To begin with, I wasn’t planning to devote a whole post to Fernandina Beach, Florida, but I have changed my mind. 

We pulled into Fernandina Harbor Marina on Monday, June 15th around 5pm after leaving St. Augustine behind. We had yet another pleasant day on the ICW encountering  some swift currents in just a couple of places. We navigated through them fairly easily.

We were met at the dock in Fernandina Beach by our long-time friends Tom and Renee and their beautiful, grown-up children, Zoe and Cooper. It was so nice to see familiar faces. We took in some dinner at the Salty Pelican and did some catching up.

We took most of the next day to explore this lovely town of around 12,000 people which sits across the street from our marina. There are several locally owned shops and restaurants that run for about 7 blocks along Centre Street.

The oldest bar in Florida, The Palace Saloon, sits on the corner a few blocks from the marina and do you believe that we actually never made it inside? True story.  Ice cream sells well in Florida and there are a couple of places here where people are lined up outside each day. Again, we never made it inside one of these establishments which is so unlike us.

On my daily walks I found so many historic victorian-style homes and couldn’t help but take lots of pictures. Included is a bed and breakfast called Fairbanks House built in 1885, St. Michaels’s Academy Catholic School, a home with carousel horses on the porch, and a home with ornate, sort of funky, posts, railings and arches. There are more Victorian style homes in this small town than I have seen anywhere except maybe New Orleans (and I’m not sure those are classified as Victorian). 

Wednesday, our good friend Tom, gave us the rock-star tourist treatment and acted as our personal guide around the state parks. He has worked as a ranger here for the past 18 years. Amelia Island, Big Talbot, Little Talbot and Ft. George are on his regular route and they are just gorgeous.

After a couple of hours touring, he and Renee hosted us at their house for a good old fashioned Low Country shrimp boil. The food and company were fantastic. We are so glad we extended our stay here one more day.

We are now sitting comfortably at St. Simon’s Island in Georgia. We just happen to be docked a couple hundred feet from Privacy. Privacy is a nice little yacht owned by some golfer.

From here we’re heading to Savannah, GA and hope to stay there most of a week.