Fiberglass shark, that is. Or, as I called him in another post, Jaws of Fernandina. He's there for the tourists to have their picture taken with him or for fishermen who get skunked to pretend that they caught something. All that I know is that he sure does get to see a lot of nice sunsets.
I keep forgetting to feature this relatively new business on Second Street called "Faces In Time". It's one of those photography places where you dress up in the old-timey clothes when everyone fights to be the saloon girl instead of the washerwoman, and the like. Anyway, we've got one of those now and it's located next door to the wine bar and two doors down from Pablo's so if you need any liquid courage before you don the outfit you're in luck.
Our Museum of History is a treasure chest of knowledge regarding not just the eight flags of Amelia Island, but of information about the region as well. Any trip to Amelia should be considered incomplete without a stop here. Housed in the old jail house, the museum has just undergone another expansion in the last year to allow it to house many more exhibits, rest rooms and a conference room available for functions. As an added bonus to Fairbanks House guests, it's just a couple of blocks up the street.
FYI, Fairbanks House has added some new policies during these recessionary times. Just kidding. Please don't cancel your reservations.
After much confusion and consultation, locals decided that - although it hadn't been seen in these parts for quite some time - it could in fact be the sun. Can anyone confirm?
We think that the rain has ended but we don't want to jinx it by saying that out loud.... And in true girls' getaway spirit, Melanie, Sara and Christine didn't let the threat of rain get in the way of a good time. Here they are headed out on the carriage after social hour tonight - but with the top on just in case...
If you're a regular blog reader of mine (thank you), you've seen my posts about resurrection fern. It still never ceases to amaze me in its absolute resurrectional capabilities. This photo was taken tonight after our solid week of rain.
Is that they won't stay put. At least that's the case with this one outside of the Palace Saloon. In an effort to keep him from "running away," he's been chained by the peg to the door of the pub. If he could only flex his fake knee he'd be outta there and back to his plundering ways. Arrrrrrrr...
In one final round of generosity, our friends Kevin and Cecelia at Amelia River Cruises and Charters have donated a pair of tickets for one of their cruises - where you will see lots of sites like this - for each of our two gift certificate winners. So the lid is now on the pot. We've got a full agenda.
Never one to pass up helping out a good cause, Joe's Second Street Bistro is joining in and donating a dinner for the other gift certificate. Thanks guys.
And manager, Ryan, will make sure that you're well taken care of... as he and his team always do.
Our good friends at Beech Street Grill have decided to jump into the fundraising by adding a $50 gift certificate for dinner to the highest bidder for one of the certificates. So you'll have two nights at Fairbanks House, a private carriage tour and dinner for two at Beech Street Grill. Let's see some bids for a good cause!
Our good friend, Cyndi, of Amelia Island Carriages (904-556-2662) has generously upped the ante on our gift certificate auction by adding a 45 minute private carriage tour to each of the two-night Fairbanks House gift certificates. Cyndi's husband Jeff is a retired Marine and they have a great appreciation for this couple's service. We appreciate their generosity. I'm proud to report that - even before the announcement of the carriage tour addition - we had a high bid today of $350. And that's for one certificate. Keep it coming folks; we'd like to help as much as we can. Remember, there are two certificates and the two highest bids win.
I enjoy walking by Trailer Park Collectibles, a rummage shop on Alachua St., to watch the tourists take pictures with the wooden thingys with the faces cut out. Hopefully, its presence results in some sales for Susan and Brian too.
Very sad. Somebody lost a boat at the marina tonight. I heard the explosion just as I was finishing my blog post about the theatre. I ran down in time to see the firefighters doing their best to save the dock since there was no hope for the boat. I'm hoping that there were no people injured but I don't know for sure. Fingers crossed.
We have several very good theatre groups on the island, including the one at Amelia Community Theatre on Cedar Street. They continually put on very nice productions - to the point that they've outgrown their current theatre and are building a very large one on the sire next door. I'm not sure if they're adding on or just starting fresh but it should be nice.
I've become a collector of boat names. There are so many good ones that come through the marina. This is a great time of year for that because all of the snowbirds who have flown south for the winter are now on their way back up north for the warmer months. Most drive but many have taken their boats down for the season as well, so we get a steady supply of new names to enjoy. And they get a steady supply of friendly faces as they pass through here. Fair trade.
It was Mad Hatter Tea Party and Tour day on the island and I'm happy to say that everyone got into the spirit. Hats and flowers everywhere.
In fact, I walked into the dining room and stepped right into the middle of a private tea party. Bunnies, bears, pigs and frogs, all drinking tea and eating cranberries and carrots. (Our human guests got Fairbanks House Punch and Chocolate Chip Streusel Coffee Cake.) It appeared that a fun time was had by all.
This is the back side of the arbor where you can see how the jasmine has "encroached" a bit into the personal space of the fence, the yard, the palm tree, the lantana and anything else it fancies. Once again, too pretty to cut right now but about two weeks from now it'll be getting a severe haircut.
This egret had just been wandering around the yard shaking all of the bushes for snakes and whatnot (without success), and decided to get camera shy just when I was ready to catch him knee-deep in our ivy bed. I'm sure that this is the same one that used to hang out every summer for several years just walking up and down Seventh Street feeding happily in all of our gardens. He/she (we called it Pat) hasn't been here for a couple of summers now. Welcome back Pat.
Regular blog readers will probably be able to guess in front of which house this nicely themed setting sits. Guesses, anyone?
Today the Confederate Jasmine vine over the arbor at our pool reached absolute perfection. The scent is intoxicating (over the whole island), every bloom is full and not a single one has dropped. If you look closely you can see that it's even taken over the palm tree behind. I know that we should cut it off the tree but it looks so pretty. One more day...
After all of my postings about pirates, it's easy to forget that this is actually the Shrimp Festival, not the Pirate Festival. This festival is to celebrate the local independent shrimpers, like Forrest Gump. These folks are part of a dying industry because they're being wiped out by competition from major producers of farm-raised shrimp who have made the going pretty tough in the market. Most of these guys only have one boat from which to earn a living and cannot spread the rising cost of fuel, insurance, etc. over a large fleet (or farm) to try to keep up. And they can't get the price high enough to meet costs due to the competition from the shrimping equivalent of big box stores. If you've ever tasted the difference between a farm raised shrimp and a freshly caught wild shrimp you will know why the loss of this way of life would be a sad, sad thing. So in your own communities, buy local, buy fresh and support the small independent businesses.
