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Saturday April 4^th. Driving the jeep we took the Mayport ferry across the St Johns River. Our plan for the day was to explore Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach. In every Southern Living or Coastal Living magazine there are advertisements for Amelia Beach communities filled with modern reproductions of old southern style cottages. These advertisements present Amelia as quant but decidedly upscale and that is kind of what we found. Or I should say what we observed on the other side of all the community gates. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more walled off community. I’d say 80% of the developments are gated and we never did see any cottages, just lots of large homes. 

One place we found interesting was an old African American beach community called American beach. The condition and architecture of the buildings and cottages leads me to believe it had its Hey-Day many years ago, suffered a long decline and may be at the beginning of a resurrection. This is evidenced by some recent new homes and several under construction.

The intriguing thing about American Beach is it is smack dap in the middle of the new Amelia communities. I’ll bet there were some interesting conversations between the developers of the Amelia communities, local government and the preservationists of American Beach.

Traveling north from the upscale Amelia communities you come upon Fernandina Beach. What surprised me most was all the beach houses looked like they were built 30 or 40 years ago. In most of the east coast oceanfront communities I’ve visited all the old cottages have been torn down and replaced with high end real estate. 

At the upper end of Fernandina where the ocean meets the St Mary’s River sits Fort Clinch. It was first fortified in 1736 by the Spanish, but over the years various nations have garrisoned the site. In 1847 construction of the present fort was started by the United States. The confederate Army controlled the fort for a time during the Civil War; it was also manned by the US Army during the Spanish-American War and WW2.  The Civilian Conservation Corp restored the fort during the great depression and it is now part of the Florida State Parks. Fort Clinch park also has a campground that we checked out for future reference and a fishing pier that is over 700 feet long.

Before we left Fernandina we drove to the downtown area and were pleasantly surprised to see the main street running down to the river front has been successfully redeveloped into a vibrant shopping and restaurant tourist district. We decided to try a trendy looking Mexican Restaurant. It was Ok, but reaffirmed my observation that a slightly shabby looking Mexican restaurant usually has better food than one trying to be Avant Garde. 

 

We enjoyed our brief two day visit to the extreme upper right hand corner of Florida and will stop by again someday. Our original plan was to drive about 200 miles to Walterboro South Carolina, spend one night and then run the remaining 170+/- miles to our home in Myrtle Beach. We left the campground at 9:10 am and experienced light traffic on I-95 probably because it was Easter Sunday. Traffic rolled thru Georgia at a steady 70mph and by 12:30 we were at the Walterboro exit. We decided to keep driving and go the distance to Myrtle Beach. We did get off the interstate and took the local roads home, specifically we drove 17Alt to Georgetown and Rt 17 to Myrtle Beach, then Ocean Boulevard to our home on 71^st Ave.

The afternoon drive was at leisurely pace of 45 and 55 miles an hour. It was 4:30 when we got to the south end of Myrtle Beach we decided to cruise up Ocean Boulevard past all the big hotels. This is a beach town and cruising the strip is a part of seaside life you never outgrow. Looking at the parade of people bathed in multicolored lights of the businesses on the oceanfront street is a constantly changing kaleidoscope. The downtown was busy with tourists. the sun was shining, the air was warm and all is right in our world.