Amelia Island/Mayport visit

My son is visiting for a few days, on leave from his Navy station in the Seattle area. He’d been to Florida before on a visit, but this was the first time in the new house.

My boss live in Fernandina Beach, on Amelia Island, and I’d heard a lot of good things about it so we decided to head up there. We first went to Little Talbot Island State Park. It’s part of a group of nearby parks. The State Park website says “We welcome you to visit all seven of the parks which collectively comprise Talbot Islands State Parks: Pumpkin Hill Creek Preserve State Park, Amelia Island State Park, Fort George Island Cultural State Park, Yellow Bluff Fort Historic State Park, Big Talbot Island State Park and George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier State Park.”

 
We’d originally planned to hike on of the trails but my lovely husband hurt his knee so we strolled to the beach instead. It was beautiful white sand, with small dunes hosting sea oats, morning glories, and the odd cactus here and there. Parts of the sand looked like an old washboard dirt road, from the tides. As we walked I noted that areas of the beach seemed ‘pebbly’ but once we got there we found it was all small shells.

The area is known for shark teeth, and we spent a bit of time looking for one. We may have found one that we didn’t recognize, and discarded it, and later saw that it might have been a shark’s tooth. 

My son did, however, found the remains of a large horseshoe crab. I knew they had some size, but didn’t think they were *that* large. The two pieces fit together nicely to show it came from one animal. We headed out from the beach along the boardwalk, and when we got to the parking lot there were swarms of dragonflies. I caught six in one photo.

Later, we drove up to the shops and such of Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach and wandered the little boutiques. We spotted a place for some ice cream, and I thought I’d said ‘single’ for my cone but seemed to get a double, so my son also ordered a double and received a vat of ice cream. Apparently ‘single’ is just a starting point. 

We took the Mayport Ferry across the river to Singleton’s Seafood Shack, where we all had a nice dinner of shrimp, triggerfish, and sheepshead fish.

 

A great ending to a beautiful day.