Monday, April 11, 2016

Fernandina Beach, Part One

For our anniversary trip this year, Jeff and I decided to spend a few days exploring what I considered for most of my life to be my hometown. I attended kindergarten there and my parents and their siblings graduated from the local high school. Fernandina Beach, Florida has always held a lot of nostalgia for me and I was excited to get to visit again. To prepare for the trip, I consulted my foodie friend Natalie for the best places to eat, and I let my family know I'd be in town and wanted to get together.

Our first stop once we hit the island was lunch at one of Natalie's recommendations, and man, was it tasty! I decided we should work off lunch by walking to Granny and Papa's old house on North 4th Street. Jeff protested that it would be too far to walk and I countered with informing him that I used to walk practically everywhere we went in Fernandina. He tactfully refrained from pointing out that had been more than 25 years ago.

Granny and Papa's house - looking very different from my childhood memories!

We spent a couple of hours walking around town, checked in at our bed and breakfast, then headed out again.
The Fairbanks House
Before we went to dinner that evening, we drove to where I used to live on Oak Street - fully expecting to see the lot occupied by something depressing like a gas station. But the lot was empty! No building at all, just the tree Stuart and I used to ride our bikes around while chasing each other. The lot was for sale, which Jeff took as a sign that we're supposed to move to Fernandina, build a house, and divide our time between it and the boat we're going to buy. I'll start researching that right away, dear.


Which leads me to the next event of the evening - dinner and a walk around the Fernandina Harbor Marina. 

Shrimp boats in the background. Such an iconic memory for me of the island!
And here's me, growing weary of posing for pictures that will inevitably not turn out well.











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