Mrs. Harper was a rural grocer who didn’t have much money and folks said that she shouldn’t build a church that wouldn’t do justice to God. She felt it was the thought that mattered and built it anyway.
Just below, as in south of, the famous Carolina Lowcountry lies a lesser known region, Coastal Georgia.
Geographically, culturally, and historically this area is virtually indistinguishable from its northern neighbor, it’s simply the Savannah River that separates them.
Join us as we survey the swamps, seafood, and even a sea serpent along the Atlantic shoreline….CONTINUE READING >>
Geographically, culturally, and historically this area is virtually indistinguishable from its northern neighbor, it’s simply the Savannah River that separates them.
Swamps and islands, surrounded by brackish tidal rivers, define the topography from Savannah down to The St. Marys River, which marks the Florida State Line.
The few parcels of dry land among the marshes are inhabited by pine and live oak trees, and a handful of hardy souls. Traditionally, most of these souls make their living off the sea.
We had no idea that Georgia had such fantastic seafood until we stumbled upon The Shrimp Shack in Eulonia.
The shack is exactly as advertised, a seriously tiny building with nothing inside but a table, a scale, and a cooler filled with fresh-off-the-boat shrimp.
When we stopped by, Margie Sawyer was behind the table. She reached into the cooler and pulled out a couple pounds by the antennae, then tossed them on the scale.
While weighing our order, she told us how the family operation has worked for over twenty years.
Every day during the shrimping season the boat goes out, and that’s all they sell, each day’s fresh catch. And, that day, they were only four dollars a pound.
With a quick stop off at the Piggly Wiggly for some seasoning, potatoes, and corn on the cob, we were chompin’ at the bit to whip up our own version of a Lowcountry boil.
The finished product was so good that we went back to the shack the next day for another couple pounds. Without a doubt the best shrimp we have ever put in our mouths.
Just up the road from the shack is the self proclaimed Smallest Church in America. Built in 1949 as Christ Chapel, a sanctuary for travellers, at only ten feet by fifteen feet it is one tiny house of worship.
But a little investigation revealed that several other churches have laid claim to being the smallest. Let the debate rage on.
Another issue up for discussion in these parts is the existence of local legend Altie. This Loch Ness Monster type sea serpent is said to reside in the Atlantic waters around the mouth of The Altamaha River, perhaps coming upstream to feed or breed.
Named Altamaha-ha by the Tama Tribe of Native Americans, stories about the creature go back hundreds of years.
We kept our eyes peeled whenever we crossed a bridge, but over the centuries sightings have been very rare so we didn’t feel too bad about not getting a grainy, out of focus photo to put up on the web.
We did get a perfect picture of Altie at The Darien – McIntosh Visitor’s Center though, so we posted it instead.
In Darien we also found something much less mythological, Fort King George.
In 1721 this southernmost outpost in The British Colonies was built to defend against the Spanish, who were already well established a few miles down the coast in St. Augustine.
The fort suffered much more from it’s environment than enemy attacks. Disease and starvation made it nearly impossible to keep a garrison in fighting shape.
But those same harsh surroundings kept Spain from ever mounting a serious invasion.
After the death of the commanding officer, Colonel Barnwell, in 1724, and a suspicious fire that the soldiers did little to extinguish in 1726, the fort was abandoned in 1727.
Even after consuming all of that history, we still had seafood on the brain.
In our travels we had seen several beat up old billboards bragging about a seafood buffet at Pelican Point Restaurant in Townsend, and decided it was worth a trip to see if it still existed.
It did… and how! We took seats right by the water, then proceeded to belly up to the buffet. Huge steamed crab legs, and of course shrimp.
Enough to make Bubba Gump proud. Broiled shrimp, Peel and eat shrimp, fried shrimp, shrimp cocktail… and all delectable.
This was not a five star type of place, but the food was definitely top notch.
There are some luxury resorts along the Georgia shore, most notably on St. Simons and Jeckyll Island, but we chose to confine our explorations to the more everyday.
As in, “It’s not every day that people see Altie swimming up The Altamaha River.”
Fort King George was erected in 1721 and was the southernmost outpost in The British Colonies.
Colonel John Barnwell petitioned the king to build a fort to defend against the Spanish, who were already well established a few miles… CONTINUE READING >>
Fort King George was erected in 1721 and was the southernmost outpost in The British Colonies.
Colonel John Barnwell petitioned the king to build a fort to defend against the Spanish, who were already well established a few miles down the coast in St. Augustine, and became the commanding officer.
As GypsyNesters, our quest is to see the world and relate it to you in our own quirky way.
But why should we have all the fun?
To share the wealth, we asked the web’s best independent travel bloggers to send us their best Cheesy Tourist Diversion moments as a part of Travel Photo Roulette.
(Travel Photo Roulette may be followed on Twitter with the hashtag #PhotoRoulette)
We hit a gold mine of the craziest, funniest and just plain weird travel photos in the world!
Here’s what we asked for:
We LOVE cheesy attractions. Everyone who travels has seen them – those quirky, remove-a-buck-or-two-from-the-tourists wonders of ingenuity. Sometimes they are full productions, others are side-of-the-road pit stops. Often, there are amazing people and stories behind the scenes. Moments like that are our favorites. Show us yours!
We’d like to thank everyone who submitted their amazing shots to Travel Photo Roulette. It was unbelievably difficult to chose a winner to host next week’s round on their website!
Cheesy Tourist Diversions – The Runners Up
Any one of these incredible photos could have been chosen as #1. We just have to say it again – WE HAD SUCH A HARD TIME CHOOSING!
Note: Photos are in no particular order
From Josh of Traveling 9-5: In Chiang Rai, Thailand the popular tourist restaurant is called “Cabbages and Condoms”. And, yes, they have mannequins at the door whose attire consists entirely of…condoms.
From Ted of Traveling Ted: Thank you for giving me an opportunity to post some cheesy photos.
From Tom of Travel Past 50: I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t get any cheesier than the “World’s Biggest Ball of Twine” in Darwin, Minnesota. Thousands of people drive out all the way from Dassel, Minnesota, 4.9 miles away, every weekend just to see it and be photographed with it. Eat your heart out all of you who think your photo of you in front of the Eiffel Tower is hot stuff.
From Abigail of 1,000 Miles On My Own Two Feet: In a wax museum, I feel like a somebody either glamming up with Marylyn Monroe, locking arms with Brad Pitt, or even staring down Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector (of course in real life, my knees would be wobbly to see all these celebs!). Here I am with Jack Black in the Hollywood Wax Museum in Branson, Missouri!
From Kris of The World is Our District: Being in one state is soooo boring…especially when you can be in four at once! Four Corners on the Navajo Res in Arizona/Utah/Colorado/New Mexico.
Cheesy Tourist Diversions – The Winner
Congrats to Suzanne of Boomeresque! Congratulations and we can’t wait to see what you choose as your theme next week!
From Suzanne of Boomeresque: Sometimes the tourist contributes to the cheesiness of the moment. Here, a blogger (moi) confers with FDR while Winston Churchill looks on. In self defense, I maintain that this sculpture called “The Allies” on Bond Street in the Mayfair section of London, England is a cheese magnet.
Cheesy Tourist Diversions – Honorable Mentions
Note: These are in no particular order
From Tash of Jouljet: Has to be Larry the Lobster! On a roadtrip in South Australia – a must detour to Kingston to see him, to jump out of the car, and get a photo with him! A must!
From Craig of Flashpacking Around the World: We had this picture taken at the Terracotta Warriors at Xian. You pay to get your photo taken in front of a painting of the warriors in a room to the side of one of the pits. It was tacky, cheese, but we just had to do it. From Cam of Traveling Canucks: We took this photo yesterday while in Gravenhurst, a small town in the Muskoka region of Ontario. This is the world’s biggest Muskoka chair. I don’t know why anyone would want to take a photo beside a massive wooden chair, but apparently we’ve become the type that pulls over the car in order to do so. My how the times have changed! From Heather of Ferretting Out the Fun: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is chockablock with cheesy tourist attractions. One of my favorites is an animal park called Alligator Adventure. Billed as “the reptile capital of the world,” advertisements for the place can be found all around town. The star attraction is “Utan,” a gargantuan Siamese crocodile thought to be the largest in the U.S. Meet Utan!
From Adrian of Travel Destination Search: This giant ice cream cone in front of a gelateria in Lisbon looked so tempting, we just had to take this photo! From Noel of Travel Photo Discovery: Totally cheesy is this princess riding in a pineapple float – its a horsey dung pooper float and her escorts are the horsey pooper scoopers From Alexandria of Fluent in Frolicking: The tour guide made me do it! From Adam of Getting Stamped: The life size statue of Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli,from the TV Show “Happy Days” cast in bronze is worth the trip to Milwaukee alone. I give this attraction two thumbs up! From Gadi and Tun of Being in Awe: We are getting cheesy and dirty in mud bathes of Moon Water Cave in Yangshuo, China From Poi of No Place To Be: Think of all the amazing trash you can buy for your friends from this place! Well actually, no. It’s the same as the rest of the stuff on the strip at inflated prices! The world’s biggest gift shop (apparently). David & Veronica, GypsyNester.com
Modern, yet traditional, gleaming, but with a not-so-shiny center, Dalian is a city of many facets.
Join us in old Manchuria, a place with both Russian and Japanese influences, old trolleys and new high rises…and both the best street food we’ve ever eaten and the worst thing we’ve ever put in our mouths… CONTINUE READING >>
This is likely because Dalian is not a tourist town. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to see.
Historically a part of Manchuria, this northern port city reflects a past of Russian and Japanese occupation, as well as the more modern-day China.
We had seen a crazy amount of building in Shanghai and Beijing, and this was going on to a lesser degree in Dalian, but we were most excited to be able to explore a city that showcased more of the older urban ways of China.
Our first indication that we might be able to do just that was when it was announced on our ship that the Chinese government forbade passengers to bring any newspapers or magazines ashore.
The most noticeable remnants of Dalian’s time under Japan’s rule are the old trolley cars that still rumble through town.
The trams began in 1909 as the South Manchuria Railway, making them one of the first public transportation systems in China.
This double whammy of history and transportation was perfect for our impromptu tour.
Adorable little three-wheeled cars were everywhere!
Using our firm grasp of the obvious, we found the most visible vestiges of the Russian occupation, because they happened to be on Russian Street. Most of the old Russian buildings disappeared in the many development booms the city has seen over the years, so what looks to be old architecture is actually modern recreations of old Russian buildings.
But by looking behind the facades, we stumbled upon what seemed to be the back side of Dalian.
We wandered into a dark maze of ramshackle shops that form a sort of Super Walmart of local products, household items, baked goods, and every kind of fresh meats and vegetables imaginable.
We sampled a huge watermelon radish and a couple of cream puffs from one of the baker’s stands.
Each of the baker’s offerings were a work of art and finding such gems was strange and wonderful in such hardscrabble surroundings.
We ate while we walked into the downtown area, but our little snack wasn’t going to do. Dalian was alive that afternoon with street vendors cooking their specialities – and our grumbling bellies were finding it nearly impossible to choose between them.
Finally, an outdoor stand where boiling broth was used to cook noodles, vegetables and seafoods caught our eye.
We took a seat at the tiny kiosk and observed for a while to see if we could decipher the procedure.
It looked as though each customer received a bowl, picked a type of noodle, then ordered any of the prepared skewers of beautiful bite-sized delicacies from the one-man show behind the counter.
We tried speaking with no success, the language barrier was extremely high, but by pointing, nodding, grunting and gesturing we managed to get all sorts of fantastic tidbits into our bowls.
WATCH: The best street food we’ve ever had!
When the bill for this absolutely unbelievable meal came, we thought there must have been some mistake.
After carefully counting our empty sticks, the guy asked for twenty yuan, about three dollars, for both of us, including drinks! Without a doubt some of, if not the best street food ever.
In the little plaza with the stick-food kiosk, there was also an antique market where vendors had set up tables offering every sort of trinket imaginable.
Every merchant seemed certain they had just what we were looking for as they would pick something off of their table and give us an in-depth story and look.
They pulled off what looked to be genuine surprise that we could actually live without whatever item they randomly pulled out.
Lowen Beer goes great with…ugh…silkworms.
As we explored the city we found many exotic and exciting foods, quite a few that were displayed in the restaurants alive.
These lively, moving menus worked well for our point and eat method.
After window shopping the fare in several establishments, Veronica walked into one and sat down. In no time, she had pointed to a plate of wiggling silkworms and there was no turning back.
We had been taunting each other ever since we found out in Beijing that people actually ate the buggers.
When the dish arrived, the smell alone brought about extended stall tactics.
The incredibly unpleasant aroma led Veronica to trying the garnish first, asking every member of the staff how to go about ingesting the buggers, bringing one right up to her lips and chickening out (by the way, they most decidedly do not taste like chicken), and nearly crying before finally popping one in her mouth.
WATCH: ONE of us actually ate a silkworm — and the other is a wuss.
Seriously, a medal for bravery might have been in order. But the gauntlet was down, there was no way David was getting away without trying one. As soon as his teeth cracked the bug-like shell… some memories must be suppressed. Put away forever and never brought back up.
YOUR TURN: Are you more drawn to the modern or traditional China? Stick food or silkworms? Does anyone know what the stick food is called?
Hat tip to Claudia de Nobrega of Clouds in the Kitchen for identifying the stick food!: The red little rectangle is pigs blood, coagulated…it is chinese hot sticks Malak chan…sorry cannot spell it…the chilli sauce s made with chillies, spices and a pepper that numbs your mouth from the same family as Sichuan pepper also used in chinese medicine. They count the sticks but if you notice each of them has a different colour to tell the different prices of the ingredients used…
It may not be a language all of its own, but it’s pretty close. So we tried to learn a bit of the local dialect… with less than stellar results… CONTINUE READING >>
Join us in California where we had the opportunity to see what happens when a new car is launched!
We were blown away by the wildest performance art group ever, drank liquid nitrogen cocktails, supped on fare from THE Top Chef – then chatted with him – and were among the first to see a brand spanking new car design! What a night!.. CONTINUE READING >>
Because of the great time we had on our glamping adventure in the Venza last year, our friends at Toyota asked us to come to their big unveiling of the all new 2014 Corolla.
This was to be quite an event, with performance art group Fuerza Bruta providing the entertainment, and Top Chef: All-Stars champion Richard Blais in charge of the food.
With no idea what to expect, but a big dose of curiosity about what happens at an extravaganza like this, we immediately accepted the invitation.
Seemed like something a GypsyNester might like to get a peek behind the scenes at, but we felt a bit like fish out of water as we entered the enormous Barker Hanger at the Santa Monica Airport.
The huge hanger had been transformed into something akin to a car museum, displaying pristine Corolla models from the past fifty years, crossed with a nightclub, filled with flashing lights, techno music, and some sort of translucent cubes suspended from the rafters.
Bars scattered throughout caught our eyes, since their tenders were busily stirring stainless steel bowls of what looked to be some kind of witches brew.
Clouds of what appeared to be dry ice fog were swirling and catching the colored lights. Of course we inquired, and the answer came back — liquid nitrogen margaritas.
Pouring the negative 300 degree liquid into the margarita mixture flash freezes everything as the nitrogen evaporates off, leaving an amazingly smooth slush.
The method is used in molecular gastronomy, the science of food preparation, something that Chef Blais often incorporates into his creations.
WATCH: Your GypsyNesters interview Chef Richard Blais about food, family and liquid nitrogen!
Armed with our nitro-cocktails we were ready to make the scene, and next thing we knew people were defying gravity inside the suspended boxes using an innovative mix of dance and gymnastics.
Fuerza Bruta had begun. At times it felt a little reminiscent of the old go-go dancer cages back in the sixties… extremely modernized.
While our attention was directed upwards, buffet tables in each corner began serving dishes showcasing Chef Blais’ interesting variations on some traditional Southern and Mexican fare, such as licorice grits and rock shrimp tamales.
We tried a little of everything, ribs, guacamole, kale coleslaw, all the while trying to figure out where the actual unveiling of the new Corolla would occur.
We thought we must be onto something when a giant curtain bisecting the room began to open, but alas, the new space was empty. Somehow everybody instinctively knew to fill the space in and we walked, mystified, into a huge empty room. That’s when Fuerza Bruta kicked it up a notch.
WATCH: The wildest performance art you’ll ever see!
One whole wall was covered with a shimmering silver screen and two performers once again defied gravity as they ran, jumped, and tumbled across it perfectly perpendicular to the wall, parallel to the floor.
But this was also serving as a distraction, because a final surprise was in store.
We noticed a clear sheet of plastic, stretched drum-tight, overhead and covered with a thin film of water. This became the canvas for the troupe’s pièce de résistance.
Instantly four dancers splashed and frolicked while it was lowered to just inches above our heads.
As the music pounded, colored lights caught the waves and shot prisms off the droplets flying from the gymnastic gyrations.
Truly a sensory overload.
The building of excitement in the room was superb because before anyone could catch their breath somehow, out of nowhere, a sleek, red 2014 Corolla was lowering down from above.
Then her blue, silver, and white comrades came in from the sides. What an entrance.
It is not very often that a successful car model gets a significant makeover, but this was certainly not the same old Corolla.
Having driven the 2013 version, we could tell that as soon as we saw it, and even more so once we sat behind the wheel. We may not be car connoisseurs, but we know groovy when we see it.
Once things had settled down we noticed the food tables had been transformed into dessert stations. Like any good Top Chef, Chef Blais can throw down some pretty serious sweets.
Before the evening ended we got a chance to speak with him, and try one more of his creations, liquid nitrogen blueberries and cream. He was great, fun and personable.
But then he has to be to get noticed around his phenomenal desserts.
