Amelia Island

Saturday night, while we were at Amelia Island, my family took a “Family Friendly Sunset Cruise” down the St. Mary’s river basin with Amelia River Cruises. Complete with history narrative, we learned about the shrimping history of the island, saw Pippy Longstocking’s house, Villa Villekulla (!!!) {the movie was filmed here in the late 80’s}, and saw a few other really amazing sights that I’ll share here in just a moment.

I’ll confess to you that I’m a skeptic…I wasn’t completely excited about our boat tour as we made our way downtown to the docks…not really knowing what to expect, but half way into it {probably not even that far} I was standing up taking it all in.

First, we saw some old shrimp boats. Amelia/Fernandina was the birthplace of the modern shrimping industry and was the largest shrimping area in the US until farm-raised shrimp became so popular.

These are some old shrimp boats.

Farm-raised shrimp can be raised in about 5 weeks, whereas wild-caught domestic shrimp take up to 5 months to become “jumbo” sized. Farm-raised, imported shrimp is now more than 80% of what is sold in your local grocery. Crazy, right?! Go get you some local-wild-caught shrimp, where on the packaging, under ‘ingredients’, it only says: “SHRIMP”!! {I know that’s much harder for you land-locked folks…}

So with the decline in shrimping down at Amelia….this happened…a loose and abandoned shrimp boat…left to become a reef at some point.

Then, there’s this place…Burbank Sports Nets – this was a cool story. They hand-made all those shrimping nets in the pictures above {hanging on the boats} and basically had to transform their company with the change of times…no shrimp=no nets=no money. So they now make nets for different sports {think baseball, soccer, etc.}, and are the leader in their industry. Crazy, right?!

We also got to see some old homes in Old Towne, Fernandina from the water. Including the Downes House, or affectionately known as Villa Villekulla for those who remember “Pippy Longstocking”! As we rode by, it was pointed out by mentioning it’s copper roof on the high tower. {The picture is a bit blurry…it was pretty far away.}

Across the channel we were able to ride along the shore of Cumberland Island and saw some wild horses…even a foal! From the boat, in the distance, you could see a beautiful white horse as well as several that seemed to want to be seen by us and gave many opportunities of photo-ops!

Back across the river, towards Ft. Clinch, there was an area of dunes where white-tail deer were grazing for their dinner. My uncle Bill and cousin Jacob wished to have their rifles on their shoulders…

Over to Ft. Clinch we learned that there are staff-soldiers who reenact life from 1864. Our narrator mentioned that if we ladies went into the park dressed as we were that the “soldiers” would whisper behind us things like “floozie” or “jezebel”. 😀 Not that we were scantily clad, but since it was hot and most of us were wearing shorts…well, 1864 hadn’t seen the likes of our legs…

On our way back to the docks, our Captain made mention that all the boys and girls on the boat had been so very well-behaved {not the adults! the kiddos!!}. And as a reward, they could drive the boat. We had told him that this was Eliza Jane’s first boat ride {R went to bed early that night} and he offered her, as the youngest passenger, the first try at driving our boat!

I was just slightly excited about this…

She played it very cool. {I have visions of what the future holds for this poor child…I know I will embarrass her to no end with my excitement!!}

Andrew took some beautiful shots of the water and sky, in hopes that we might see a glorious sunset…

Instead…we saw an Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin! Several of them actually. Then our Captain told us that there is a pod that they are very familiar with: Dad – Bob, Mom – Sandy and baby – Echo.

This is probably one of the cooler things we could have done on our family reunion trip down to Amelia Island, FL. If you get to go to this beautiful, quaint little island, do check out the river cruise! There are lots of options – just check their website for tour info.

Here’s my little family after our cruise…there are just a few people missing from this picture…but it sure was fun to have all of these wonderful people together!

Andrew and I are in the throes of trying to find the perfect beach vacation spot in Amelia Island. Especially since it snowed here this morning… Recall from last year, if you will, that we tried to go to Amelia Island…but were hijacked. Twice. We never got to go…

This year, my family reunion is going to be there…18 adults, 11 kids. It’s not quite the caliber of family reunions that some of you out there are used to. Nope, this is just my mom and dad, his brother and sisters + their spouses + all the kids (and grand kids). For the last couple of years we’ve spent our long weekend at a state park near Augusta, GA, on the lake. And while we were having just a glorious time last year, we decided somewhere along the way that we needed to look someplace different and ended up deciding on Amelia Island.

One cousin did a lot of research to find out what the best deal was and while most of the family is going to be staying at a hotel, we have decided that we would rather rent a house with my immediate family. Call us crazy…because we might end up that way!

So over the weekend and a lot of yesterday during lunch and even last night, Andrew and I scoured up and down A1A {beach front avenue!!! You know you’re singing it now. Ice. Ice. Baby} to find the perfect home for us.

One phone call I made was to a fella who happened to be strolling down the beach (so he told me), and all I could hear was the wind whipping the phone to the point where I just said, “Sounds great! Thanks for your help….I’ll be in touch.” Even though I have no idea of anything that he said to me. The next place I found was this: Gibberish. I was not off to a good start. {I wonder if they even know that that is there…?}

Then I quickly learned about websites like VRBO, HomeAway and FlipKey. Which made me have a quick flash back to “The Holiday” where Amanda Woods (California) and Iris Simpkins (England) trade homes. And suddenly, I wanted to be anywhere. Anywhere at all! Take me away!

Anyway, back to our vacation spot. I think we’ve narrowed it down to at least just three or four possibilities…how many bedrooms do we really need?? Pull-out couch, anyone? But does anyone out there have a great recommendation for a place to stay in Amelia Island? We would love something on or right across from the beach. This would be extremely helpful with the small kids (between my brother and me there are 4 under the age of 7) for nap times, snacks and most importantly, potty breaks. {Actually, the nap time may be of utmost importance!} We’d love a house, but a condo would also work.