Saturday, March 17, 2007
Island Pleasures
Monday, March 12. We spent another delightful day on Amelia Island, this time with Frank as our tour guide. The whole morning was spent with Bob and I drooling over the gated Plantation area of the island. Most of this private community lies under a canopy of majestic live oaks and Spanish moss.
Exquisite homes and luxurious golf and tennis resorts share well over 1,000 acres of marshland and subtropical forest. The streets in this entire area blend in with the native live oaks and saw palmetto so that you feel as if you are on a nature trail running through the neighborhood. The azaleas were in full bloom. I can’t think of a more lovely area, and again we were grateful to Frank for sharing his island with us. I can’t begin to count the times we said we’d love to live here.
Afternoon brought another adventure. Frank, Bob, and I headed out on Second Wind to the Cumberland Island National Seashore. Walking down a trail through the pristine maritime forest, we learned some of the history of this barrier island, which is accessible only by boat. Native Americans, Spanish explorers, then American industrialists such as the Carnegie family have lived on this island, which is now a nature preserve. Frank led us to the ruins of Dungeness, a huge mansion built in the 1800s. Wild ponies still roam the island, and one just happened to walk by the ruins so I could snap its photo. We could have spent days exploring the rich wildlife on Cumberland Island, but our dinner reservations took priority! After a fabulous dinner at the waterfront restaurant in the city marina in the historic downtown area of Amelia Island, we called it a night. What a great visit we’ve had on this northernmost tip of Florida.
Exquisite homes and luxurious golf and tennis resorts share well over 1,000 acres of marshland and subtropical forest. The streets in this entire area blend in with the native live oaks and saw palmetto so that you feel as if you are on a nature trail running through the neighborhood. The azaleas were in full bloom. I can’t think of a more lovely area, and again we were grateful to Frank for sharing his island with us. I can’t begin to count the times we said we’d love to live here.
Afternoon brought another adventure. Frank, Bob, and I headed out on Second Wind to the Cumberland Island National Seashore. Walking down a trail through the pristine maritime forest, we learned some of the history of this barrier island, which is accessible only by boat. Native Americans, Spanish explorers, then American industrialists such as the Carnegie family have lived on this island, which is now a nature preserve. Frank led us to the ruins of Dungeness, a huge mansion built in the 1800s. Wild ponies still roam the island, and one just happened to walk by the ruins so I could snap its photo. We could have spent days exploring the rich wildlife on Cumberland Island, but our dinner reservations took priority! After a fabulous dinner at the waterfront restaurant in the city marina in the historic downtown area of Amelia Island, we called it a night. What a great visit we’ve had on this northernmost tip of Florida.
