By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO
The Associated Press
CUMBERLAND ISLAND, Ga. - Drops of moisture fall from the Spanish moss that hangs from live oaks onto the fan-shaped palmetto fronds below. A hungry armadillo busily scavenges under vines and ferns. A breeze off the teal Atlantic plays with the mane of a sturdy feral horse trotting on the ivory sand dunes.
To land on Cumberland Island, a national seashore off the Georgia coast, is to immerse oneself in the sounds of silence just a few miles east of one of the nation’s busiest highways, Interstate 95.
The southernmost of Georgia’s barrier islands, it is accessible only via ferry - frequently escorted by dolphins and pelicans - and the private launch of the island’s only deluxe inn. The pristine nature that has marked this cluster of isles for more than a century faces new challenges this year from development plans.
Cumberland and the four barrier islands just north of it, called the Golden Isles, are separated from the mainland by a few hundred yards of golden marsh, about halfway between Savannah, Ga., and Jacksonville.
Sea Island and Little St. Simons Island are luxury getaways. The first has mansions and The Cloister, a newly renovated, exclusive resort. Little St. Simons is entirely taken up by a private resort that accommodates only 30 guests.
St. Simons Island, which sits just south of Little St. Simons, has its own venerable live oaks and colonial history dating to 16th century Spanish explorers and 18th century English soldiers. But with more than 15,000 year-round residents, a cluster of shops and restaurants, a pier and an 1872 brick lighthouse, it looks more like a seaside village than do the other barrier islands.
Just south of St. Simons, on Jekyll and Cumberland islands, are the remnants of Gilded Age exclusivity and expanses of pristine wilderness. Both islands are also at the center of development debates that pit accessibility and modernization against untrammeled nature.

www2.tbo.com

FOR ANY FOODIE, dinner at the Inn at Little Washington amounts to both a pilgrimage and a feast. The seminal locavore restaurant, 90 miles from D.C. in Virginia, turns 30 this month. Chef Patrick O’Connell will be feted by Alice Waters, Gary Danko and other gourmet types with a downtown gala Wednesday.
» EXPRESS: You were championing local food before it was hip.
» O’CONNELL: We developed a regional cuisine out of necessity, not because it was cool. Nothing was delivered here — you could only use what you could scrounge or grow. But after a couple of years, you started seeing D.C. menus with “Virginia tomatoes” and this and that. Before that, people thought we didn’t grow anything except tobacco.
» EXPRESS: What is Virginia cuisine?
» O’CONNELL: It’s a fascinating juxtaposition. You’ve got settlers from England and Germany, and African influences because of the slaves. It’s a food very tied to the seasons.
» EXPRESS: Which foods represent the state?
» O’CONNELL: The morel mushroom, which some mountain people pronounce “miracle.” And definitely ham. My belief is that no one should come to Virginia without tasting the ham. You see very sophisticated French people coming here wanting to do that.
» EXPRESS: What’s so great about Virginia ham?
» O’CONNELL: It’s got all these nuances — there’s nothing quite like it. I think it got a bad rep because people cooked it with all that red-eye gravy. At the Inn, we use it as a tiny accent, like the Chinese would.
» EXPRESS: How about the wines in the state — are they getting better?
» O’CONNELL: It was an industry that came from nothing, except that the whole idea came from Thomas Jefferson. Now it has a real sense of place. You can give a Californian or a Frenchman something that grew within a stone’s throw of the restaurant.

readexpress.com

The Cashtown Inn will hold a viewing party for the premiere of a television episode featuring the historic property.
The party will begin at 8 p.m., Wednesday, March 26. Tickets for the event are $25, with proceeds benefiting the Adams County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The event will include a cash bar as well as raffles and giveaways.
At 9, the SciFi Channel will air an episode of “Ghost Hunters,” featuring the Cashtown Inn. The entire one-hour show will be dedicated to the inn. The episode has been dubbed “Fear Cage.” The episode will repeat at 11 p.m.
The show’s crew filmed at the inn over four days in December, investigating rumors of paranormal activity. Confederates stayed at the inn during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
Anyone interested in donating or reserving a spot for the event can call (717) 334-9722.

eveningsun.com