Tybee Island

First of all, Wildwood, NJ seems like Disney World compared to this place. It's not as desolate as the Outer Banks, but Tybee Island has very little going on to distract you from relaxing. And boy was I looking to relax.

The 3 hour trip there wasn't too bad, especially since I didn't have to drive. Joolie and I took her car and I let Sydney drive the Echo with Tena as her passenger. The 4 of us got in about 9 PM when all was said and done on Friday night. Shortly after unloading all of our gear into the house we discovered that the hot tub, my main selling point if you recall, wasn't actually getting hot. Wait, I'm fast forwarding past a good while of us trying to locate first a light outdoors to see the tub and then overlooking the timer switch for a good 30 minutes. Since we were drinking, the time wasn't exactly wasted while we searched in vain for the operational aspects of our tub. We put in a call to the rental office to see if they would return a page to us, but this again was after we made yet another critical error. The fridge had a laminated list of important details, phone numbers, etc. and you would think this is where one might put operating instructions for a hot tub. Nope. However, located right below the emergency pager number for the rental agency is the number for the police in Tybee. The humor that ensued when a tipsy Sydney called the police to ask how to work our hot tub was priceless. Although, I'm certain the cops didn't find it as funny.

Abandoning all hope on the hot tub front for the night, we drank many red bulls and apple vodka and decided to walk about 35 feet to the closest bar Gayna's Tavern. Just our luck, they have red bull! And what do you know it's Karoake night! The next couple hours were spent stealing the show with our renditions of Avril Lavigne, Abba, Billy Joel and many, many more hits of the 70's, 80's and 90's. About this time I began to have episodes of not recalling anything, I'm assuming due to mass consumption of libations. I can recall wandering home, eating popcorn, goofing off 4 deep on a queen size bed...but most of these memories are pieced together from about 40 photos that caught us in our glory. We appear to be having fun, so that's all the counts.

Saturday morning we got up and decided to hit the beach kind of early. It was windy as hell and the water was ice cold, so the laying out concept didn't last too long. I brought along a nice reclining beach chair, so I didn't really mind chilling all the much on the beach, but the girls were tired of picking sand out of their ears and ass cracks so we headed back to the house to lay hot tub side. In the day light, the clues to unlocking the mystery of the hot tub weren't any clearer, although Syd was certain that something was afoul with the heating element. Again we called the rental agency and this time I spoke with Linda the booking agent who said that she would send someone out. Apparently the heating element was recently replaced, 3 weeks before we go there, but I kind of doubt it. Especially since it wasn't working at all. The sun made the water tolerable and the jets worked, so it was kind of a like hanging out in a baby pool. After basking in the sun all day, we made our way over to the Crab Shack for dinner. The Crab Shack is like kind of famous I guess. They have alligators you can feed, serve all kinds of seafood on the dock of an inlet and the place is literally riddled with cats. Naturally I was tepid in my seafood experience opting to stick to shrimp and sausage. Something from the night before, perhaps red bull, wasn't mixing well with my shrimp and I was in an off mood physically the rest of the night. Luckily the consensus of the group was to take it easy and just chill out. We watched MTV and SNL, drank a little and just relaxed the night away on the couch.

Sunday, still no hot tub repair man, but at this point his presence was unnecessary as it was windier still than on Saturday and we were at this point wearing jackets and some of us long pants to ward off the brisk sea air. Sunday was all about being tourists and we went to see a light house, the Crab Shack again (this time with cameras!) and had a nice lunch/dinner near the beach at Fannies, home of the largest burger on Tybee. After wandering around all day, and since the hot tub was a bust, we decided to leave Sunday night rather than sleep over and travel back in the AM today. Actually Joolie and I were the only two going to stay the 3rd night, as Syd had work today and Tena had school, but Joolie was missing her boyfriend and wanted to get home for some loving. Having had my fill of worrying about the disappointment factor of the hot tub debacle, I was ready to end the adventure as well. In hindsight, the cost for the place was too much for my tastes and the lack of concern over the hot tub by the rental agency has turned me off to the idea of going to Tybee again. But...and this is a major but...

I had a great time just relaxing with my friends. Joolie, Syd and Tena are all so funny and energetic and just so fucking complacent about everything, it was perhaps one of the best weekend trips I have ever had. And they all agreed that they had a good time, so I'm calling this one a success.