November 5-20, 2024 Most Recent Posts:
Fort Clinch State Park Lovely Days at Fort Clinch State Park
Fernandina Beach Florida October 2024 – A Mixed Bag
As I always do on my visits to this cute little town, I start at the free parking lot across the railroad tracks and by the water. It is SO nice not to have to pay for parking or to have a difficult time finding it. Notice the low building on the far left. That’s the Visitor Centre…..more in a minute.
Another great thing here is the wonderful colors of the homes and shops. I so appreciate that the apartments on the “other side of the tracks’ are colorful, not disruptively tall and have their parking beneath them.
That low building is the original train station turned into the visitor center. It has great information and the two person staff inside are very friendly and helpful. They always know everything about what is going on in town in the near future. At this time of year that includes ads for their early December Dicken’s Christmas which includes tours of the wonderful Victorian homes here. This year one of the tour days is my birthday. DRAT – bad planning. I really hope to do it one year.
One of the events happening while I am here now is part of the town’s Bicentennial year long celebration.
The town of Fernandina Beach was incorporated on January 1, 1825. All year long they have been celebrating the town’s 200th Birthday with many events, all of which I unfortunately missed. When I saw this one….I was determined to go. This is my kind of town when they celebrate trees.
BUT when I looked on line to get a ticket, both tours were sold out.
The Train Station is at the “top” of Centre Street with shops running down it on both sides. I absolutely love this installation – what else to call it – on the building next door. (aside: on of the problems of doing posts after I have left somewhere is that I think of pictures I wish I’d taken and can’t go back and get like one of the sweet “grounds” of the train station and benches next to this installation)
Although they rather clutter up my pictures, it is actually very convenient to be able to pull in to vertical parking on both sides of Centre Street.
Two of my favorite stores are directly across from the train station. Second from the corner is The Cinnamon Bear Country store and next to it in Blue is The Book Loft.
Inside the front door of Cinnamon Bear you can tell already that this is a fun store. I think it has one of every gift you could want AND ice cream.
Here I am with a couple of friends I met in the rear children’s section of the store.
This is on my second or maybe third trip to Cinnamon Bear on the only day it rained.
The Book Loft next door is a wonderful independent bookstore with a cozy atmosphere.
There is a second floor with a balcony. They have book readings and other programs up there. There are a couple of reading chairs which I didn’t get pictures of.
Independent Bookstores are simply the best. Do you have one in your town? The one in Charlottesville is called New Dominion and is now owned by one of Carrie’s high school classmates.
Here is the book I bought to Support them. Fernandina Beach is the main town on Amelia Island and both have interesting history including a colorful pirate past. Eight different flags have flown over them since they were the home of the Timucuan Indians.
From those two favorites I wandered down Centre Street. Like I said about pirates.
There is seating not only at the Visitors Center but all along tree and flower lined Centre Street
Restaurants have enclosed courtyards. With fountains.
The post office is a majestic 1909 Italian Renaissance style building that served originally as the Customs House. On the second floor is a fully restored courtroom that served the area in the early 20th century.
More fountains pop up as surprises.
Down the side streets the trees are being taken care of.
Fountains and murals around this house.
At the Visitor’s Center I got a Fernandina Beach Historic Tour guide with many pictures and information about the historic homes like this one known as the Tabby House. It was built in 1895 from bricks of concrete and shells which resemble the earlier building material mix of lime, sand, water and crushed oyster shells known as tabby. Looking at this entrance, you would never guess what the side looks like.
I found the ornate porch decoration out of place on this structure but it is original.
This Queen Anne architecture design known as the Bailey House was also built in 1895. It features gables, turrets, windows of all sizes and shapes and distinctive fish scale shingles. When I saw it, I wondered if it is now known as the Carousel House.
Those who follow me know that I nearly always visit the local library. Unlike much of the town the library is in a non descript box of a building. I wonder where it used to be housed 50 years ago.
Of course it’s what’s inside that counts.
Today, I particularly wanted to look closely at a book I’m asking Santa to bring me this year. Luckily they had a copy that wasn’t checked out.
Amy Tan is well known as a fiction writer for many books including The Joy Luck Club. This is her most recent book and it is non-fiction and chronicles how she spent her lock down covid time creating a backyard oasis for birds at her home in California. In addition to being a successful writer, Tan is also a wonderful artist having done all the illustrations for her book. I just love it and only wish she lived on the east coast so that these would be “my birds” that she has written about and drawn.
My absolutely favorite food is seafood, Lobster, Blue Crab, Oysters in that order.
Any time I have a chance to get a a warm lobster roll with butter, no matter where I am, I’m going to take it and Mason’s Famous Lobster Roll restaurant has both Maine and Connecticut style lobster rolls.
Dine in or on the porch. Order from the counter just like a regular lobster shack.
Who would think of having a lobster roll and clam chowder in Florida but they fly the seafood in from Kennebunkport they say. Whatever…..it was delicious…..and I went twice during my stay.
Along with a library visit, if the town nearest the park I’m staying in has a Farmer’s Market, I definitely make a visit.
Here were my purchases.
Remember the poster I saw at the Visitor’s Center for the Heritage Tree Tour in honor of the town’s Bicentennial? As I said earlier, both tours were sold out.
BUT, I REALLY wanted to do this so I took a chance. I went to the spot from which they were going to leave 15 minutes before they were going to leave in hopes they would have a cancellation or a no show….and they did!!
The brochure showed us the route we were following so if we wanted, we could go back later and see the trees we only drove by but didn’t stop at.
How about having this tree in your yard? You can submit your tree if you think it might qualify as a heritage tree. I can’t remember the qualifications (age, size and not sure what else) If it qualifies, the city will send an arborist out yearly to check on its health and arrange for pruning and feeding. I could most definitely get behind that as a use for my local tax monies. Protect our Trees. What a great town.
At some points, we were able to get out of the trolley and take a closer look and more than drive by pictures.
This tree over arches the home’s circular driveway and has reflectors on it’s LONG branches to warn folks like UPS trucks.
There hasn’t been any rain lately or these resurrections ferns would have been full on green rather than crispy brown looking. They aren’t dead, just waiting for rain to resurrect.
We stopped at a park across from this tree for the lunch they provided as part of the ticket.
Here the arborist came to talk to us about the qualifications of the trees, one of which was size and he demonstrated how they measure it. He talked about what all they do to insure the health of the trees and warned Florida residents not to trim their Live Oaks back too severely at any one time.
We were driven down several streets known as canopy streets where it was like driving through a tunnel of Live Oaks lining both sides of the streets with their branches reach out over the streets toward each other. When I drove back into the State Park I realized that their entry road was a canopy of Live Oak branches and hanging Spanish Moss.
If I should ever decide to move to Florida, however unlikely, Fernandina Beach would be a place I think I could call home.
Next stop, Saint Augustine.
