We left Jekyll Island just before 8:00 this morning. We had a 4 hour drive to Crystal River, FL which was a very nice drive. We were on I-95 for an hour, but then traveled kind of diagonally through northern Florida on secondary roads. We drove through lots of live oak forests that were heavy with Spanish Moss. In many areas the trees on each side of the road had limbs arching across the highway forming tunnel-like areas. This was really beautiful.
We arrived at our overnight destination just about noon. Fortunately, we were able to check in before the check in time. The Port Hotel and Marina is in Crystal River, FL. The Crystal River and all its canals and tributaries is where the manatees spend the winter. The reason we are here in this area of Florida is to celebrate our friend Reva’s 60th birthday. The 6-pack will be all together on Wednesday at a house we rented. Thursday, we will go on a swim with the manatees boat tour.Reva said that’s how she wanted to celebrate her birthday. We had already had plans to be in Florida on the day of her birthday, so we rearranged our schedule. We will be picking up Reva and Jo at the Tampa airport tomorrow. Pat and Eve will fly into Tampa on Wednesday and join us at the house we rented in Dunnellon, FL. So we’re all looking forward to celebrating with Reva.
We’re looking forward to swimming with you, Reva!
The Port Hotel’s claim to fame is that Elvis Presley stayed here in 1961 while filming Follow that Dream. And I don’t think they’ve touched the hotel since then. It is a tired little place. However, it is right on the Crystal River. It has a little marina right outside our patio. We have a lovely view of the marina and river and we spent a nice couple of hours out on our patio having lunch after we arrived.
View from our patio
The hotel has several 2-story buildings, but here’s our building. Our room is on the bottom right end.
The Port Motel
After a little rest, we then set off to explore the neighborhood. We had a nice walk through a residential area skirting around the nooks, crannies and canals of the river. The homes were everything from tiny and quaint to McMansions. There were some really gorgeous homes. It really is a very nice area.
Nice view of the Crystal River
Boating on the Crystal River
Crystal River view
Amaryllis growing in a yard
After our walk, we went to the Margarita Breeze restaurant right on the grounds of the hotel and had dinner. We started out sitting outside on the patio, but the little biting gnats followed us from Jekyll Island and were just awful. So, we moved inside. Like the hotel, the restaurant is very tired, but we were amazed by the really good food, coconut shrimp and broiled scallops. We really enjoyed our dinner.
Dining at the Margarita Breeze
We also were treated to a lovely sunset.
Sunset over the Crystal River
Really nice sunset
We are taking it easy now and will continue to be relaxed until we leave tomorrow to pick up Reva and Jo at the Tampa airport.
We started our day with breakfast at the Hampton Inn. We then got ourselves ready for a day of exploring. Yesterday the temperature was in the upper 70s, so we were in shorts and short-sleeved shirts. When we went out to the car at 8:45 in our “summer” clothes this morning, we were shocked to find it very chilly, about 52 degrees. So back up to the room we went to put on long pants and sweatshirts.
I did not know anything about Jekyll Island when I picked it for one of our stops, I just thought it would be a nice beach stop, Jekyll being a barrier island off the coast of Georgia. But what we explored today was really a walk back into a gilded age.
There is an historic district, a national historic landmark, where the Jekyll Island Club was established and existed from 1886 until its end in 1942. Jekyll Island was explored by James Oglethorpe (I remembered that name from civics class as the founder of the colony in Georgia) around 1735. Before then, Native Americans used the island seasonally. Oglethorpe left a soldier on the island around 1740, William Horton, to staff a military outpost on the island to ward off the Spanish who were in Florida. Horton was the original British occupant and eventually established a successful plantation. His house has been preserved, or at least the exterior was, and we stopped by.
Horton House
Horton House
After his death in 1749, the island went through a series of owners before finally being purchased by Christophe Poulain DuBignon in 1792. The DuBignons enjoyed a successful business raising Sea Island Cotton on their plantation for nearly a century. Following the Civil War, Christophe’s great-grandson, John Eugene DuBignon, marketed Jekyll Island as the perfect site for a hunting club.
In 1886, the island was purchased by the Jekyll Island Club, a turn-of-the century vacation resort patronized by the nation’s leading families from primarily the northeast. Club Members included such prominent figures as J.P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, William K. Vanderbilt, Marshall Field, and William Rockefeller. In 1904, Munsey’s Magazine called the Jekyll Island Club “the richest, the most exclusive, the most inaccessible club in the world.”
The Jekyll Island Club built a clubhouse where members stayed which is now a hotel. Eventually, members started building “cottages” where their families and servants stayed for the season, which was January through March. In the historic district there are 33 buildings preserved from the late 1880s through the early 1900s . The grounds are absolutely lovely, with very large live oaks with loads of Spanish moss dripping down from their sweeping limbs. We got a good overview of the historic district at the Jekyll Island Museum and then on a 90-minute tram tour of the district. It was really helpful to hear the narration and we learned a whole lot about the Jekyll Island Club.
The Jekyll Island Club Hotel is the anchor around which all the other buildings fan out. It’s a grand wooden structure with a large turret.
Jekyll Island Club Hotel
View from a different angle
Many windows
Croquet on the lawn
Look closely at the last photo above. You’ll see a woman with a croquet mallet. It was amusing to see that out on the lawn in front of the hotel was a large croquet field and there were several folks, all dressed in white, banging the croquet ball around.
We had wandered around the hotel a bit after our tram tour and ended up having lunch on a wide porch overlooking the courtyard in the back of the hotel. This place is a wonderful throwback to a very different age.
Hallway down to a main dining room
Now let me tell you about some of the cottages. Suffice to say, they were all fabulous mansions. They were in all kinds of architectural styles. A couple of them reminded me of grand Adirondack lodges. A couple others were in a Mediterranean style. All of them were quite beautiful. We got to tour inside two of them, the Du Bignon House and the Mistletoe House. There is a Jekyll Island Authority responsible for overseeing the restoration of all the remaining buildings and the mansions are being slowly restored. The Du Bignon House was one of the original homes where the guy who sold Jekyll Island to the Club lived. Later, the hired caretaker lived in the house for 42 years until the demise of the Club.
Du Bignon House
Du Bignon House
Christine fell in love with the Mistletoe House, which was owned by a family named Porter. The house had really large, airy rooms. The Porters loved entertaining and so the house was built to accommodate entertaining. The main living room had 3 large French doors that the Porters would throw open, take all the furniture out into the yard, and host yard parties.
Mistletoe House
Interesting overhang
Christine taking a picture of the sign
Sun room from back of house
Here are some of the other houses we saw from the outside.
Moss Cottage
Villa Ospo
Cherokee Cottage
Indian Mound
Villa Marianna cottage
Crane Cottage
We heard a really funny story about the Crane Cottage. The Crane family was involved with many businesses, but one of them was the manufacture of plumbing fixtures. Mr. Crane supervised the beginning of construction on his cottage, but then went back home. When he returned to see the completed cottage, he was horrified to find that the builders had installed American Standard plumbing fixtures throughout the cottage, not Crane plumbing fixtures. He wasn’t a happy camper.
Two other interesting things. One is that the first condominium in the country was built on Jekyll Island. The place was called San Souci, and one of the Rockefeller bought a unit. Another factoid is that the first transcontinental telephone call was made from Jekyll Island in 1915. The call went across country to San Francisco and back to Washington, DC.
San Souci
First transcontinental call
We visited a non-denominational chapel that was built for the Club members in 1904, Faith Chapel.
Faith Chapel
It is a lovely little chapel whose claim to fame is two very beautiful stained glass windows. One is the Adoration of the Christ Child-created by Maitland Armstrong and his daughter, Helen. The window was installed as a memorial to Joseph Stickney, a charter member of the Jekyll Island Club.
Adoration of the Magi
The other is a magnificent, signed example of the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany. This window was installed by the Jekyll Island Club and dedicated in 1921 to Frederick Gilbert Bourne, who had served as the club’s fourth president.
Beautiful Tiffany stained glass
Another interesting bit of information about the historic district was about the community established by the servants. While some families housed their servants in their homes, others, and those hired locally, lived in dormitories. There was a whole community for the servants for shopping and supplies. All the stores and supply buildings have been preserved and are now gift shops. But these are cute little houses and it was fascinating to read about them.
Shops
Shops
We really enjoyed our time exploring the historic district. It was a lovely area, so peaceful and quaint.
We then went exploring and drove around the island, which is only 10 miles long and 3 miles wide. There are a few residential areas, several areas of hotels and condos, but for the most part, it is salt marshes, dunes, and wooded areas. And it really is quiet.
We had seen a section of beach on the map called Driftwood Beach, and I had seen a photo of the beach and wanted to see it. We walked through the shrub forest to the beach and we found an absolutely fantastic sight. When I think of driftwood on a beach, I think of smallish pieces of wood. but this Driftwood Beach was covered with huge whole trees of driftwood of the most amazing shapes and sizes. It was just amazing. We almost couldn’t believe our eyes.
Driftwood beach
Tons of driftwood
Entire trees on the beach
Tree skeleton
Great shapes
Shadows
Trying not to fall off
Such interesting forms
Christine
Christine
We loved Driftwood beach. What a fantastic thing to have seen. Afterwards, it was just a little too early for dinner, so we drove down to what’s called Beach Village, the small shopping area that is the center of activity. We went in to the Westin for a drink. We sat outside, but it was really chilly. However, it is one of the few places where you can actually see the ocean, where there isn’t a dune between the hotel and the water.
Afterwards, we drove to a little restaurant called the Beach House Restaurant for dinner. We had a nice dinner and, surprisingly, we could also see the ocean from our seats. So, it was a nice end to a really great day enjoying an ocean view. The only thing we didn’t like about Jekyll Island is the gazillion little grays everywhere. There were clouds of them all over and they were really obnoxious. Fortunately, while annoying, their bites weren’t as bad as the gnats at home.
This was a really wonderful day! Tomorrow it is off to Crystal River, FL.
We started our morning in the HGVC suite with a fabulous sunrise. We hadn’t seen the sun rise the past couple of days due to offshore clouds. But this morning, the sky was totally cloudless and the sun rose directly into our view.
Sunrise
We got all packed up and loaded into the car before 9:00 and were off to Jekyll Island, GA. We had a discussion about the route because one way was down Route 17, which went in a southwesterly direction, but wasn’t an interstate. We were worried that on a Saturday, we might encounter more local traffic. The alternative was to drive west for about 75 minutes and hook up with I-95 going south. That was the option we chose. Although a beautiful day to drive through very rural South Carolina, it was a long, slow drive on a 2-lane highway that was under construction for about 30 miles. Oh well, we enjoyed the countryside and eventually came to I-95.
The drive to Jekyll Island was 5 hours, and we were both ready to be out of the car by the time we got there, but the drive onto the island was through several miles of tidal creek land and salt marshes, really beautiful. We’ll be taking a tour of the island tomorrow and will know more about the history of this wonderful place, but part of its history is as the playground of the rich and famous. We’ll see some of their mansion-size “cottages” tomorrow.
We checked in to the Hampton Inn, unloaded and then kind of collapsed for a while. Our room is on the second floor over the pool and fire pit, which remains to be seen whether this will work out. It may be awfully noisy.
View from our room
Pool and boardwalk to ocean
There is a huge protected area between the ocean and many of the hotels and developments. This is a very large dune that contains fantastic vegetation and is several hundred feet wide. To get to the beach you walk on a boardwalk through the vegetation.
Start of the boardwalk
Boardwalk
Lush vegetation
Coming to the beach
Squinting looking into the sun
After the lovely walk over the dune on the boardwalk, you get to a fantastic, wide, beach. It was one of the widest beaches I’ve ever seen. The sand was hard packed for the most part and was really easy to walk on.
Really wide beach
Looking back at the dunes
We had just arrived on the beach and Christine looked down and saw an intact sand dollar. We have never found a sand dollar before so we were excited. And before too long, we had found 4 of them. We even found two that were still alive and we saw on their undersides the velvet-textured skin they have and all the little hairs, or cilia, moving. We left those on the beach.
Looking for sand dollars
Two specimens
We also enjoy watching the birds. We saw lots of sandpipers and plovers, but they fly away too quickly for us to get pictures. The gulls tended to stay put.
Gulls
Funny stance on this one
After our walk we returned to the room and enjoyed leftovers from our dinner last night. Now, we’re settled in for the night because I think we’ll have a long full day touring around Jekyll Island tomorrow.
This morning, there was a little sliver of moon over the ocean. It was beautiful.
Early morning
Christine snapped this picture of me this morning lounging around reading.
Linda lounging around reading
At 8:00 we had our appointment with the club representative. Greg was very helpful and he said his job was to help us understand what we had purchased. Of course, his other job was to get us to upgrade, which would be nice, but we were well-practiced with our “no thanks” this time around. Although, in hindsight, we did get a final offer for a deal which would have given us a lot of extra club points which we probably should have taken. But we turned down the upgrade to a 3 bedroom timeshare and the chance to get halfway to “elite” status. They do a great job selling, but we were ready for the sales pitch. And Greg did give us lots of helpful information so that we better understand how we can take advantage of what we do have through HGVC. It was totally worth sitting through the presentation for a very affordable 3-night stay at this resort.
After the presentation, we set off for a day at Brookgreen Gardens. I had read about this place in one of the books in the suite and we thought it would make a great day out. The weather was just beautiful today, mostly sunny and about 75 degrees. We packed a picnic lunch and set off on the 45 minute drive south to the gardens.
Brookgreen Gardens is a sculpture garden and wildlife preserve located just south of Murrells Inlet. The 9,100-acre property includes several themed gardens with American figurative sculptures placed in them, the Lowcountry Zoo, and trails through several ecosystems in nature reserves on the property. It was founded by Archer Milton Huntington, stepson of railroad magnate Collis Potter Huntington, and his wife Anna Hyatt Huntington to feature sculptures by Anna and her sister Harriet Randolph Hyatt Mayor along with other American sculptors. Brookgreen Gardens was opened in 1932, and is built on four former rice plantations, taking its name from the former Brookgreen Plantation.
One could spend several days exploring the vast space of the gardens. We opted for an introductory hour long guided tour, which was really good and provided a bit of an overview of the various themes and gardens around the property. There are hundreds of sculptures all over the gardens and its really a shame not to fully comprehend all the sculptors and the names of their work, but it was simply too much to take in.
Here are a few works that I do know the names of.
Diana
Nymph
Pan
Boy playing flute
Dionysus (gold)
Shark diver
Joy of Motherhood
Pegasus
And here are some other sculptures that I’m sorry to say I don’t have names for.
Very striking image
Playful nymph
I loved the water movement here
Man reading newspaper
Not sure of the name
I think this was called Rain
Beautiful figure
Same figure
Same figure, different angle
Lovely dancer
Another dancer
Don’t know the name
The grounds were just stunning, and on such a beautiful day it was really great walking along the paths through various ecosystems. The live oaks and Spanish moss, which is actually not a moss at all, but rather is Resurrection Fern, are particularly wonderful.
The live oaks are huge
Great curving limbs
Me showing how big the tree is
Resurrection fern
There was some great color along the way in flowering trees and plants.
Magnolia
Narcissus
Red bud
Magnolia
We visited a small gallery that contained some fantastic sculptures of birds.
A flock
Pelicans with great shadows
Another area of the gardens was dedicated to the Lowcountry history of South Carolina and its rice plantations. There was a nice exhibition center where we learned about the area and the original plantation. And then there was a really interesting walking tour along a stunning walkway along the rice fields and through a live oak grove containing 11 audio presentations talking about the rice plantation and, more importantly, the lives of enslaved Africans who worked the rice plantations. One thing I didn’t know was that many Africans came from areas in Africa that grew rice, and so the South Carolinians specifically imported slaves from these areas in Africa in order to help cultivate rice in the Lowcountry. The audio clips presented a lot about the enslaved Africans and it was interesting to look out over one of the rice fields and listen to the history of the work the enslaved people did.
Rice field
Sculpture of enslaved woman
Sculpture of enslaved man
Rice trunk used to flood the fields
Here are just a couple other photos.
Diana
Turtles sunbathing
Huge cedar log
History of the gardens
Going to Brookgreen was a great way to spend the day. We then drove back to the suite. Christine lounged by the outdoor pool reading for an hour and then we walked around the corner for dinner at Dirty Don’s Oyster Bar. We had a great meal (I ate tooooo much) and then we returned to the suite to start packing up. The phone rang and it was someone from HGVC trying to confirm our marking appointment for tomorrow morning. Christine had to convince the caller that we had already done our appointment this morning. After a lengthy conversation and a callback, the caller informed Christine that there was another Christine Tyrrell arriving tonight and is scheduled for a marketing appointment in the morning. What do you think the odds are of that happening??!!! Anyway, that got all straightened out and now we’ll get ready to depart in the morning for our next destination, Jekyll Island, GA. What fun we’re having!
This morning we enjoyed our view down the beach. Our suite is on the north side of the building and so we can only see up the beach. But no matter, it’s a lovely view. This morning was rather overcast but the light on the water was just beautiful. The temperature this morning was 62, but got up to 70 by noon. The wind, however, kept it pretty cool. I was glad to have my windbreaker as we set off on a beach walk this morning.
This is what our building looks like from the beach.
Ocean 22 – HGVC
We set off heading south and had a really nice walk. The beach is really wide and there were lots of folks walking. And yes, we got our feet wet. I’ll tell you that the water is cold! Even Christine said it was too cold for her to get a swim in, and she’s swum at Kennebunkport in Maine and in Nova Scotia, so she’s endured some really cold water.
Ahh! Toes in the Atlantic Ocean
We walked down to Pier 14. There’s an amusement part there and a huge ferris wheel called the Sky Wheel.
Under Pier 14
Pier 14
Sky Wheel
Close up of Sky Wheel
We love the beach!
Sea foam
Beautiful view
Christine
Linda
But we really don’t need to collect any more shells. We have gallons of them at home. However, we still keep bending over to pick up interesting looking things. I was fascinated by these shells that look ordinary on one side, but made me think of angel wings on the inside.
Angel wing shells
We see really interesting sights while walking on the beach. A women in beautiful native garb walked past us a couple of times and Christine got a wonderful picture of her. She was quite striking.
Beautiful woman
After our morning walk, lunch and a rest back in the suite, we took off again for another walk mid-afternoon. We walked north on the beach, but then veered off into a bit of a residential neighborhood. It was fun looking at the houses. There were lots of houses for sale and the neighborhood, just a few block from the high rises, was a mixture of large homes and little bungalows. We saw blooming azaleas and some fascinating seed pods on another bush.
Azaleas
Weird seed pods
And this was in a front yard, which made us think of home, the “carousel capital of the country.”
Yard ornament
We then decided to go to the movies. Since we were already out walking, we plotted our route to the cinema complex which was a little over a mile from where we were. We saw the film Lion which is the story about an Indian boy who fell asleep on a train and wound up 1,600 kilometers from his family. He was ultimately adopted by an Australian couple. As a young adult he became obsessed with finding his mother. The movie is based on a true story. It was a very moving story and I recommend it highly.
After the film, we walked back to our suite, had dinner, and settled in for the evening.
Here are a couple of pictures of our suite. It is very nice and we like being here.
Living room
Bedroom
Kitchen
Another view into kitchen
Tomorrow we have to attend our presentation. I can’t imagine what they are going to try and sell us, since we’re already owners, but we’re practicing our “no” so we won’t make any commitments. Stay tuned for the results.
We had an uneventful travel day, driving from Chester, VA to Myrtle Beach, SC. Our purpose in coming to Myrtle Beach is to visit the building where we purchased a timeshare in 2015. That’s another story from our 2015 trip down the eastern seaboard to Florida. Let me just say that we signed up for a “free” stay at a Doubletree where we only needed to attend a Hilton Grand Vacation Club (HGVC) presentation. Having practiced saying “no thanks” to each other beforehand, we walked out of the presentation as owners of a timeshare in a building that hadn’t even been completed yet. But, we’ve been Hilton members and so the deal seemed reasonable and provides the opportunity to visit HGVC resorts all over the world. This time around, we decided to capitalize on another deal for 3 nights at the Ocean 22 resort for a small amount of money if we attend another presentation at our timeshare resort. Who knows what we’ll walk away with this time. But it’s an opportunity to stay at the Ocean 22 HGVC resort and experience what we bought in to.
Our drive today was over 5 hours. The best part about it was that spring was springing out all over North Carolina. We saw lots of daffodils and flowering trees. The forsythia was blooming as were the magnolias. The trees were just about bursting forth and were heavy with beautiful red and orange buds that looked very much the color of fall in our neck of the woods. And the temperature got up into the low 70s during our drive.
We stopped in Kenly, NC for gas and a walk. I found it interesting that nearly all the towns and cities along our route today had huge water towers. We walked around the neighborhood where this one was.
Kenly water tower
This patriotic one was further south in Lumberton, NC.
Lumberton water tower
When we stopped in Kenly, we encountered some absolutely beautiful bushes right up against the Pilot gas station and truck stop. A little beauty oasis amidst the trucks.
Lovely blooms
Pretty in pink
A whole bush full of beautiful blooms
The last 90 minutes of our drive was through rural South Carolina. We didn’t understand why our Google maps took us away from a highway and along secondary and tertiary roads. Christine was somewhat frustrated by what she felt was an indirect route, but I prefer country roads. Interstate driving is so boring. I love driving along secondary routes looking at the houses and yards and being more up close and personal with the folks living in the area.
We arrived in Myrtle Beach a little after 2:00 and found Ocean 22.
We own part of this building (0.006%)!
Christine got us checked in and we got a bellhop to unload the car and take a whole lot of stuff up to our one bedroom suite. It always is a little embarrassing to me when we load all our stuff onto one of those little carts. We come prepared for any and everything, and with traveling by car, it tends to give us liberty to take more than we need. So the cart is totally overloaded.
We are on the 16th floor and have an ocean view, as opposed to an ocean front. But, we’re pretty happy with our suite and view.
View from our suiteLooking down to the lobby from the 16th floor
Tomorrow I’ll take some pictures of the suite itself, but I’ll say that it is lovely with a fully equipped kitchen, one bedroom, large bathroom, 2 TVs, a nice living area and ample storage space. We’re quite satisfied with it. Friday we’ll take a tour of the facility during our required presentation and we’ll get to see what a timeshare unit like we purchased looks like.
We did wander around the building some and saw the pool. There is an indoor pool and also an outdoor pool. I don’t think the outdoor pool is being used much yet. But the pools look nice.
Inside pool
We walked out to the beach, but the wind was blowing hard and we hadn’t put on warm enough clothes to spend much time outside. Tomorrow we’ll take a good long walk on the beach.
Beach in front of our building
We walked over to a Starbuck a block away to purchase a bag of coffee (one thing we forgot to pack). We checked out the menus of some restaurants around the area. One of the club membership perks is a restaurant discount in several places, including 3 right around the corner. So we’ll probably eat out one of our nights here.
A walkway down to the beach
So now we’re lounging (are you surprised that Christine is working????) around our suite and enjoying being here. We’re quite pleased with the accommodations and all the staff around the place are very friendly and helpful.
Tomorrow we’ll explore more and take in the Myrtle Beach sights. Toes in the Atlantic for sure!
Today Christine and I set off on a 3-1/2 week road trip to parts south. We loaded up the car this morning and were on the road by 8:15. That was actually 45 minutes ahead of schedule! Yes, I think we were both very excited to be heading out on our road trip. We will be making our way to Myrtle Beach, SC, Jekyll Island, GA, and in Florida the Crystal River area, St. Petersburg, a quick stop near Santa Maria Island, Venice Beach, Vero Beach, Cocoa Beach, and then to Sanford to board the auto train back home.
The temperature at our departure was just about 30 degrees, although the 3 previous days in Binghamton were simply gorgeous with bright sunshine and temperatures hitting the mid-50s. What a treat! By the time we got to our first overnight stop south of Richmond, VA, the temperature was 62. I saw some daffodils blooming along the highway and even spotted a crabapple tree in full, glorious pink bloom. I’m sure we’ll see more spring flowers as we drive through North and South Carolina tomorrow.
We did pretty well with the drive today. We encountered heavy traffic around Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Harrisburg, and of course the I-95 corridor from Washington, DC to south of Richmond was horrible. But we did all right and made reasonable time.
We did make one interesting stop today. We had travelled the same route in 2015 during our trip down the eastern seaboard so we were familiar with some of the attractions. Driving through Maryland, we remembered a small Catholic university and something about a shrine or shrines near the school. In Emmitsburg, MD, there is a big church and a shrine commemorating Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of Charity. Emmitsburg is where Mother Seton also founded the first Catholic girls’ school in the country. We didn’t stop at this site, but rather drove to the Mount St. Mary University where the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes is located high up the hill behind the university. We were curious about this place. I’m not Catholic and Christine is lapsed, so our stop wasn’t any kind of pilgrimage. But, we’re glad to have seen this place. It was really beautiful and interesting.
National Shrine entrance
The National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, a Catholic shrine devoted to Our Blessed Mother Mary, is a place of worship, pilgrimage, evangelization and reconciliation. This beautiful mountain shrine features one of the oldest American replicas of the Lourdes shrine in France, built about two decades after the apparition of Mary at Lourdes in 1858, and attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year from all over the world.
The bell tower and statue can be seen from miles away. The tower is 95 feet tall and is topped with a 25-foot, gold-leafed bronze figure of the Blessed Mother.
Pangburn Memorial Campanile
The 60-acre grounds provide a lovely garden and woods setting for many beautiful mosaics and sculptures. There were the 15 mysteries of the rosary in mosaics that were really beautiful. There were also stations of the cross. This sculpture was from Thailand and was quite striking.
Our Lady of Lavang
There was a fountain pool and the nearby taps where people can drink blessed water.
Grotto pool
Grotto spring water
This sign gave me a chuckle.
Sign at the grotto pool
There were donation boxes all over the place, nearly every 10 feet or so.
Here’s the grotto. And apparently, some cleric recently brought a stone back from the real Lourdes grotto in France, which has now been placed into this grotto, so it’s extra sacred.
The grotto
Closer view
Here’s the lowdown on indulgences!
Indulgences primer
There was a lovely little chapel near the grotto. Mother Seton was prominent on the outside, as well as in stained glass.
St. Mary’s Chapel
Mother Seton
Mother Seton
Beautiful chapel doors
The shrine is located on a hillside and it provides a wonderful vista of the surrounding valley. The founder of the university, Father John DuBois, lived in a little cabin on the hillside, and he not only founded the university, but was instrumental in founding the shrine as well. This photo shows the DuBois cabin, a plaque with a saying by Mother Seton, and the bell tower of one of the campus buildings down the hill.
View from the hillside
So there you have it – the National Shrine Grotto of our Lady of Lourdes. It actually was a very pleasant stop and it gave us an opportunity to take a nice walk through a beautiful setting.
We’re spending the night in Chester, VA, which is just a few miles south of Richmond. We drove just over 400 miles today. Tomorrow, it’s off to Myrtle Beach, and I can’t wait to dip my toes in the ocean and walk on the beach.
