Kathy and Art Changing Course: The End of Florida, Amelia Island

We are now in the northeastern most corner of Florida in Fernandino Beach, the only city here on Amelia Island. It is a quaint little town (population 11,200 or so) with lots of little shops, great restaurants and the oldest saloon in the state (first thing we spotted). This photo was taken from our boat looking at the Atlantic Seafood shop, where we stocked up on fresh shrimp hauled in by the shrimp fleet moored just before entering the marina (I was too busy looking for lines to tie us up and missed the opportunity to get a picture of the shrimp boats).

We spent our first day here touring the shops and ended up in the coolest market (Fred's) at the far end of downtown. They had everything you can imagine in that store: artificial flowers for the cemetery, lawn furniture and camping equipment, food, drugs, clothes and shoes, televisions, toys, home decor (some pretty ugly stuff), school supplies, and on and on--real competition for Walmart, only on a smaller scale. I could have spent a whole day in that store!

This is the main street (Centre Street) through the historic district.

On the recommendation of friends, we went to T-Ray's for breakfast this morning. The restaurant (and I use that word loosely) is in an old gas station and I think we were sitting about where the service bay used to be. I don't even know what to tell you about the place--it was that unique (no two tables were the same, none of the dishes or silverware matched, and everyone was incredibly friendly). Definitely local home-cookin' cuisine here, as you can see in the photos below:

Art waiting for our order to arrive.

Can you believe we ate this? Eggs, sausage, cheese grits, and a grilled biscuit. Yummy

Tomorrow we head out on the water once again gong north, so this evening we will just sit on the boat and enjoy the view (and a little wine). Here is our location at the Fernandina Harbor Marina (as you can see, our view is water everywhere):