Back at the Hostel in the Forest....

We arrived back at the hostel around 8:00 pm and were hoping that we hadn't missed dinner...we should not have worried! We made ourselves comfortable around the fire and joined our hostel mates in playing guitar, djembe, tambourine and maracas. (I say we, but I just watched...Ryan played guitar and djembe and sang for us) There were many talented musicians and a few who played original music. One man, Travis Andrew Taylor, played a song called "Nobody's Knockin" that everybody fell in love with. (Jesus buys him a beer in the song, but I promise it's not offensive!)
After an hour or two, we were all pretty hungry but dinner was no where in sight so we kept up the music. There were so many different types of people: a mother and her teenage son and two elementary aged daughters, a mother and father with their teenage daughter, college students, a young couple getting away from their life for a weekend, a daughter who brought her mother to the hostel for her 70th birthday, a man who manages a Home Depot in Savannah, and a couple from Titusville(next to our old hometown!)

Eventually they brought out some vegan banana bread with fig, grape and blueberry jam and also some guacamole and hummus and we passed it around the fire to calm our growling bellies.

At about midnight we heard the dinner bell, but nobody got up. Apparently, they had been fooled before and so we waited until the 2nd dinner bell before we headed into a screened building used for the dining area and got into a giant circle. It's tradition at the Hostel in the Forest to go around and say who you are and what you're thankful for. Even though I was starving, I thought this was a very nice practice and it made me feel close to this room full of strangers as we all showed our gratitude for all life has to offer.

Dinner consisted of: miso soup, curry soup, a fruit salad with apples, grapes, raspberries, fresh coconut and sunflower seeds, a vegan lasagna (really good!), lentils and french bread. Everything was really good and it went down quickly :) At the hostel, they request that everyone helps out with chores such as dishes, sweeping, cooking, etc and since I hadn't been able to help with dinner (full kitchen) I tried to go around and collect plates and silverware. Once a server, always a server!

Since it was almost 1 by this point, Ryan and I headed to bed where we found a night full of my night terrors (Someone at the door, spiders crawling on me, bugs everywhere...night terrors are when you wake up and essentially hallucinate...I get them from time to time and it freaks Ryan out every time)

(The chickens surrounded our tree house! "Wake up lazy humans")
While it was still dark out, a chorus of roosters decided to begin their morning song. There must have been 3-5 and one of them sounded like a teenage rooster whose voice would crack every time he tried to cockadoodledoo. Around 10 am (can't believe we slept that late with a constant rooster alarm going off!) we finally rolled out of bed and headed to the kitchen for some fair-trade, organic coffee that is brewed by the hostel for a small donation. (The only coffee I've ever been able to drink black...and it was good!) We took our coffee down to the lake and enjoyed the silence of the forest.
We drained our coffee and made our way to the canoes the hostel provides for guests. It's a pretty small lake so we made our way around it quickly, but it was so quiet and beautiful I could have sat out there all day!



When we had had our fill of the lake, we packed up our bags and said goodbye to the hostel and made our way to St. Simon's Island...

Jekyll Island, Georgia

Jekyll Island is about 20 minutes away from the Hostel in the Forest and used to be the playground for 1/6 of the world's wealthiest families at the time. Apparently names like Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, Everett Macy, Marshall Field and Cornelius Vanderbilt all used to congregate on Jekyll Island to escape the peasants but then left due to complications from World War II. (A local told us that they were advised by the U.S. government to leave but I'm not sure if that's true)

At the information center, a very sweet elderly woman directed us to Blackbeard's Seafood for a delightful meal on their oceanfront deck. After 4 pm, if you sit on the deck, they have a special: 1 appetizer, 2 entrees for $25. This fit nicely into our budget and it was a great way to see the ocean. Our view from the table:
The food wasn't spectacular but the view was. It was very quiet on the deck and was indicative of just how quiet all of Jekyll Island is. Since it's not overdeveloped and overcrowded, everywhere you go is very peaceful and relaxing.

After we ate, we walked across the street to the mini golf/bike rental kiosk. We decided that it would be hilarious to ride a tandem bike around the island and so this happened:
For $14, we had this baby for 4 lovely hours. (I say they were lovely hours, but Ryan insists that I wasn't peddling, so he'd probably write "torturous hours") Since I rode on the back of the bike, I didn't have to steer which perfectly freed my hands for taking pictures and tickling Ryan when he dared ask if I were peddling. Note to tandem bicyclers: if you try to swat away your wife's hand, you're more likely to hit the handlebars and curse than actually make contact with said hand)

We rode past a wedding, restored mansions and a pier on the way to the Fishing Pier at Driftwood Beach. We had heard from a staff member at the hostel that Driftwood Beach was gorgeous and we were not disappointed. I always thought of driftwood as wood that "drifts" onto the beach...but many of these trees were completely whole and one was even still standing! It was very quiet and absolutely stunning.

On the way back to the bicycle rental kiosk, we saw a mama deer and her baby...I took pictures but they didn't turn out very well and I didn't want to keep trying because I thought I might scare them onto the road or into a passing vehicle!
The ride back seemed like a completely different island. The way we took to get to Driftwood Beach went from plantation to wetlands to beach and the way back was strictly beach. It was beautiful and again, so quiet! The buildings and homes on the island mostly seem to have been built between 1950-1980 and then immaculately maintained but never updated.

We got our bicycle back to the kiosk just as it started getting dark and decided we should hurry back to the hostel for dinner.

(If we had had more time, we would have gone to The Georgia Sea Turtle Center, www.georgiaseaturtlecenter.org. This place looks amazing and it's incredible what they're doing for these turtles. Luckily, it's only 1.5 hours away, so we can go back! )

Hostel in the Forest, Brunswick, Georgia

We made the right choice going to the Hostel in the Forest in Brunswick, GA! Just shy of 1.5 hours from Jacksonville, the Brunswick area has so much to do and we were kept busy for our whole trip.

When we got off of I-95, we passed a few gas stations and one supermarket...to be honest, it didn't look like anything special. Once you follow the dirt road marked "The Hostel" though, you are magically transported into a whole new world. (Minus the magic carpet, Princess Jasmine and the transport is not that magical, we slowly drove over the bumpy road in our Honda Accord)

The Hostel in the Forest itself, though, is magical. When you walk into the main building to check in, you are instantly reminded of your friend's cabin by the lake complete with photos from the 70's, an old couch, books and random musical instruments strewn about.

We were shown to our tree house, The Elmo Hut, and were immediately thankful that we weren't planning on drinking heavily.
(The stairs to our tree house)

Inside, there were remnants from past travelers like a hairbrush, sunglasses, a "graffiti book" for random thoughts and poetry, matchbooks, etc. It didn't look messy, it just looked...eclectic :)

Since we are being honest, I felt super awkward at first. I like to think of myself as a hippie because I bring my reusable bags to Publix and I buy soap made from vegetable glycerin, but I enjoy modern conveniences and haven't fully immersed myself in the hippie lifestyle. The people at the hostel have completely embraced a sustainable way of living and I felt like a savage at a tea party. I didn't quite know what to do or how to act. (I see that this was ridiculous now as everyone we met was very kind and came from all walks of life and many were new to this just like us)

After we dropped off our bags in the Elmo Hut, we wandered around the property and were enchanted with the beauty of the forest and the many animals we encountered. There were the three ducks we found sleeping by an old pool that is now strictly for ducks:
The many chickens running around that provide eggs and entertainment for the hostel:
There were also fish and birds and lizards and beautiful flowers at every turn.
The hostel is blessed with gardens, a lake, a sweat lodge, a glass building for massage and meditation, a fire pit and many tree houses and domes that have been built over the years by volunteers. It is easy to relax here and you find that you breathe easier...that is, until you have to pee. Remember outhouses? Well that is what the hostel has...with a twist. These outhouses use sawdust to cover "deposits" which are then composted and used for fertilizer. An ingenious idea that I hate to admit repulsed me. Did this prevent me from using them? No. Will it prevent me from going back? Absolutely not! I think what they are doing is wonderful and the smell is a small sacrifice to save so much water and put nutrients back into the forest. Plus, these outhouses have lights and running water to wash your hands...a big step up from the outhouses I've used in the past growing up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan!

The showers are all outdoors and they request that you use the Dr. Bronner's biodegradable soap that they provide or something similar of your own because all of the water goes straight onto the forest floor. They even use soap nuts in their laundry room instead of regular laundry detergent. (Soap nuts are absolutely fascinating to me and I meant to buy some to try at home while I was at the hostel and forgot so I looked them up and found their website here)
Truly sustainable living is being practiced here and it's a great learning experience to see it firsthand.

After we were given an official tour of the property and told what to do and what not to do, we decided to check out nearby Jekyll Island before the family style vegan dinner being served later that night. (Just how much later is another story!)

The hostel won!

We will be going to The Hostel in the Forest this weekend for our 1 year anniversary! We chose this place for many reasons, chief among them being our broke-ness :) But also because it will be a fun adventure and interesting to learn how they live sustainably in the forest. I'll have more info when we get back next week!

1 year wedding anniversary!

Our 1 year wedding anniversary is coming up this weekend :) We decided when we got married that each year for our anniversary we would go somewhere we've never been to celebrate and renew our commitment to each other. The only problem is that we can't decide between Hostel in the Forest in Brunswick, GA or a B&B in Amelia Island, FL.

Both are less than 1.5 hours from us and we haven't been to either place. The hostel represents adventure and eco-friendly living and serves a vegetarian family style meal each night! For only $50/night for the both of us, this would leave plenty of money for checking out the nearby plantations and historical landmarks.
The B&B's in Amelia Island are all luxurious getaways with romance written all over them. They offer fresh baked cookies, gourmet breakfasts, and bicycles to explore the nearly private beaches.

The cons? The hostel is...well...a hostel. You can stay in a tree house, which is cool, but they don't seem to have a lot of privacy and there is no heat or a/c. I'm not sure, but I think the bathrooms are shared too. Oh, and the only showers are outside. That spells adventure to me, but not necessarily romantic getaway for our 1 year anniversary.

The B&B's are the perfect place for a romantic weekend. That's kind of the reason I'm against them. That seems to be what everybody does for their romantic getaways and so I feel the need to rebel. They're also fairly expensive at around $250/night. One day that number will be a laughable amount, but for now, that's a quarter of our student loan payment each month! Spending that much on lodging means that we won't be able to spend very much doing anything else like horseback riding, shopping or dining out.

What to do? What to do?? We need to figure it out quickly because it's Monday and our anniversary is Sunday!! Any suggestions? Let me know STAT!