AMELIA ISLAND - Where Am I? 002

AMELIA ISLAND - Where Am I? 002

CLUE

Gimme a break!

PICTURE

DIFFICULTY

Hard

MORE

How to play

More Amelia Island - Where Am I?

AMELIA ISLAND - Where Am I? 001

AMELIA ISLAND - Where Am I? 001

CLUE

There are not many of these on Amelia Island.

PICTURE

DIFFICULTY

Easy

MORE

How to play

More Amelia Island - Where Am I?

AMELIA ISLAND - Where am I? How to Play

AMELIA ISLAND - Where am I? How to Play

RS and I have been thinking of a way for us and the people who live and visit Amelia Island to have fun. We came up with a game which we are calling "AMELIA ISLAND - Where am I?" Here is how it works:

1. We make a blog post, for example, "AMELIA ISLAND - Where Am I? 001" and in the post we include a picture(s) and a clue(s).
    
2. You can use the picture and clue to figure out where RS was when she took the picture. All pictures are taken from public areas or private areas that allow public access on Amelia Island. This includes the bridges, piers and docks that are attached to the island, but not from a boat.
    
3. You can post a comment to the blog post telling the world where you found it. Anyone wanting to write an article about what is in the picture and how it happened or why it is where it is, can do so by contacting me (CR).

We will also post whether we think the specific item (picture and clue) is easy, medium or hard. This way visitors can play with easy games and long-term residents can play them all, especially the hard ones.

Have fun ...

CR

Views of Amelia Island 121028

Views of Amelia Island 121028

 

Living on an Island

Living on an Island 120907

Living on Amelia Island means that I am, well, living on an island. I've always considered that the restricted boundaries of an island would quickly lead to boredom and cabin fever. I've never been in prison, but I have been on cruises. Although the two are not comparable in terms of the activities, food and treatment, for both there is a severe limitation on how far you can move. On cruises one day at sea is about all I can stand before I want to be on land and see something new.

I was concerned that a small island would give me the same feeling ... TRAPPED.

This morning I was watching a lady from a nearby condo. I had talked with her earlier in the week and knew that she and her husband were here for a week or so. I could see she was getting bored today. She stood on the walkway to the beach and just stared at the sand and sea oats for 30 minutes. Her mind was a million miles away while her body was experiencing a blue-sky, not too hot, gorgeous day right on the beach. Cabin fever? Maybe so.

So, why was I not experiencing the same thing? I live here and spend a lot of time here with occasional trips away. So, here are my categorized thoughts as to why I seem to like it so much and am not at all bored:

1. Find something to do with a purpose - This blog, as simple and unimportant as it is, gives me a purpose. I don't have to work for a living any more (or not much). I'm not a volunteering type. But, exploring has always been fun for me. So, now I am exploring Amelia Island. The internet helps so much with this that the things I find here take me to unexpected places. If you have read previous blog posts these are things like Morocco, lighthouse passports and armadillos. I have a few other interests that are completely unrelated to Amelia Island, but can be done anywhere.
    
2. Share what you do - I am lucky to have RS. She has always had a good eye for seeing things I don't see and capturing them in photos. Over the years I have learned to see things a bit more her way, but she still surprises me. Her photos adorn this blog. Mostly, I take photos of hers and add them to the blog. Occasionally, she will want to replace one or remove one because she doesn't like the quality or it doesn't represent what she wants to show, but mostly, you get to see what she sees. The mundane ones like signs and maintenance sheds she takes at my request, but the others are her eyes. Putting her photos on the blog makes it our blog.
    
3. Open up to new things - I haven't worn shorts in decades. I haven't worn sandals in decades. I haven't fished in decades. I haven't ridden a bicycle in decades. The list goes on and on. I am trying new things and rediscovering things I have not done in a long time. An open mind helps a lot combined with a little bit of willingness to try new things.

So, now the days pass so quickly. There is no boredom. In fact it's becoming just the opposite. I have to go to Washington next week. Too bad for me. It's a lot more fun here even though I will see some nice sights, mix with lots of different people and enjoy a wider range of food in Washington. There I can't hear the surf, see the stars or watch the lovebugs.

-CR
Photos by RS

Views of Amelia Island 120906

Views of Amelia Island 120906

Photos by RS

Ft. Clinch Maintenance Shack 120905

Sign on Side of truck 120905

Sponge 120906

Sand Cliff 120905

Sand 120905

Horseshoe Crab Shell 120906

Beach Toilets 120905

 

High Light

High Light 120905

The first and third Wednesday of each month a tour of the Amelia Island Lighthouse is offered by the city of Fernandina Beach. The tour takes about an hour, costs only $5.00 per person and is full of the history of the island. RS and I decided today to give it a try.



Amelia Island Lighthouse Sign 120905

We met with several others at the Atlantic Recreation Center just before 10 am. After paying our $5 fee we hopped on a van driven by Scott Mikelson. A short ride later and we were at the lighthouse. We entered a one-story, white building with the insignia of the Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 14-1 on the door.

Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 14-1 (120905)

Wow! The coast guard auxiliary ... another thing to research about Amelia Island.

Inside were two members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, Judy something (sorry I did not get the name) and Helen O'Hagan Sintes. Judy explained a bit about the history of the lighthouse to start. You can find info about the history at several sites (1, 2, 3). The interesting parts to me were that the lighthouse was moved in the 1830s in about a two-year period from Cumberland Island next door, it is a short lighthouse and one of only a few land-based lighthouses, and it is on the highest coastal land south of New Jersey (60 feet).

Next Helen took over. She is the daughter and granddaughter of the last two lighthouse keepers and grew up at the lighthouse. She is now 78 and recounted stories from her childhood. It was fun hearing about having the fastest boat on Amelia Island, swimming with the alligators in Egan's Creek, artesian wells on the island and what her dad had to do as a lighthouse keeper.

Helen O'Hagan Sintes 120905


Then, we went to the lighthouse. You cannot go up the steps of the lighthouse but you can look up. Here is RS' view.

Lighthouse Steps Looking Up 120905

Near the lighthouse is what we think is the highest point on Amelia Island. RS snapped this shot ... 60 feet above sea level and the place to go if there is a tsunami.

Highest Point on Amelia Island - 60 Feet 120905

At the end we again took the van back to the Atlantic Recreation Center.

Judy(?) and Scott Chatting 120905

One unusual thing I learned is that there is something called a lighthouse passport. You get one of these and, when you visit a lighthouse, you get a stamp in your lighthouse passport. Sounds like fun. The stamp is at the Atlantic Recreation Center.

-CR
Photos by RS

Views of Amelia Island 120905

Views of Amelia Island 120905

Photos by RS

Advertisement 120905

Lighthouse Window 120905

Fishing for Dinner 120905

A Face in the Crowd 120905

Canopy 120905

Improving the View 120905

Footsteps 120906

Tern 120906

 

Looking Across the Sea

Looking Across the Sea 120904

When I was on the beach yesterday I dreamed of looking across the ocean to see the land on the other side. Of course, the earth is not flat and I know that in reality you cannot see very far out to sea. But, it's still fun to dream.

I already had the latitude of Fernandina Beach's weather station (30.672 N) from my earlier research on weather here. So, I put the latitude in Google maps and, using trial and error, found the longitude of the first landfall on the other side of the Atlantic. Enter 30.672 N 9.883 W in Google maps and you will see it ... Morocco. In fact it's right at Tamri National Park. The nearest coastal cities of any size are Agadir (metro population 678,000) about 25 miles south and Essaouira (population 70,000) about 50 miles north. RS visited Essaouira about three years ago and I will add some of her pictures soon.

Now that I know what I am looking at across the sea, I got to thinking about where Fernandina Beach is headed. The more I discover about this place the more I like it. But, I have yet to see written the vision of where people want Fernandina Beach to be in 10 or 20 years. It's possible I have missed it, or maybe it doesn't exist. Maybe vision is too corporate a way to think and I should just accept that Fernandina has gotten this far and will do okay in the future.

One idea I have is for Fernandina Beach to have sister cities. This would be part of a vision to make Fernandina Beach more attractive to international visitors (or investors). If this is a direction for Fernandina, I think that Essaouira would be a good sister city to consider. If you read the history of Essaouira and how it survives today there are a lot of similarities to Fernandina Beach. Of course, there are major differences too, but that's what you want in a sister city.

-CR
Photos by RS

Views of Amelia Island 120903

Views of Amelia Island 120903

Photos by RS.

Fishing Boat "Senseless" 120903

Railcars 120903

Port Building 120903

 

On the Beach 120903

On the Beach 120903

It had gotten to be about 3 in the afternoon and RS and I decided to go for a swim. We put on our suits, shirts and hats. RS lotioned up with SP something while I got the beach recliners. Off we went.

It's the end of Labor Day and it was a blue sky day that was not too hot. There was a pretty strong breeze off the ocean and we could see thunderstorms forming inland about where Yulee is. As we walked down the walkway to the sand I thought a little about why the breeze seems mostly to come from the ocean in the day time and the thunderstorms initially form inland.

We set up the recliners, took a seat and relaxed. There is something nice about sitting in an ocean breeze in a warm sun. A lot of people seem to do this. After a few minutes I said to RS, "Here we said we would never live in Florida and we would never roast ourselves in the sun."

"Yes, we did." she smiled at me.

Well, obviously we had changed our minds.

As I sat there looking at the ocean I thought about how I used to sit on the beach as a kid and wonder what lay directly across the sea from me. Maybe if I squinted long enough, I could see whatever it was. So, I said this to RS. She replied, "I've never thought about that." That made me wonder even more. So soon I will research this topic and all of us will know.

RS' hat has a wide brim and she had to hold it in the strong breeze. It flew off a couple of times revealing the label. "Madagascar!" she commented. I knew it couldn't be Madagascar on the other side of the ocean since Madagascar is in the Indian Ocean and we are on the Atlantic. This made me say, "What?"

"Madagascar is where my hat was made ,,, and it's hand-made raffia." I didn't have the faintest idea what raffia was until I looked it up as I write this blog post. It's a type of palm tree native to Africa and Madagascar. It's really strange how a palm from Africa spends its final days among the palms of Florida. Now I wonder if the Florida palms can be woven into wide-brimmed hats.

But, back to the beach.

Two young couples were on the beach about 50 feet from us. One had a baby who was just starting to walk. We watched as the father struggled to put up a beach umbrella. He drove the post into the sand, then opened the umbrella, which immediately turned inside out. I don't think he was a local since this seemed to be the first time he had ever done this. After about 5 minutes of struggling, he decided that the umbrella wasn't needed after all. I noted in my head that anyone with a standing beach umbrella on a windy day had to be an experienced beach person.

Once the beach umbrella decision was made, the two guys were ready to fish. I don't know anything about surf fishing. A couple of times on walks I have asked surf fishermen (almost all people fishing in the surf are men) if they had caught anything. The reply was almost always, "yes, a few whiting." So, I just Googled whiting and here is more than you will want to know about surf fishing for whiting in Florida.

About this time I was ready to test the water. I knew from my research on weather in Fernandina Beach that the water temperature was warm. RS confirmed my research as we walked into the water. "The water is warm," she said.

One of the things I have noticed about the beach is that it changes. Of course, the tides go up and down, but the contours of the beach change. I bought a really helpful book about Florida beaches at the Book Loft downtown. It's called Florida's Living Beaches by Blair and Dawn Witherington. This book explained to me in understandable terms about how beaches work. Anyway, I was not surprised to feel an undulating bottom. This made walking in the breakers kind of difficult and at the same time fun. We didn't know whether the next step was up or down. Sometimes, I towered over RS and other times she was was an Amazon.

It was a four-breaker day. This is a term I have developed for identifying the ocean conditions. I count the number of waves with white caps that I can see at one time perpendicular to the shoreline. Four at a time is pretty strong. RS had already looked down at the lifeguard stand on Main beach and seen a red flag. We couldn't agree on what that meant so this is another topic to research.

After refreshing ourselves in the surf, we again sat on the recliners and looked at the waves and people walking by. Then, we got hot again and RS was ready to go in the water. We did and laughed as the waves washed over us. While we were jumping breakers one of the fishermen walked past us with a nod and a smile. I watched as he walked to the last sandbar and with all his strength cast the bait into the ocean. Then, he walked back to shore and put his pole in white holder that I think had been made from some plastic piping. Then he sat down. Fishing didn't seem like such tough work.

Eventually, both RS and I had enough water and returned to our recliners. The afternoon was growing late and I suggested that we go inside and clean up. This we did. There is a story I will tell you about how to clean yourself when you leave the beach, but that will be for another time.

-CR
Photos by RS

Fitting the Pieces Together

Fitting the Pieces Together 120903

The Labor Day week-end is about over and people are loading their cars with suitcases full of dirty clothes and sand. It's kind of an odd feeling watching people leave Amelia Island. In a way it's like turning the pages of a book. The summer chapter ends and now comes the fall chapter. Summer was full of families and kids. Lots of wave jumping and beachcombers. I expect that fall will bring an older crowd and few kids. Already I can feel the days getting shorter even though the heat remains.

RS and I were talking about the week-end and the things we had seen: a Blue Moon, the turtle release, shopping, eating out, a beach 5K run, flag displays and more. It got me thinking about Fernandina Beach as a small town and how it all fits together.

You can drive around town and still see some of the signs for the most recent election. VOTE FOR ME! they shout. Yes, there is a government that provides services. I like to read the local paper and all the arguing and differences in view that take place. But, the government seems to function reasonably well. There are roads, schools, pretty low crime and the place is clean. Government is important and I am sure in this blog I will write more about it. But, government doesn't make it all happen or make the place what it is. At least not alone.

So what does make this place what it is?

You can see the Welcome to Fernandina Beach sign filled with the names of civic organizations. I am sure these groups add value to the place. Just about every small town I have seen in the USA has these same types of groups. It's kind of a combination of organizations that serve a special interest combined with some level of do-gooderism.

But civic organizations are not enough to make the place what it is.

Since I have been looking on Google about Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach, I have been discovering little things. Maybe it is no surprise that there are groups of people dedicated to turtles or pool playing or former military service or a zillon other things. These groups provide a means for people with a special interest to share what they like or do.

Maybe it is also no surprise that there are individuals who seem to have something inside them driving them to focus at least part of their lives on one thing, for example, Rita Jackson and horses or Leo McCormack and archeology or David Bert Austin and beekeeping. I'm starting to feel that I may become focused too just by writing this blog.

But, all this alone doesn't make Fernandina Beach unique and so interesting. I suppose the geography, the history, the businesses and industry, the religious organizations add a part to it.

Maybe it's the character of the people. There is an unusual mix of rural southerners, rich people, African Americans, manufacturing workers, tourists, retirees, foreigners and other ways to classify people. Somehow they all come together or at least live here side-by-side.

I don't know. Maybe I should defer this question and just keep writing about what I see and feel and how it all fits together will somehow coalesce into a clear vision.

-CR
Photos by RS