Amelia Island - Friday

Today we visited Fernandina Beach, which is the historic part of Amelia.
It has a very quaint main street, with lots of twee shops, though many seemed to have a 60's feel to them, as though here was the end of the line for hippies who had dropped out of the all the places that unconventional hippies drop out to.

There were shops that had decorated VW microbuses, a cigar shop that had a range of rock and folk guitars, a drug store that had gone straight, even the tour trolley bus was called Polly. The whole place was very 'cool man' (I think so anyway), in a nice way. The oldest house in the 'Historic district' was 1860, only just Anti-Bellum. We had a great time doing the walking tour, everyone is so laid back. The Chamber of Commerce lady took time to chat and tell us about her vacation in Las Vegas, but also gave us a whole heap of information booklets and maps, there was even one for the famous Amelia Island Lighthouse. The Trolley Man wasn't even at his trolley, a local lady said that he was probably gassing and gossiping somewhere, but would be back soon, the trolley eventually passed us about half an hour late. Even a driver stopped for a conversation when Sally and I were undecided about crossing a road. He just waited for us to make up our mind. A local passer-by stopped and gave us a mini life history of how he had ended up in Amelia. The guy in the Indian Trading Post Tobacco Store chatted for a good while about the range of second hand guitars he had, which were very nice.
After our wander we went to see the Famous Amelia Island Lighthouse. You would think that lighthouses would be easy to see, since they are built big and bright and are designed to be easily seen. Well not this one. We drove round for a bit (it was on the pretty maps we had) and eventually drove onto a housing area, in a back street, between two houses, behind some trees. But it was closed, the pretty maps didn't tell us what the Famous Amelia Island Lighthouse Pamphlet did tell us, but it was in the small print, so we did not notice. It had been closed for several decades awaiting renovation. It was to be opened again sometime soon - we decided not to wait.
All in all Amelia Island is a lovely place. It is a resort at the end of a road which goes nowhere but Amelia Island, which makes it very quiet and peaceful. Very nice.