On Sunday we slept in a bit from the festivities of last night, and went to the Sunday Brunch at 11:30am in the Grand Dining Room. While there is a breakfast brunch most days at the Grand Dining Room, the Sunday brunch is most grand and especially festive during the Christmas season here on Jekyll Island.
We always enjoy the seafood station with shrimp and clams, as well as the adjacent station with smoked salmon, smoked shrimp, scallops and even caviar.
Steve’s tip: Always request the warm “finger bowl” from our server when having the shrimp; it’s a small bowl with heated water and lemon you can dip your fingers in after peeling so many shrimp. Very Classy!
We thoroughly enjoyed our Sunday Brunch, and like last night was made even more Christmasy with the piano playing in the background. I requested one of my favorite classical songs, “Canon in D”, which Tim gladly played for us. I didn’t take many photos at brunch as we were too busy filling our mouths, but here’s a pic each of DOS and me and Andy and Art.
After the Sunday brunch, we walked around the Historical Village some more, enjoying the beautiful day.
In the evening we took the hotel shuttle over to the Westin Resort for dinner. While we’ve never stayed at the Jekyll Island Westin, we love touring this oceanfront hotel (next to the Convention Center) and having dinner there one night. The Westin is always beautifully decorated for Christmas as well when we visit each year in December,
Rone, our favorite Bellman Bellman drove us to the hotel, and as he did for us last year, made a detour a bit to show us the Jekyll Island park that had multiple animated light displays.
We had a nice last night on Jekyll at the Westin Hotel, enjoying pre-dinner drinks and dinner. As it was Sunday, it was very quiet – in fact we were the only diners in the dining room at the late hour of 8pm. We first had a holiday cocktail in the bar area, being served by George, who also served us last year and is a favorite of our island friends Michelle and Larsen.
While we leisurely sampled our beverages, we glanced at the TV in the bar, which was showing the news, with Roanoke, Virginia (my hometown and where Andy and Art live and are heading back to in the morning) currently getting snow, and expecting some 18 inches of the white stuff! It’s always pleasant to watch snow – from a few hundred miles away!
George also took us outside for a couple quick picks by their Season Greetings sign to send back home.
After our cocktails, we moved to the Westin dining room in the adjacent area, and had a nice and private dinner for the four of us (Andy, Art, DOS, and myself). As we were the only diners, we got outstanding service, and the server was glad to have a fun table that ordered multiple appetizers, nice entrees, deserts, and vino.
After dinner, Rone picked up back up in the shuttle bus, and drove us back to the Jekyll Club Hotel, which is a short drive away to the Historical District. Rone made us a late night fire, and we took a selfie with him before he headed out.
As we enjoyed the fire and remaining drinks we had brought with us, we slowly packed up the decorations we had brought, as well as our clothes, computers, etc, as we were checking out in the morning.
On Monday, our pre-Christmas weekend at Jekyll Island had come to an end; always quick but fun, and we had one last breakfast in the Grand Dining Room, this time sitting in the airy circular wing that jets out from the restaurant.
Rone was off in the morning, so we got assistance with our luggage from the day bellman, and like at checkin, we needed two luggage carts for all our stuff! With our large rental SUV fully packed, we headed out for Jacksonville Airport. Andy and Art where flying home to the snow in Roanoke, while I was flying to Ohio on a business trip for the week.
As we drove down the Jekyll Island Causeway, and were leaving the island, we were a bit sad to be leaving, but taking wonderful memories of our 2018 pre-Christmas weekend here.
So long for now Jekyll Island, and as DOS said “We’ll be back again next year!”
