There hasn’t been a time when we were married that there wasn’t a depression/recession going on. That being the case we’ve always opted to stay in the same state for our vacations. That could be depressing, but we do live in Florida and therefore staycations and the like are not exactly horrible things when you live an hour or less from the beach.
For our first vacation we decided to go to Amelia Island. My husband had heard a lot of good things about it and I liked the fact that there were lots of bed and breakfasts to choose from. I had just started Weight Watchers right before vacation (good timing right?) and so I looked for a bed and breakfast that would have some sort of exercise available so I could eat what I wanted.
The Bed and Breakfast we chose has since gone out of business, but they had bikes available for borrowing, beach chairs/towels available for borrowing, a pool, cookies and lemonade in the afternoon, it was just blocks from the downtown area and most importantly was in our price range. We got a deal for booking a week and we were off to seek adventure!
Amelia Island is named after Princess Amelia the daughter of King George II of Great Briton. Amelia Island isn’t that large–about 13 miles long and at its widest 4 miles wide, but it is chock full of history and interesting places to see and things to do. In fact, Amelia Island has been under the control of 8 different countries in its history so you know that it has always been a popular place for everyone to visit! You can learn more about its history by visiting the Amelia Island Museum of History and maybe even take one of their ghost tours. Even my Princess behaved during the hour’s trek through the downtown exploring the history of those who had lived before.
We loved the time we spent on the island that year. We biked in the early morning before breakfast when everything was quiet, we shopped during morning or afternoon exploring the many little shops lining the downtown area. Antique shops, bookshops, a coffee shop, a fudge/ice cream shop, and many souvenir shops were some of the places we stopped. We visited the library and the museum (by bike of course) and by the end of our stay we could find our way anywhere on the island. When David L. Yulee decided to build a railroad across the state of Florida in the mid-1800’s he moved the center of town to its current location. He also named the streets in an easy to remember pattern (except for Centre Street). They were in a grid from the Spanish occupation days, but they are currently named with alphabetical names of types of trees going one way and numbers the other way.
Of course we visited the beach, but it was quite warm in July so we stuck to evening walks along the water along with fulfilling my dream of making a sandcastle another evening. We had so much fun, that this was not the last visit we made to Amelia Island