Every year since passing the Georgia Bar in 2004, I’ve attended the annual workers’ compensation continuing legal education seminar at Saint Simons Island, with the only exception being 2007, when I was keeping you comfortably sleeping under that blanket of freedom you enjoy every night whilst I got mortared over and over again in Balad, Iraq, but it’s cool; I’m over that now.

Covid canceled our beloved annual conference this year, so we decided to go for the first time without its being a tax-deductible vacation; the kids were out for Columbus Day (or Indigenous Peoples Day), so we drove down to the Golden Isles. This time, instead of going to the King & Prince on Saint Simons, we stayed on neighboring Jekyll Island at the Westin, renting bikes and riding among Spanish moss for miles and miles along the coast, exploring Driftwood Beach, and enjoying the slower pace Jekyll offers on Saturday after arriving Friday evening.

Saturday evening, we watched the Alabama game at Gnat’s Landing, as we always like to do when down there, and we stayed at the Beach Club condos on Saint Simons (after having Southern Soul BBQ for late lunch). The children posed for a 9th consecutive photo on the large bulldog outside our favorite island spot for food and football:

We enjoyed the beach all day Sunday (as well as Sal’s Pizzeria and Del Sur for meals), where the children found new friends to play with in the sand and surf. One of their new friends had a net, so they took turns casting nets into a giant tide pool, caught several small fish, and fed them to a grateful heron they named King Eric. King Eric has likely starved to death by now, unwilling and unable to catch his own fish, thanks to my children and their new friends, but for a while, he was as close to living his best life as a heron can be.

We enjoyed Monday morning at the pool or beach and then headed back to Atlanta, attempting to stop at the kids’ favorite lunch spot in Macon, Spud Dogs, for lunch, but it was closed–a different restaurant was in its location now. We gave Spud Dogs a moment of saddened silence before getting back on the interstate and stopping at the Bass Pro Shop instead (so that my son could get his own casting net).

As we’ve done all year since March 12, we’ve tried to continue our travels during the dreaded pandemic, despite the now 32 cancelled flights we’ve had. I’m glad we kept this tradition alive another year, and I hope we get a 10th “high on the bulldog” photo (and that it’s back to being tax-deductible) in 2021!