Welcome to Amelia Island.
Amelia Island is filled with surprises, too many for one blog so will be continued. Only 13 miles long and 3 miles wide, this barrier island lies just below Georgia as a welcoming sign of Florida and its pristine beaches. The island, for all its small size, is wildly diverse boasting a fisherman’s paradise and a highly productive paper mill as well as period homes dating to the 1800’s and a wonderful five star Ritz Carlton.
We are spending our time on the north side of the island in the historic district area and on the beaches where our friend Lisa spent many of her childhood summers. Lisa’s family has been part of Amelia Island for more than three generations. Her great grandfather was a preacher and land owner on the island. His four children spent their growing up years on the Island until one daughter, Lisa’s mom, followed her sweetheart to San Diego. She didn’t marry him, but she remained in California where Lisa was born and raised. But the tradition of coming to the island for leisurely summer holidays remained. The north part of the island remains the family summer retreat and are the lure that brought Lisa back to the Island full time. And by extension, that’s how Stu and I got here, following Lisa.
We are staying in Lisa’s grandmother’s summer cottages where, depending upon the tide, we’re fewer than 100 feet from the ocean. Alas, I have’t been able to get myself up early enough to watch a sunrise, but there are still a couple of days remaining. I did take a 3 mile walk on the beach yesterday, but considerably past sunrise. The Beach here is thick with sea shells fragments, some sections actually crunch under foot. But there’s plenty of sand and sand dunes, sea grass (used to make the famous Georgia baskets which are hand-sewn, not woven and are a feature of the area).
Lisa owns and operates Jack & Diane’s, a funky, eclectic restaurant in the historic district area. The menu is varied, very different from much of the southern fare as she doesn’t do any frying, everything is fresh, most is organic, and the menu features small dishes which we’ve been enjoying daily.
Tuesday, when the restaurant is closed, Lisa drove us to St. Augustine, the very tourist mecca where Ponce De Leon is said to have discovered the Fountain of Youth. (I bathed in it, but I’m still 69!) Although the historic center is well maintained, there are entirely too many shops, and too much hoopla for my tastes. We did manage to escape the tourist area for a bit and visited Flagler college, housed in a former resort hotel complex that is an amazing building. Imagine living in a residence hall that has 72 original Tiffany windows (the most in the world in one place), hand painted gilt ceilings, period furniture. Many of the rooms are available to view only on a tour. We weren’t on one, but we did see one pass by so Lisa and I quietly joined the tour hiding with our hands and purses the fact that we didn’t have tour badges. A smile gets you everywhere.
We learned that in addition to his great wealth, railroads and oil, Flagler was a religious man however, he did have three wives. The first died from tuberculosis and then Flagler married her nurse. Had he and the nurse been intimate before the wife’s death? Did the nurse help the wife to die? We may never know. We do know that some years later Flagler claimed wife two had dementia and had her institutionalized. Exerting his considerable political influence Flagler supported a law that decreed that spousal institutionalization was grounds for a divorce. And thus stepped in wife number 3--a mere 35 years Flagler’s junior. These two nearly life sized portraits remain in the grand salon only Flagler had his young wife painted to look older, and his own portrait made to look younger so the disparity in their ages is not quite so apparent. Enough of the city, we were ready to return to the nature of Amelia Island.
More about the Island’s surprises in the next blog.
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