The Georgia Sea Turtle Center staff and volunteers invite all turtle enthusiasts to join in some non-scary Turtleween fun! Come dressed in your Halloween costume and receive $1 off admission to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center! There will be arts and crafts, fun turtle-ish programs, and of course, you can visit our sea turtle patients! CALL US AT 912-635-4444

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Get your 2009 Jekyll Island Shrimp & Grits: The Wild Georgia Shrimp Festival souvenir Poster Online!  Also, you can collect them all! Get the 2006, 2007, & 2008 posters for only $32! Maybe you forgot to buy yours at the festival. Maybe you couldn’t make it. Hurry and get yours while supplies last! Now only $15!

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All of Georgia’ Golden Isles have a lot to offer. Jekyll Island is a huge state-owned property with history, beauty and a slower, elegant-but-not-necessarily-expensive lifestyle. There’s something for just about everyone here - and fall lodging specials too. Just about five hours from Atlanta - but a world away. (see map.) Among the activities you don’t want to miss —

7. Croquet. Yes, that game you played in the backyard. There will be a tournament October 23 - 25 with nationally-known players and a clinic in the mornings to help you with your game. Bring your whites.

6.  Georgia’s Colonial Coast Birding and Nature Festival, October 8- 12. This includes a number of outings with experts to off-the-path places like Ossabaw, Blackbeard, Cumberland and Wassaw Islands as well as a canoe trip in the Okefenokee. There’s a dolphin kayak trip, raptor-watch and other nature walks. A great way to get traffic and city bosses out of your system.

5. Folklore, Rumor & Myth Ghost Tours. The Jekyll Island Museum is holding a special ghost tour Fridays in October for ages 10 and up. Call 912-635-4036 to make your reservations. This is a very old island, and it was developed by wealthy people - so the quality of ghosts you’re going to run into is, shall we say, a cut above the average ghost? See the Jekyll Island Museum Ghost Tour.

4. Golf. For many people, Jekyll Island is synonymous with great golf. This year the weather has been good for the courses, so the four courses are in great shape. And they have a special for the rest of September allowing you to golf all day for $38.

3. Fishing. There are good deep sea fishing guides, among them Capt. Mark Noble. (Check out the others on the CVB’s website.) Or just chill on the beach with a pole.

2.  The Georgia Sea Turtle Center. Yes turtles. Before you skip this, let me say that I went there last year on an assignment. My feelings about turtles weren’t really warm and fuzzy. I was glad they’re around and want them to stay, but I didn’t want to cuddle them. Just passing through the gift shop on the way in, though — I was struck with Cupid’s arrow. Those big, wet eyes and they are so vulnerable to humans on the planet. Go on into the hospital and look at these babies…big and little. Read some of their stories. You will come out of there a turtle hugger. You can adopt a turtle or just follow their stories on the blog. This is not a zoo. The turtles are here to be rehabilitated. On September 20, they plan to release three of the most popular -  Pumpkin, Nightwatch and Skidaway.

1.  The Wild Georgia Shrimp & Grits Festival. I just happened on this last year and I’m not going to miss it again. Amazingly, we have a shrimp industry in this state but except for a few stores, the shrimp you buy come from Thailand or somewhere else. You’ve got to taste these delicacies. This will turn you into a shrimp snob.  Lines are long but well worth it.  (Photos courtesy Jekyll Island Authority.)

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By LINDSEY ADKISON
Reposted from TheBrunswickNews.com

When the Foreback family heard about the Jekyll Island Shrimp and Grits festival, they knew it was something they couldn’t pass up. In fact, they made it a focal point of their fall vacation.

“We’re from the Atlanta area and our girls go to school year around and they have fall break now. When we called the Jekyll Island Club Hotel to register for our hotel, they told us about the festival,” Pam Foreback said.

“We thought it would be fun. So we brought our dogs down and we’re having a great time.”

The Forebacks weren’t the only ones drawn to the event. Hundreds of people descended on the tiny island for fun, music and, of course, the food.

On Friday night, vendors lined the pathways throughout the historic district, selling everything from candles to furniture.

But they weren’t just there to sell their wares.

Pam Foot and her husband work for Logan Turnpike Mill and drove eight hours from Blairsville to take part. They were hoping to combine a little business with pleasure.

“We were invited by the Jekyll Island Club. A lot of chefs use our grits for their recipes,” Foot said.

“There really is no down side to it. It’s like a vacation for us. I haven’t been to the beach in a really long time.”

Throughout the weekend, the mood was light. Events included shrimp eating contests, music and cooking contests.

On Saturday and Sunday, there were BMX Bike demonstrations. There were also shows by the Disc-Connected K9 Frisbee Dogs.

One of the weekend’s highlights was a release by the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.

Hundreds of spectators hit the beach to watch three rehabilitated amphibians, Pumpkin, Skidaway and Nightwatch return to the ocean.

Camden County residents Erica Crews and her young daughters, Julie Ann and Andy, were on hand to wish them luck.

“We recently visited the turtle center, so I wanted the girls to see it,” Crews said.

As a whole, the expanded festival seemed a rousing success.

Jekyll Island spokesperson Eric Garvey said even though no numbers are in, this year’s event was likely the largest ever.

“It looks like this year’s event was up about 20 to 30 percent over last year and the weekend total will approach 15,000 to the festival,” he said.

“The additional activities were planned to give everyone a better festival experience with plenty to do and to bring people back for several days. We planned the additional activities because we anticipated a larger crowd this year. The festival has received tremendous publicity, so we were expecting large crowds.”

One of the new features of the weekend was a shuttle service that took patrons from the parking area of at the Jekyll Island Convention Center to the festival area in the Historic District.

Garvey said that it ran relatively smoothly.

“The shuttle system worked very well. Like any transportation system, there are bugs to be worked out. This was our first organized shuttle system on this scale and with more revitalization projects beginning this year, we will be utilizing shuttles to manage parking and move people around the island,” he said.

“Guests seemed to have no problem with it and it allowed use to utilize more of the Historic District for festival activities.”

Contest winners:

* The professional cooking contest award went to Cargo Portside Grill.

* The People’s Choice winner was Tasteful Temptations.

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ARE YOU READY FOR SOME SHRIMP & GRITS? Making Dinner Plans? Friday night is $3 Sample Night at Shrimp & Grits: The Wild Georgia Shrimp Festival. Halyards of St. Simon’s Island is one of the awesome restaurants vending at the festival, serving up that wonderful southern specialty: Shrimp and Grits! The Shrimp are Coming! Beth Burnsed of the Jekyll Island Authority Says the Weather is Great as they Are Setting Up and Getting Ready for an Awesome Shrimp & Grits: the Wild Georgia Shrimp Festival! Follow us on Twitter or Be our Fan on Facebook for Updates from the Festival! Not only do we have tasty shrimp but cold beer thanks to our sponsor, Michelob Ultra, at Shrimp & Grits: The Wild Georgia Shrimp Festival!

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Tags: georgia beaches, Jekyll Island Club Hotel, Jekyll Island Events, jekyll island vacation, shrimp and grits festival, shrimp festival, wild georgia shrimp
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by Lindsey Adkison, Reposted from The Brunswick News, September 17, 2009

The chef at Blackwater Grill on St. Simons Island is a contestant in this weekend’s Shrimp and Grits professional cooking contest and festival on Jekyll Island.

And he says his lips are sealed on his recipe.

“The only criteria is that it has to have shrimp and grits,” he said. “It’s more of a chef’s competition.”
All he can tell you is this: “I won’t be doing the shrimp and grits that I serve here.”

The cooking contest is part of the three-day festival sponsored by the Jekyll Island Authority that will begin Friday. The cooking contest, which is on Sunday, the final day of the festival, will feature several restaurant chefs like Cadden. Each will try to offer the judges something unique.

“Each year I come up with something new,” Cadden said. “We haven’t won yet, but maybe the fourth year will be the charm.”

The festival also has a people’s choice event. On Friday, hungry patrons can pay $3 to sample different restaurants take on the Southern fare.

Dan Dickerson, co-owner of Latitude 31, may have a home field advantage. The restaurant is on the Jeykll Wharf in the island’s historic district, where the event will take place. “On Saturday, they will tally all tickets, and I think Latitude has a good shot,” he said.

Besides being fun, participation in the festival is also a chance to give something back to the community, Dickerson said.

“One of reasons why we like doing it is because it helps the local shrimpers out,” he said. “Wild Georgia Shrimp is the best shrimp that you can possibly ever eat.”

Even though good food may be the biggest enticement, there are other reasons to come out. Beth Burnsed, event coordinator for Jekyll Island, says a host of activities are included on the menu. “The Shrimp & Grits Festival has something for everyone,” she said. “For the kids, we have a Family Fun Zone, shrimp eating contests, a King BMX Bike show and the Frisbee dog show.

“For adults we have cooking demonstrations, arts and crafts vendors, live entertainment and cold beverages.”

One particularly interesting portion of the festival will be the release of three sea turtles from the Georgia Sea Turtle Center at 3 p.m. Sunday. The turtle release is just one of the ways the program has expanded over the past four years. Burnsed says it has grown to include more than 70 arts and crafts vendors and 25 food vendors.

“Every year the festival has grown, not only in the number of attendees, but also in activities,” she said. “For this reason we are implementing a shuttle system this year. All parking for the festival will be near the Jekyll Island Convention Center on Saturday and Sunday. There will be no parking
in the Historic District.”

A shuttle service will be provided. “This has allowed us to add more activities such as the King BMX Stunt Show and expand our Family Fun Zone and arts and crafts vendor area,” she said.

The additions will come as a welcome surprise to many festival regulars.

The festival seems to have more meaning this year. The economy has dealt a heavy blow to both tourism and the shrimping industry, said Eric Garvey, spokesman for the Jekyll Island Authority. He feels the festival is a way of bringing attention to the industry and the coast.

“It makes great sense because our guests from our key markets like Atlanta, Macon, Athens and Augusta are the target consumers for Wild Georgia Shrimp,” he said. “We have had a tremendous response to this year’s event from businesses wanting to participate and from guests making their plans to come. We are looking forward to a big crowd, and we are optimistic that it will give us, the shrimp industry and all the restaurants and vendors involved a much-needed boost.”

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Dan Dickerson, owner of Latitude 31, the Rah Bar, and Driftwood Bistro, promoting Shrimp & Grits: The Wild Georgia Shrimp Festival on WSAV Savannah/Hilton Head’s News: He explains why Wild Georgia Shrimp tastes especially sweet . . .

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Tags: cooking competition, georgia beaches, georgia coast, jekyll island, shrimp and grits, shrimp and grits festival
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There is something for everyone at Shrimp & Grits: The Wild Georgia Shrimp Festival! Festival Grounds Times Friday 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM Saturday 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM Sunday 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM Download the schedule Festival guides will be available at the site and signs will guide you to the events! Please note that parking this year will be at the Jekyll Island Convention Center. Clean, new, FREE, air-conditioned, shuttle buses will pick you up at the parking lots every 10 minutes to take right to the festival area. $3 Sample Night - Friday Enjoy $3 samples of Shrimp & Grits from each of the Shrimp & Grits vendors and vote on which restaurant should receive top honors!)) 5:30PM - 8:00PM Arts & Crafts Vendors Friday 5:30 PM- 7:00 PM Saturday 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM Sunday 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM Kids’ Fun Zone Friday 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM Saturday 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM Sunday 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM KING BMX Stunt Show Saturday Noon, 3:00PM, 5:00PM Disc-Conected K9 Frisbee Dogs Saturday 11AM, 2PM, 4PM Sunday 11AM, 2PM Stage Schedules Events are at Main Stage unless otherwise noted. Friday, September 18 Live Music: Straight No Chaser 5:45 PM - 8:00 PM Saturday, September 19 Start of Amateur Cooking Competition 11:00 AM Big Dawg and Paul Show 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Live Music: Smokin’ Section 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Cooking Demonstration: Chef Robert Tulko (Pier Road Stage) 11:00AM Big Dawg and Paul Show 12:30 PM - 1:00 PM Shrimp Eating Contest I 1:00 PM - 1:30 PM Magic Show (Pier Road Stage) 1:00PM Live Music: OSKAR Rockhammer 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM Amateur Cooking Competitions Awards 2:30 PM Shrimp Eating Contest II 4:00 PM Magic Show (Pier Road Stage) 4:00PM Live Music: Stingrays 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM Big Dawg and Paul Show 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM Live Music: Randall Bramblett Band 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM Sunday, September 20 Start of Professional Cooking Competition 11:00 AM Big Dawg and Paul Show 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Cooking Demonstration: Chef Joe Randall (Pier Road Stage) 11:30AM Shrimp Eating Contest III 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM Live Music: Three of Us 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM Magic Show (Pier Road Stage) 2:00PM-3:00PM Big Dawg and Paul Show 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM Awards for Professional Cooking Competition 3:00 PM - 3:30 PM TURTLE RELEASE (BEACH) 3:00 PM Shrimp Eating Contest IV 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM Festival Grounds Close 4:00 PM All weekend activities hosted by the Big Dawg and Paul Show! All times subject to change.

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