Amelia Island, Fernandina Beach and Fort Clinch

The Enterprise - atomic nuclear powered aircraft carrier
Statue of pirate outside of Bretts Waterway Cafe Fernandina Beach, FL
Amelia Lighthouse - Fernandina Beach
Purple House near Paper Mill in Fernandina Beach (taken just for Krista)
Pelicans by Brett's (taken for Susie)

Inside Brett's Restaurant

My French Onion Soup (delicious)
June and friend
Outside of Brett's
The Marina at Brett's
The sea shells (just beautiful)
Some of the beaches we toured






Taken from the ferry that we rode from Mayport to make our road trip up the coast to Amelia Island.

January 31st - Tuesday - Cool - Beautiful blue sky 65 degrees

Today was a catch up day after a couple wonderful days of making the rounds of seeing some beautiful sights.

We started early and took the ferry across the St. John's River to see up close what we see from our RV windows, I would not have believed what lay across the river. The beaches were absolutely beautiful and the sea shells were like I think of the snow flakes at home. We talk about God not making two snow flakes alike, and I wonder if there are two sea shells alike. That is why I took the picture. I knew I couldn't take all of them back home with me. Steve was driving and I had him stop the car so I could get out and take pictures, so we all got out and we all looked for shells and Lou loves to run on the beach, so he had a short run before we were off for our day of sight seeing.

Steve knows all of the state parks and we drove through three of them, Fort Clinch, Talbot Islands, and Huegnot, although I think the last was a county park, and all were interesting in all different ways offering everything from horseback riding to canoeing, biking and birding. Anyone that enjoys the outside would enjoy camping at anyone of these campsites.

Our quest took us to another lighthouse and we found that this lighthouse was actually constructed in 1820 on Georgia's Cumberland Island, across the channel from Amelia. Eventually, the channel shifted southward, making the light ineffective as a navigational aid. In 1834, a group of Mariners, Merchants of the Florida Territory petitioned Congress for the lighthouse to be moved to Amelia Island.

As the light rotates, the lens sends a flash of light every 10 seconds, which can be seen for 16 nautical miles.

I am fascinated by life in the Lighthouse and have done much reading on the subject. The poor "keeper of the light" duties were never ending. Oil burning lamps had to be filled nightly. The keeper carried buckets of oil up more than 70 steps to the lantern. Every four hours, keepers had to wind the clockwork mechanism. Winding the cable pulled a 40 pound weight to the top and as it descended, it caused the light to revolve. Keepers also maintained the tower, house and the outbuildings.

We ate lunch at a delightful restaurant on the waterfront called Brett's Waterway Cafe. It was beautifully decorated and the menu was more than we could have wished for. I ordered Five Onion Soup and you can see from the picture, it looked wonderful and it tasted as good as it looked and after I ate that I had fish and chips with cole slaw, that was freshly breaded, I worked on it until I had eaten all of the fish. The chips were as good as the fish, but sadly I had to leave some of them on my plate. We all agreed it was a wonderful lunch and that we needed to walk the streets and see the sights and that is what we did.

On our way home, we stopped at a fresh fish market, and Lou purchased fresh shrimp by the pound and while I gave Estee a bath and a hair cut, he cooked two pound of shrimp and tonight for dinner we had a huge tossed salad with fresh shrimp in it. You talk about something that tasted good. Yummy!!

Today we were blessed with the ship at the top of the page that came in an spent the day, our base is filled with navy men tonight, as it will only be in port tonight and will leave tomorrow, I am still amazed at the size of these ships that come right past our windows. I told Steve I would like to stay right here for another month.

We did get tickets today to go to a dinner theater on Friday night. Lou has never done this so this will be something new for him. I am excited for him.

We got to talk to Matthew tonight that was a first since we have been away thanks to Skype, he even smiled at us, but he doesn't have all of that figured out yet. Tomorrow, it cleaning day and want to do some laundry, and Thursday, we think we have to change sites.