Cumberland Sound

In the state park where Fort Clinch is located, there is a very protected beach called Cumberland sound. This was the most amazing beach. On our walk out we were surprised to find a baby armadillo...so cute!

Mom and I spent the entire day there looking for shells and soaking up the sun. It was so warm and there was very little wind. She and I shelled for hours and found some really great shells...she even found a giant one..still full!

The beach was located next a long fishing pier flanked by huge boulders...gorgeous!



We stayed the entire afternoon and we able to watch the tide go out. We picked up some more shells and some sand dollars as the retreating water revealed them.

Proposal

Nope, this isn't for me...but someday, I hope I get a proposal this sweet. :)

Flowers of Fort Clinch

It's A Blur....

I was afraid this might happen.....I seemed to have gotten my days all mixed up and now I can't remember what Mom and I did, when. The whole vacation seems to be one big sunny blur of days. However, because the day we went really isn't important to the activity, the next few posts will be about activities instead of days.

Mom and I visited the historic fort on Amelia: Fort Clinch.

The fort was huge. It is super old, and the bricks are starting to break down, but people have done a really good job to try and restore the structure. Up close, we noticed that people had carved their names and the year they were there into the brick, but we don't know if they worked there or were just visiting...still very cool.


Mom and I explored the whole fort...the buildings were amazing. The brickwork was beautiful and taking the dizzingly tight-coiled staircases revealed even more beautiful views.

Thursday

Mom and I finally found the historic downtown of Amelia Island. We had been looking for a while and couldn't locate it...strage on such a small island. We finally got some directions from a waitress at dinner, and we headed out on Thursday. Downtown was awesome. There were tons of historical buildings and great little shops where we were able to pick up gifts for Michael and Dad as well as for my friends. I think my favorite purchase was the ring I bought for myself, though. i had been looking for a plain silver ring for a while and finally found the perfect one at a little Celtic shop. It is a plain interwoven, silver band known as the "celtic knot." I love it!

The downtown area is set back just a bit from the water, but the water is visible from almost everywhere...gorgeous! Mom and I ate lunch in a restaurant that was positioned just above the harbor where we were able to see the boats and birds. It was a perfect view.
Afer lunch, we headed out to different beach, the name escapes me at the moment, and we walked for a little while. The day was getting gray and windy so we headed back, but it was an excellent day while the weather lasted!

Silly Signage

Amelia had some great views...including their signs!

Loud and Clear


I just loved the little man running from the beach....I think if there were major storms predicted, like tsunamis, the beach would be the last place I would be. But hey, that's just me.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

For the next few days, Mom and I took advvantage of our time in a warmer climate; we spent time out by the little pool at the condo and went back to American beach several times. We also explored more of the island and just basically relaxed...napped, read, tanned...Now that's my idea of a vacation! On of our trips to American beach, we also found a little park, call Burney's Park, right between the main drive we were using to enter the beach and some really great beach front houses. It was a basically a parking lot, a gazebo and some bathrooms, but the boardwalk to the beach was gorgeous.

Sand, Shells and Surroundings- Pictures from American Beach

Sunday

Mom and I finally climbed outta bed a little after noon and found the weather to be absolutely gorgeous. It was sunny and in the mid-60's...felt amazing compared to what we had left behind in Michigan. Because the weather was so beautiful and we wanted to get out and enjoy it, we decided to explore the island.

Amelia Island is pretty small: only about 13 miles long and a couple miles wide. You would think it would be easy to navigate, but we managed to get turned around so many times! Good thing it only took a few minutes to get from one end of the island to the other...we usually ended up taking the "scenic route" to our destinations. Anyway, we covered most of the island and found that it was strangely developed. At one end of the island, the homes were literally little shacks, the middle was covered in strip malls and smaller condos and the far end was crowded with million dollar homes and condos fighting for beach front property.

The far end of the island was also home to American beach. This beach was so nice. We were able to drive our little SUV out on the beach and park (good thing for the car upgrade!). On our first trip there, the beach was empty minus a couple fisherman. The water was much too cold to go out in, and the wind coming off the water was pretty chilly too, but Mom and I had a good time soaking up some sun while hunting for shells.

The beautiful Atlantic Ocean!


After a couple hours, we took our very wndblown selves back to the condo to freshen up and get ready to go out to dinner. We headed to a little place called Barbara Jean's. It came highly recommended by Mom's boss, and with good reason! The food was delicious...BEST.FISH.EVER., and the drinks were pretty dang good too.

After dinner, we headed back to the condo and went to bed. We were pretty tuckered out still from our flights and strange bed times...plus all the excitement really wiped us out!

Saturday

Oi! This was my first real experience with a plane...that I can remember, anyway. We arrived in Flint for our flight with no problems...except that we were really early, which isn't much of a problem. After sitting for a couple hours, we found that our flight was delayed for a couple more hours. We got to chatting with a young guy sitting next to us and found out that he was a student where I go to school too...and he was in the seat right next to me on the plane- small world!

Anyway, we finally boarded the plane around 6 or so and took off to Atlanta where we were supposed to catch our connecting flight. It was about a two hours trip...made me a little woozy but sure got us there faster than driving. We landed in Atlanta and had dinner at a cute little burger place in the terminal. We were supposed to depart at 10:50ish and found that our plane had been delayed...again. crappy storms up the east coast had thrown off the entire day's flights and we didnt end up leaving until about 1am. After another hour plane ride, we arrived in the Jacksonville airport and due to the time change, it was now 3am.

Every wondered what an airport looks like at 3am?...This.

Now, seeing as flights were still coming in, you would think that employees would still be around, right? Wrong, you are. We arrived to a dead airport...no passengers, no employees and especially no rental car employees. Mom had registered a car through Alamo and they promised they would wait for us....apparently they forgot, or thought we got lost, or something. We called their 1-800 number and learned that they would re-open at 5am, so we just decided to wait in the airport for them to arrive.

At five, Mom was finally able to get the keys to our car and Viola! we got an upgrade! We got a Toyota Highlander...little SUV with a power sunroof...Excellent! We managed to navigate out of the parking lot and out to the island without much trouble and since we were both already awake, we decided to just stop and get groceries on the way out the island. We finally pulled up to the condo and 7am, unloaded groceries and went straight to bed.

"Va-cay?!? We Can All Go!"

Finally! I have some time to sit down and blog. As you obviously can tell, Mom and I made it back from Florida in one piece...tan and happy to be home. I took 8 million photos and we did a ton, so instead of writing one large novel-post, I will split it up by day...enjoy the vacation bitlits, as I like to call them.

TOGA TOGA TOGA!

Last night was our toga party here at the apartment! What a blast! We had a pretty good sized group show up and almost everybody dressed up. Much easier to show than tell:

All the girls looking cute in our togas...Megan even came from State!

Me and Christopher

Me and Di

Me and Jordan, my beefcake

Me and Andy...the new interest ;)
We played pong and quarters and just relaxed after a long, stressful week. It was a nice break because this coming week is going to be pretty stressful as well. Now that the party is over and the mess is all cleaned up, I have to get to work and try to get ahead a bit. Is it spring break yet?