Author: bbpeck

Yesterday, Bob and I had a good 8+ mile walk from the house in St Saviour parish through St Helier parish, St Laurens parish, St Peter parish, and into St Brelade parish to an artisan market in the St Brelade Parish Hall near St Aubin’s Bay before heading back along the waterfront trail to St Helier where we caught a bus back to the house.

Today, Bob and I walked 1.9 miles into the center of St Helier, the capital of Jersey and most populous town on the island. We wanted to take advantage of what may be the latest sunny day for a while, if the weather forecast is correct.

Jersey was liberated from almost five years of German occupation on this site on May 9, 1945. The statue by Philip Jackson was unveiled on the 50th anniversary in 1995.

There are 12 parishes on the island of Jersey — 10 of them named for saints. “Our” house is located in St Saviour, which is the second most populous parish after St Helier (home to the largest city on the island). St Saviour is a virtually landlocked parish (only 100 meters of coastline) in the eastern third of the island.

It is the only parish with 5 other parishes as immediate neighbors. Other fun facts about the parish — it is the birth and burial place of Lillie Langtry, a British socialite, stage actress, and producer. It is home to La Hogue Bie, one of the most important Neolithic sites in Europe, and the Lieutenant Governor, who represents the Crown on the island, also live in St Saviour.

Our homeowners have a booklet of different parish walks, so we decided to walk the parish walk for St Saviour, which highlights undiscovered lanes, to get a better sense of the larger neighborhood.

We did the 5 mile walk in late afternoon when the cleaner was scheduled to be at the house. Some photos from our walk…

As per usual, our first day at a new house finds us doing errands like grocery shopping and laundry. Check and check, but the more interesting parts of our day are getting into our new routine with our new pets. Currently, Bella and Lu are letting us be their humans. They are indoor and outdoor cats going through an open kitchen window into the garden. Bella hangs out in the garden when she goes out and then prefers to have you let her in the back door. Lu goes further afield and tends to come back in through the window as well. They both stay inside over night.

We are back in the Channel Islands, located in the English Channel between England and France. In June, we were on the island of Guernsey. We are on Jersey now, the largest of the islands, and much closer to France, within 14 miles at the closest point. Jersey has a population of just over 103,000 people. In addition to their regular residents, pets, tourists, and housesitters, they also have these.

The island is 5 miles long and 9 miles wide. Interestingly, the island almost doubles in size at low tide.

As with all of the Chanel Islands, it is a British Crown Dependency, so it is self-governing but its defence and international relations are handled by the UK. Like Guernsey, it was also occupied by the Germans during WWII.

We’re looking forward to exploring more beginning tomorrow.

Last night Bob and I had a great walkthrough and home cooked dinner with our homeowners after they picked us up at our hotel, but before that we had a lovely walk to a lighthouse on the southwest coast of Jersey.

We left the hotel via a series of steps off of their terrace and then through a small park.

From the park, we crossed the street and began walking on the impressive trail along the beach. For a good portion of this trail, there are separate bike and pedestrian lanes.

Shortly after entering St Aubin, we turned inland to walk the Rail Trail which took us all the way to the lighthouse. We started our walk at 12:45 and got to the lighthouse about 2:50.

After walking down near the lighthouse but not crossing over to it as not low tide, we caught bus 22 back to the Cristina Hotel near the Cobiere Phare Hotel and German Naval Tower.

After our stay in Augusta, GA, Bob and I spent Saturday night at the Marriott Hotel near the Atlanta airport for our Sunday flight to London and then Jersey. Bob had also found a long-term parking option for the car near the hotel. The hotel was large, clean, and had a great fitness center. Unfortunately for us, the Concierge Lounge wasn’t open during our stay, so no free dinner Saturday night, but we had a great free breakfast Sunday morning at the Renaissance Hotel across the street.

We get free breakfasts at certain level Marriott hotels due to our membership status, and since their lounge isn’t open on Sunday mornings, they must have an agreement with the Renaissance Hotel (also a Marriott property) to provide the breakfast in their restaurant.

We had a long wait Sunday, as our flight didn’t depart until after 10 pm. We got a late checkout at the hotel, so we stayed in our room until 4:00 and then waited in the lobby and took turns walking around without luggage for another 2 hours. At 6:00, we walked to the sky train for the quick ride to the domestic terminal. We then boarded a bus near the sky train to take us to the international terminal. That was a longer ride than we expected, but we still had plenty of time for check in and security. Check-in there though was a bit of a stressor since no regular (non British Airways elite travelers) could be assisted until any elite traveler that showed up was checked in. We got through eventually and security was a breeze. I was worried that the wait times might be longer with the government shutdown, but everything went well and our flight left on time.

One thing that was new for us on this trip is that our flight into London landed at Heathrow Airport, but the flight to Jersey left from Gatwick Airport. We had 5 hours in between, but we were still a bit concerned about whether our flight would be on time and the customs and luggage pickup process and then the check-in and security process at Gatwick. Bob had scheduled us a car transfer service (Blackberry), so that we wouldn’t have to worry about figuring out a bus or train transfer.

Everything worked out really well. The longest wait was waiting for a gate after we landed at Heathrow. Customs and luggage pickup were very quick, and our car transfer driver (though a slow walker) was a great driver. The ride to Gatwick was 45 minutes. We spent most of the next 3 hours in a lounge.

We arrived into Jersey, where we were immediately welcomed on WhatsApp by our homeowner, and were into our hotel,The Hotel Cristina, by 6:45. This is a beautiful hotel with great views of Jersey and St. Aubin’s Bay. We had a quick drink in the bar last night while we looked over all the tourist info we picked up and a great free breakfast in the restaurant this morning.

Even though I slept for about 4 hours on the plane, I slept almost 12 hours last night. Bob didn’t sleep much at all on the plane to London, but a little on the short flight to Guernsey. He was awake before me this morning.

Some photos from our room.

Our homeowners will pick us up here at 6:00 this evening after work. We have paid for a late checkout at 1:00, then we’re going to do a 2+ hour walk to a lighthouse and then catch a bus back after looking around. Tomorrow evening after work when our homeowners head off on their cruise, we will be The Real Housesitters of Jersey.

Our last full day in Augusta and much more fall-like weather. It was in the mid 50s when we went out about 10 am this morning, but the feels like temp was in the high 40s.

We walked east along the Riverwalk, the opposite of yesterday, to check out the sculptures and the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Savannah River to North Augusta, South Carolina.

There were sculptures on the bridge as well as along the Riverwalk.

After stopping at a bakery that we had see from our hotel window (very dark with little selection so no purchases), Bob and I headed to the other side of the Marriott to go across the street to the Morris Museum of Art that we had passed on the Riverwalk yesterday.

This museum is the oldest in the country that is specifically devoted to the art and artists of the American South. It has over 6,000 pieces in its permanent collection of varies types — paintings, sculptures, art, glass, etc.

Of course, Augusta is mostly known around the world for the Augusta National Golf Course and The Master’s Golf Tournament. As we aren’t members and the tournament isn’t going, we couldn’t get on the course, but we drove the 3.5 miles from downtown to at least get a feel of the area.

The area near the course is, like the rest of the city, is a bit up and down with nice (not grand) homes/buildings alongside pretty derelict ones. The course doesn’t have to worry about that though, as it is surrounded by heavy trees, large bushes so that you can’t see in and if you’re in you don’t have to see out.

Late morning tomorrow, we will head to a hotel near the Atlanta Airport to spend one night before we fly out late Sunday night.

Besides the fact that Augusta, Georgia, lies on the Savannah River directly across from North Augusta, South Carolina, Wikipedia tells me that it has a population of just over 202,000, which makes it the 3rd largest city in Georgia after Atlanta and Columbus. I only know about it from the Master’s, but it has a great trail system, an art museum that we hope to visit, and some famous former residents, including Woodrow Wilson and James Brown.

Today, since no rain was in the forecast we hit the trails and then a bit of the James Brown Trail downtown. We started where we ended yesterday— on the pretty paved Riverwalk along the Savannah River directly behind our hotel. We headed west.

After we reached 13th Street (our hotel lies in between 9th and 10th Streets), we crossed onto the Augusta Canal River Levee Trail. The Savannah River is dammed to create a 13 mile canal through Augusta to supply the city with drinking water and power several small hydroelectric plants. The look of the trail changed, but it was still paved the entire way.

We crossed a number of bridges on our walk.

The above sculpture was at the end of our canal walk near 13th Street and Walton Way (named for George Walton, one of the three men from Georgia to sign the Declaration of Independence). At this point, we switched to a basic map that we had picked up yesterday to see some of the highlights from James Brown’s history in Augusta.

While the “Hardest Working Man in Show Business” was born in Barnwell, South Carolina, his family moved to Augusta when he was a young child, and he considered Augusta his home. 9th Street in Augusta has been renamed James Brown Boulevard.

Based on where we had ended our canal walk, we decided to head to 7th Street to see his childhood home. On the way, we passed the Mother Trinity CME Church. He swept the floors in this church in exchange for being able to practice on their piano.

We were ultimately unsuccessful in finding his boyhood home. We were at the address indicated, but apparently they just wanted us to know where the home was, as the address provided is now a business in a not so great part of town. A local man asked what we were looking for and had no idea…

So back up 7th Street where we were to pass the James Brown Arena and Bell Auditorium. We got Bell Auditorium, as the arena has apparently been torn down to create a new auditorium. The pictures of the planned building were impressive and included building onto Bell Auditorium, where James Brown played a number of shows.

After all that I feel good, but you knew that I would right? 🎵🎶

On Tuesday afternoon, I left the sweet, fun Squeegee to check into the Four Points Marriott Hotel in Myrtle Beach to wait for Bob. He had flown to Iowa the day before for an appointment with a neurologist that had become available. Our homeowners were okay with him going. Our homeowners ended up coming home that night as well, so we chose to spend the night in a hotel as Bob was expecting to get in late.

The hotel was in an industrial area of Myrtle Beach closer to the airport.

Today, we left Myrtle Beach about 9:30 am to head to Augusta, Georgia, for a short visit before we fly to our next housesit. Augusta is in Georgia, but on the border of South Carolina, so almost all of our almost four drive today was in South Carolina. About an hour into our drive, we started seeing signs for Sparky’s. This is a large gas station/convenience store site (a la Texas-based Buc-ee’s). They sell just about everything (hermit crabs to flip flops to fudge and fireworks) and promote their clean bathrooms.

We were unimpressed. All staff seemed barely alive. It was kitschy and not in an attractive way, and their very small bathrooms were definitely not clean. We do not recommend Sparky’s.

Once we arrived at the Marriott Suites in Augusta and got settled, we went out into the downtown area to check out the Visitors Center, Augusta and Co. This is a combo Visitors Center and store for local goods. It even provided a bit of local history.

Just to follow up on the results of Bob’s appointment, we learned that he is likely in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. We’re in the process of absorbing this information (not entirely unexpected) and what that means for our immediate future.

Starting late last week, the weather forecast here showed nothing but rain and storms through the end of this week. We also began to hear about two storms in the Atlantic— Humberto and Imelda. It was clear fairly early on that Humberto would head further into the Atlantic away from the US eastern coast, but Imelda was moving much more slowly so it was harder to predict. And then for a few days it appeared to be headed right towards the coast of the Carolinas and emergency declarations were made by Governors to help with assistance in clean up after the anticipated storm. The city of Myrtle Beach made sand available for you to make sand bags to help protect property. It was all a bit alarming.

We were in communication with the home owners who had left us their hurricane kit with lots of water, blankets, a flashlight, and a radio. We were ready to fill the tub with water and move some outdoor furniture, and evacuate if needed, and then even Imelda decided that there was already enough chaos going on in the US that she didn’t need to be adding to it. Imelda went the way of Humberto, and we just got a good couple of days worth of much needed rain here and some high surf. No flooding or any wind damage. Whew, not the kind of excitement we want or need.

So since the sun is back out, at least through tomorrow, we’ve tried to get out and be a bit more active than we’ve been for the past few days.

Yesterday, we parked at Warbird Park and walked up to and around the lake near Market Commons and then over to Barnes and Noble to feed my puzzle book addiction. The Market Commons area is a development that we continue to find attractive with its cute homes, great parks, and walkability to retail and restaurants.

Today, we drove about 16 miles south to Pawleys Island, another part of the 60 mile grand strand along the coast. We drove over a causeway to get to the Island, which is only about 3 miles long between an inter coastal waterway and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the oldest resort areas on the East Coast.