But the setting was gorgeous and we even saw a dolphin out in the water.
Saturday night we watched two episodes of Angel on Netflix. The streaming was problematic due to spring breakers using all the bandwidth but I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the show, and Julia loved it too. Looks like we have found a new show to watch together. We've watched the first three seasons of Buffy so far.
Sunday we came back. Pandora worked the whole way. The scenery was nice and the traffic was minimal. In short, it was better all around. We got back to Julia's house around 5:30pm, and relaxed on the patio for about 30 minutes. It was nice talking with her family. Then we had a delightful meal (much better cooked than Lat 31 :p :) ) of Chicken Catchetori. Then we had cake and sang her Happy Birthday.
All in all a great weekend!
