Thanksgiving in St Simons, GA

Thanksgiving in St Simons, GA

We spent 8 days in St Simons, GA over Thanksgiving doing a house/pet sit for two dogs. Since it was only a 6-hour drive from our house, it was a good opportunity to add another house/pet sit to our profile. Our kids decided to visit with their spouses so we could still spend some time together over the long weekend.  However, our daughter has a dog so she wasn’t able to visit the house where we were sitting to prevent any issues between the dogs. Our son did spend a couple of days there with us. We had advised the homeowner that he may come and it was ok with them.

Since we were dog-sitting, we spent most of the time at the beautiful house except for going out to eat with the family on multiple occasions. This helped us keep our expenses quite low other than food costs. However, we did eat in several days when the kids weren’t there. Even though we were dog-sitting, we could do some minimal exploring when the weather permitted. We visited Jekyll Island to see the Christmas lights and attempted to visit Fort Frederica before it started raining. Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to return and explore it further.  It was a trip to get away for the most part (and to get more reviews added to our profile). However, my wife and son did have to work some while we were there.

To learn more about house/pet sitting, check out my post about how to use it as an alternative to paid lodging.

About the House and Location

The house we stayed in was perfect, it was about 6000 sq ft (550 sq m) with a pool, hot tub, and everything you could want including an elevator. The house is situated on the Frederica River in the West Point area overlooking the marsh. To protect the owner’s privacy, I won’t post any pictures of the house.  For reference, similar homes in the area cost $1200-2000+ a night.

We did have a couple of small issues with the house. A light bulb died in our bedroom closet and the pilot light on the water heater went out a couple of times. We were able to correct those issues easily and it didn’t impact our stay.  That is part of the house sit experience, you keep an eye on the property and work with the owner as needed to rectify any issues that may come up.

I was able to fly my drone some around the house along the river. Unfortunately, I was limited due to flight restrictions around the national park and airport. I did crash it into the marsh near the walkway to the dock, I will upload a video to my YouTube channel. Luckily, it was close enough that I could reach it without being eaten by a gator. I didn’t see any gators in the marsh, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any.

Costs

Below is a breakdown of our expenses for 8 days. Keep in mind that the food cost was high due to several meals being for 4 to 6 people. However, our son took us out for my wife’s birthday to a Brazilian steak house. That is not included in the totals below. Had it been just the two of us, we could have saved at least $400 on food. That would have reduced our costs to less than $300 for 8 days in a luxury house.