Well, the wife and I took a drive out to Fernandina Beach on Saturday so I could show off the CorvetteFlorida.com decals and maybe drum up some members that way. But we only saw four (4) Corvettes the entire day. Pretty hard to believe that in a full day of driving we didn't see more....
Picked up a pretty healthy love bug collection during the trip, however...
So a washdown is first on the list for Sunday morning when I get up.
As for Fernandina Beach itself, the overall impression was that it is a pretty neat area to visit. Some areas are what one would think of as the old style Florida beach area. Other areas (particularly on route 200 coming into Amelia Island) seem inflicted with the typical Florida break neck speed development. Most of the buildings looked like the paint was still wet on them.
A real shocker was the north end of Fernandina Beach itself. Looking at the map, I expected to see a pristine preserved beach area park (after all, the map has it labeled as
Fort Clinch State Park, but what we found was some HUGE sort of factory there. Not at all what I expected to see! Honestly, it was an eyesore, made all the worse because of some naive expectations on my part.
The downtown area of Fernandina Beach was pretty much the typical tourist trap shopping area with shop after shop of cutesy imported stuff that no one really has any use for except to send to someone as a memento or souvenir. Connie (my wife) found a pair of jeans she might have been interested in, but the $130 price tag seemed to be quite a stretch of credibility to the quality being any better than could be found elsewhere for a fourth of the price.
We did have lunch at what I believe was called the Marina Seafood Restaurant at the far west end of Centre Street, and the food was excellent there, so that in itself was worthwhile.
When leaving the area, take route 105 south along the Atlantic which eventually brings you into Jacksonville. Once you get out of the old stereotyped Florida beach house area, you drive though areas that look pretty much as Florida probably did to the first settlers coming down from the north to be mosquito food. That is until you start seeing Jacksonville looming, and the nuclear power plant and other commercial concerns, sort of makes you wonder about actually eating any of the fish you see all those fishermen trying their luck at off of the many bridges you cross over.
But all in all, if you haven't been out that way, it would be worth a day or two to visit. We're planning on going back when we have two or three days to spend more time exploring the areas we obviously missed on this short trip out there and back.
Fernandina Beach...
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