We still hadn’t visited Fort Clinch so that was on our list, but we didn’t make it this visit either. I think I was just saving it to make sure we could come back again! We visited all our favorite shops again and this time we added in exploring some of the nicer restaurants since I was particularly interested in eating after being horribly sick my first few weeks of pregnancy.
There are so many restaurants to choose ranging from mildly expensive to quite out of our range. We had saved up and I had done my research so we visited the Espana Restaurant because of its Spanish and Portuguese flavors. It was delicious and I was extremely glad of the walk back to the bed and breakfast. Another favorite restaurant we visited during one of our stays was the Moon River Pizza. It really is one of the best pizzas ever! We almost never made it there. During one of our first visits we tried to order out on a Friday night. After the phone rang what seemed a million times, someone actually took it off the hook and didn’t answer the rest of the evening. When we questioned the front desk about it, she causally shrugged and just said, “Oh, that’s island life for you!” My husband was quite annoyed, but I thought it was cool to get a taste of the local culture.
Another cool thing about Amelia Island was its close proximately to Jacksonville, Florida. We could easily zip over there to explore the Jacksonville Zoo which we had done on our first visit. I don’t know if you ever grow out of loving going to the zoo, but I certainly haven’t. My favorite zoo was the Lisbon, Portugal Zoo from my childhood, but the Jacksonville Zoo was a close second. There were lions and bears and (most importantly in my opinion) elephants. It was a delightful side trip.
Our third trip to Amelia Island was quite different. The Princess wasn’t quite a year old. I had some difficulty finding a Bed and Breakfast that was infant friendly (our favorite had gone out of business by then) so we chose Amelia Hotel at the Beach for its family friendly atmosphere and its affordability (kids are free until 17 years old!). The Princess was still taking two naps a day and that cut down on the sight seeing.
Amlelia Island is surrounded by other islands and beaches. One of my favorite ways to leave Amelia Island is to drive down Amelia Island Parkway and A1A. There are several state parks that way like Little Talbot Island and Big Talbot Island. There’s also the Kingsley Plantation that I would like to visit someday. Needless to say, even after visiting Amelia Island 4 different times, I think we’ll be returning again soon!
