Fernandina Beach. Amelia Island. It's where Paige and I got married. It's where the in-laws live, most of them anyway. It's where we go to visit family and it's where I always most easily clear my head and learn to relax and smile.
I remember reading about the "Beach Lady" of American Beach, such an interesting figure in African-American history, in Smithsonian magazine (June 2003) and being so moved in respect and wonder the first time I spent an afternoon exploring the area. I felt nearly reverential walking around her community that day, taking pictures of old homes and listening to the ocean's waves gently falling and respectfully sliding up to the shore. Read about the community's founder A. L. Lewis here.
Fernandina Beach is where I've gotten my favorite shots of my kids. They've never gotten too crazy about the ocean, but the beach is always good for building sandcastles and experiencing views they just don't get here in Tennessee. Ari's never too happy to get sand on her skin, but I hear princesses and divas can be like that.
If we're lucky and Paige can get a teaching job that she likes, we'll likely move down there in the next year or two. There's also a very nice Ritz-Carlton on the beach where I'd probably work if I'm still doing the hotel industry thing then. As I've written about before, I want to ultimately own a scooter and it's the perfect little beach town for such a vehicle. Heck, at two miles across at its widest point and thirteen miles long, a nice bicycle would suffice. Sure looks like easy living from here.
(I saw the photo above and loved it so much I just had to share it. What I wrote was merely an excuse to share the shot.)
1 comment:
Sounds beautiful. We've vacationed at the beach several times...DL loves the ocean and skin boarding. Diva loves the pool :). They both love making sand castles and diving for sand dollars.
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