Lured away from the Downtown Historic District of Savannah by a cab driver who painted pictures of a smorgasbord of sea food delicacies foreign to my midwestern pallet I was giddy on what the day would bring. I had all of Saturday to explore Savannah but I was off to find my way to Tybee Island. I had struck a deal the day before with the taxi driver but wanted to see if I could find an alternative way out there, quickly I found out no. Most taxi’s will charge $40+ each way, buses don’t travel that way and I later confirmed what the bike rental place told me – that there is no space for bikes and it’s a wee bit on the dangerous side minus the fact that it’s a 20+ mile ride. So I did what any budget traveler would do, I called back the taxi driver who negotiated a deal with me the day before, packed some beach gear and off I went.
I was dropped off a little bit before entering the main part of the town so that I could walk the beach. While I was enjoying Savannah for all it had to offer, the nice weather was getting to me and the lack of beach on River Street was leaving me longing for more. This was however not the warmest of days to enjoy the beach, I think my nips were showing through my fur, yeah that cold. I ended up buying a blanket from a local store so that I could lay out on the beach, it also served its purpose of concealing the 40 oz of beer I bought as I poured it into my plastic cup, glass wasn’t allowed on the beach and in fact I saw two girls get tickets for their wine coolers. I’m a classy monkey, I know.
More importantly, the whole reason that I was there on Tybee Island was to check out the Sea Food fest located on the huge peer. I walked up expecting steaming trays of crabs, oysters, crawfish, clams and more, instead it was a few booths one selling some sauce and hush puppies (fried cornbread balls) and another fish tacos, which for $3 was not worth it. There was also a bar, hot dog stand and another selling ice cream but nothing that I was expecting. I’m not sure if it was because this was their first 37th annual Tybee Island Sea food festival, yeah I said that right go ahead and re-read it. The 37th part comes from a movie released earlier this year called ‘The Last Song’, that was written about and shot at Tybee Island, or at least so I read on PRlog. Maybe the second round of their 37th annual seafood fest offers more sea food selections otherwise I don’t think they’ll be able to stretch this festival into the double digits. Although running off of a movie with Miley Cyrus in it doesn’t sound like a good foundation for any idea.
There was also a carnival set up next to a large hotel which housed a marine biology museum and was located on the main street. This had your usual round of interesting characters who were left behind in the chain of evolution that or the byproduct of a lifetime of spinning rides and elephant ears as your main diet. I am glad of one thing, that I pre-arranged the taxi driver to pick me up around 5pm because it was already chilly and I was ready to enjoy a real seafood fest at one of the restaurants on River Street. I kind of wish I was there the following weekend when they were hosting their Wine Fest, at least then even if it was a poor selection I still could of ended up a drunken monkey on the beach instead of having to visit other options for food and drink. On the other hand, they have a beautiful beach with great views and sporadic swinging benches set up so you can just sit and enjoy the beach, that or go on the pier and rent a fishing rod and try to catch your own meal for the day.
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Tybee Island’s First 37th Annual Sea Food Fest is a post from: Monkey Brewster
