Footloose and Fancy Free in Florida
(Welcome to Florida sign on the highway at the state border)
They don’t call it “Sunny Florida” without good reason. Our escape southwards for Spring Break of 2007 showed us exactly why the Snowbirds flock there each winter. Everywhere we traveled, throughout the length and breadth of the state, the sun shone fiercely but never oppressively. There was no humidity at all to irritate us or sap our reserves of energy. Walking around in shorts and T-shirts, it was difficult to believe that several latitudes above us in the same country, snow was falling steadily.
Deciding to keep such thoughts at bay, Llew and I set out on another journey of discovery. We realized quickly enough that it wasn’t just Spring Break for colleges in New York but everywhere along the East Coast. Every venue was buzzing with the vivacious energy of college students out to have so much fun one might have thought it was not their midterms that were done but their finals! Though we’d both been to Florida separately before, our exploration had been confined to the Orlando corridor to see the Disney amusement parks. We resolved to leave that area well alone this time round, and drove along the east coast, arriving about 17 hours later (with an overnight stop at Richmond, Virginia) at the very northernmost point of the state—and boy, were we glad to see the sign that proclaimed, “Welcome to Florida”. Llew was so pleased, he leaned out of the car to get a passing shot of the billboard!
Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach:
At the northernmost point of Florida is Amelia Island, a historic parcel of land once home to a thriving industry in pirateering. Fernandina Beach is the biggest draw today and as we drove into the little town, we could see why. A charming main street, the Silk Stocking district, filled with old Victorian homes, now nicely refurbished, calls out compulsively to the visitor. A stroll to the waterside allowed us to see shrimping boats come in for the evening as the skies turned salmon pink over the Atlantic Ocean. Lively bars, trendy restaurants and pricey boutiques vied for our attention with the Queen Anne style houses decorated with pretty gingerbread trim. Loads of sculpture, nodding to the pirates and buccaneers of old, lined the streets. Right on the beach, there were old Peg Leg and Long John Silver looking appropriately sinister. The arrival of the cross-Florida railroad in the 1850s brought tourists to the area and the redevelopment of the downtown district began. We did not linger long on Amelia, packing out in a couple of hours to make our way to Jacksonville where we spent the night.
More About Florida:
To read more about our travels in each of Florida’s fascinating cities, please click on the relevant links above.
Our Return Home:
Our return home was marred by awful traffic in Southern Florida which cleared once we left Orlando behind. We spent one night in the charming coastal town of Beaufort in the Gulag, or “Low Country” of South Carolina, then sped our way back to Connecticut, the next day, refreshed beyond belief by a vacation that had afforded us 80 plus degree temperatures daily and nary a drop of rain or a snow flurry. Thanks to our trusty GPS, we put in more than three thousand miles on our Subaru Outback and explored parts of the state we hadn’t even dreamed of seeing. But we loved most parts of our vacation and were glad to have covered so much ground in so short a time. Returning home to a recent blizzard that left three inches of snow on our driveway, was sobering indeed and proclaimed loudly the end of our completely lovely spring vacation.
Bon Voyage!