Blog

Years ago, in 2006, I spent an amazing 11 months of my life living in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, Florida.  I was working an AmeriCorps contract within the Florida State Parks at Fort Clinch State Park.  As I came over a bridge near the Talbot Islands area and saw the Atlantic Ocean, I remember thinking “I’m home.”  It was such a strong emotion of feeling like I was where I belonged, perhaps for the first time in my then 20 year old life.  It turned into one of my most favorite places I have lived with wonderful memories of work and life. 

I lived about a mile from the beach, so I could easily walk, ride my bike or drive there every day, not to mention that my work office at Fort Clinch was along the beach as well.  It’s a gorgeous area.  The island itself is small and always had that “home town” feel despite tourist season, which is nothing compared to what you would experience in Panama City, FL or Daytona Beach.  People are always walking or riding their bikes all over the island, so it’s great for those into exercise.  Of course, you have the beautiful ocean too.  Back then, I ran nearly every day along the beach and would jump in the waves to cool down – but not before April.  BRRRRR!!  Things have changed a lot over the last decade plus – I don’t run unless somethings chasing me and I look like a baby giraffe trying to run when I do try.  I rarely go to the beach since a nice one is just far enough to make it a very long day if we go.  But, Amelia Island itself has not changed a whole lot, thankfully.

Mini Vacation, June 2019

My husband and I just celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary and my boss was kind enough to give me a gift certificate to the Ritz Carlton for my birthday in February, so we decided to make a trip to Amelia Island in June (birthday in February, anniversary in May, so sure, June makes sense, LoL).  Only willing to spend a little extra, we chose to stay at a local Bed & Breakfast for one night (Saturday), then move over to the Ritz for the next two nights (Sunday & Monday). 

Florida House Inn

Thanks to Chase credit card rewards, we stayed at the Florida House Inn located in the historic downtown area of Fernandina Beach.  It was a cute two story old home with a friendly staff member who checked us in.

It has a small private courtyard where you could enjoy breakfast, a cool evening and a nice area to chat if you wanted. 

By the way, our visit was in the middle of a heat wave matching record heat temperatures, so there was very minimal outdoor sitting. 

Our room, #12, was quaint and had all that one needed – a very comfortable queen bed, bathroom, shower (with shampoo, condition and shower gel), a small desk and a TV.  Our TV didn’t work and we missed catching someone at the desk to ask them about it, but it was not a big deal for us since it was just one night and we had plans.  However, be sure to note that the front desk’s closing hours are 5pm, but they do encourage you to text them if you need anything.  We didn’t test this out.

Something to keep in mind is this B&B is located next to The Green Turtle, a very lively local joint with a band, lots of alcohol land plenty of people that is open until 1am on Saturdays.  Our room, ie our windows, happened to be directly next door to the bar.  Again, we had plans and were out until nearly 12am, so by the time we were ready for bed, it had simmered down quite a bit, but it’s just something to keep in mind and I must have missed this in the reviews.

Their included breakfast was served from 8:30am-9:30am, which we missed since we were up late.  It appeared like you could have purchased breakfast, but I had already decided to go try a place called Mrs. Carolyn’s, which is a local breakfast and lunch spot in a strip mall on Sadler.  I am SO glad we did because it was DELICIOUS!!  We splurged and had Mimosas and a Cinnamon Roll, along with our actual breakfast.  Janelle, our server, was excellent!  She was very thoughtful, had a lively personality and was extremely tentative.  I had a mushroom, tomato, ham and cheese omelet and Joe had a few fried eggs, potatoes, cheese grits, bacon and a biscuit.  All was very good.  It was actually so good, both food and service, that I wanted to go back the next morning, but we found out they are closed on Mondays.  Sad face. 

Fort Clinch State Park

Hubby Joe never visited the state park, and as I mentioned earlier, the park holds very fond memories for me from my AmeriCorps term.  Despite my stint there, I cannot recall every attending a candlelight tour at the fort.  They host these on Friday and Saturday evenings after dark, but be sure to check their website for an up-to-date schedule.  Also, at the gate, they asked if we had reservations, so apparently that is the thing to do.  Thankfully, because it was kind of a last minute decision to go, they allowed us to partake in the 45 minute tour.  It is super important to be on time or you won’t be allowed to participate.  We experienced this first hand (not us, thankfully).  All it costs is the gate fee, which is $6/vehicle (up to eight people) at the time of this post.  An absolute bargain!

The tour consisted of a soldier, dressed in Union Army 1860’s period clothing, locking us within the fort walls and taking us through several of the buildings via candlelight.  He gave a lot of great facts about the area, the fort and the war, even though the fort never had to participate in a battle. 

Fun fact about the fort:  It was occupied by both the Confederacy and Union camps, but spent most of its time being a Union fort even though it’s located in the south.  You can tell the change in hands by the color of the bricks that make up the fort.  The lower level red is when it was a Confederacy camp and it changes to a different red when the Union takes over.  Pretty cool, huh?

Ritz Carlton

We have never stayed at a Ritz before, it’s just not normally our style of travel because we prefer to budget travel most of the time and spend money on experiences versus lodging, but this was a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime gift.  The closest I have ever come to one is the Fairmont le Montreux Palace in Switzerland, which turns out is very similar.  That also was a gift and not somewhere I would normally stay, but enjoyed very much.  However, my boss swears by the Ritz.  He describes it as “an experience” and “worth every penny.” 

What we learned makes this hotel so special is the service you receive.  The staff is very courteous, attentive and always willing to assist.  Because we were at the beach, there were staff available to setup a beach umbrella and chairs for you, as well as provide as many towels as you need.  The valet service is superb.  They literally would sprint to go retrieve your vehicle for you.  I suppose a lot of people would like that efficiency (or probably not even notice), but I felt bad for them because it was so hot.  I imagine they are compensated fairly well, making it not as bad I think, but still.  

There were a lot of young guys working the valet area so we chatted with a few of them. Several were especially impressed with our Trek mountain bikes; one guy even tried our bikes out (with our permission of course).  I like this kind of relationship with personnel – down to earth and relaxed.  Our beach chair guy (Drew), the same one both days we went out, was from our home area so it was fun to chat about different springs and “country” things to do.  The hotel knew it was our 5^th anniversary celebration, so one time we returned to the room, we found a very nice plate of chocolate covered strawberries on a plate that had chocolate writing wishing us a happy anniversary.  One, chocolate covered strawberries are an absolute favorite of mine, and two, it was extremely thoughtful and very much appreciated.  It was a very nice touch.

Our room was very comfortable and we were upgraded to the top floor with a beautiful view of the ocean.  Too bad it was too hot and humid outside to sit on the balcony, but it was nice to have it available.  The bed was extremely comfortable and the room had everything you need to have an enjoyable stay, including internet TV.  Yay!!  Netflix (if you have an account)!!  We’re on the last season of Once Upon a Time, so I was happy to chill and watch that in the evenings.  I also introduced Joe to the movie RV with Robin Williams.  Such a funny movie!

All in all, the Ritz Carlton Amelia Island was a great experience, as my boss said it would be.  We enjoyed our time there, the room, the beach, the pool, the service and everything that was included.  I can’t say for certain that we will go back or not, whoever knows, but it was definitely a wonderful first experience.  Five stars!

Miscellaneous Side Explorations

There are always fun things experienced on any trip, but that don’t necessarily need a full story to cover them.  Here are some of our extra takeaways from our trip that may be of interest to you:

• We met up with some longtime friends in Kingsland, GA on our way to the island, which is only about 10-15 minutes north of Yulee, FL.  We met them at Steffen’s, which is a hole in the wall diner that serves amazing fried green tomatoes, fried mushrooms, fried chicken, fried shrimp and fries.  Apparently we were on a theme that meal:  Fried Stuff. 
  
  The hubs and I did have cream corn, which was very yummy too.  This was a great little local place where the servers remember you (the people we were with) and give you a hard time – mostly jokingly.  This is our kind of place!  So happy our friends invited us to go there, and if you’re in the area, check them out!  Look for the waitress with a strong New England accent, she’s awesome!

• We had a little free time after the Fort visit where I wanted some dessert, so we walked from the Florida House Inn to the Salty Pelican downtown and had a great piece of Key Lime pie.  I wouldn’t say it was the best I ever had, but it was very tasty.  The best part of our visit here was Dylan, our waiter.  He was super friendly and had jokes.  I had asked for a VERY cold water (because it felt like a million degrees outside despite being 11pm) and he brought me a cup of ice and said “here’s your very cold water!”  I love humor like that!  I would return to that restaurant simply because of him.

• We also met up with my old “House Mom,” who I lived with during my 11 months in Fernandina Beach, and a former state park co-worker.  I love these two women dearly, they’re such great people!  We ate dinner at Cantina Louie, located near the bridge on A1A.  The company was amazing, but the restaurant was just OK.  It was very loud in there (Saturday night around 7pm) and the food was just all right.  We’ve had better and we’ve had worse elsewhere.  I would go back if people wanted to go there, but it would not be at the top of my list.  I’m picky though.  My friends say they go often for Taco Tuesday, so they must think it’s decent enough.

• I am a dessert connoisseur with ice cream being my favorite.  I pretty much need a daily dose of it, which explains a lot about me.  We went downtown Sunday night to find some and originally planned to go to the Fantastic Fudge place, which didn’t disappoint me a few years ago, but they had a long line, so we tried Island Time Ice Cream instead.  That was a great decision!  We both got a double scoop of mint chocolate chip and chocolate (mine had peanut butter in it).  The scoops were huge, cones crunchy fresh and the ice cream super yummy quality (I believe it was Hershey’s brand, mmmm!!!).  It’s a tiny little shop just south of the Fantastic Fudge place, definitely look for it!

• On our way out of town, we met up with some good friends of ours, also park service “family,” for lunch at Shuckers.  This is off the island, but literally just over the bridge on A1A, so you can see the Amelia River from there.  We had a nice lunch and great company.  We are truly blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives!  For lunch, I had a combination plate of shrimp, scallops and deviled crab and Joe had a turkey BLT (he doesn’t eat seafood.  I know.).  Mine was very yummy and a lot of food.  Joe really enjoyed his sandwich and was impressed that it had a real piece of turkey on it, not just deli meat.  Our friends had a salad of some sort and a grilled fish sandwich, which they both enjoyed a lot as well. This was another good dining experience!  P.S. It was also mentioned that happy hour is from 3pm-6pm daily, LoL. 

• A boohoo moment is I used a different type of sunscreen lotion on my face because I forgot my Neutrogena Face (no Breakout) Sunscreen at home and figured it would be OK.  It was not OK.  I had a horrible breakout reaction to the lotion, which made me look pretty bad (and it was painful).  Normally it’s just the spray lotion that causes an issue, but not this time.  The next day we went and bought my normal Neutrogena stuff and suffered through the next couple of days looking like a teenager.  Lesson here:  if you forget something that you know works, go buy it immediately and don’t take the chance. 

• We took our Trek bicycles with us in hopes to have some time to ride around.  While we didn’t ride around town or the fort, we did ride a little over four miles from the hotel along A1A and back.  The beach breeze was wonderful and the bike lane was sufficient (and speed limit low, making me happy).  By the way, Fort Clinch State Park has a great mountain biking trail (around 5-6miles).  Because of how hilly it is there, it would have been too much for us since we’re just getting started in off-road bicycling, heck, biking at all, LoL.

Not really travel related, but I’d like to note that I didn’t open my laptop a single time during our trip, only checked my work email a handful of times, replied to a few texts and only answered one work call (by mistake since I didn’t recognize the number).  This is a huge deal for me and it was a bit tough, but I did enjoy my mini vacation.  By the way, both Florida House Inn and the Ritz had internet available and included in the stay.