Eat, Explore & Enjoy: June 2016

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Our Sweet Island Vacation {Part 4}

Today's the final post in our vacation series! If you missed previous posts, you can see them here:

Amelia Island, FL: Day One

Amelia Island, FL: Day Two

Amelia Island, FL: Day Three

Here we're at the end of a half-mile long pier on the north end of the island.

Gorgeous.

Yet another quiet beach on the island. I wish we had another day to just stay on the beach and explore more. The beaches were so great.

This is in the Fort Clinch State Park - more with these awesome trees! This drive is the dreamiest under this pretty green canopy.

Here's a video I took driving through the park under the canopy - right when I started the video, we spotted a baby deer! Such a neat moment.

Fort Clinch was used built in 1847 and has so much history. I won't go into detail, but you can click here to read more about it.

It was neat exploring the grounds picturing what life was like for the soldiers who actually lived here so long ago.

After lots of walking and exploring on the warm day, we were ready for another tasty lunch spot.

We enjoyed another gorgeous patio and wonderful food. Nick had a fish sandwich he said was possibly his best meal of the trip and I had a pulled pork chef salad. It was our first fried green tomatoes experience too!

This big tree has a fun story, I had read about it before the trip and was excited to have found it! Kate Bailey was told by the local government they were taking down this tree for emergency vehicles to get through. She objected and even stood on her porch with a shot gun when they tried to come take it down. They ended up paving the cross street and leaving this tree alone. What a beautiful tree that still stands today!

The gorgeous ocean view from relaxing on our balcony. Listening to the ocean is naturally so relaxing.

Egans Creek - we went on a nature walk to get here - I hoped we'd spot some gators, but no such luck! It was a very peaceful little area to observe birds and take in the fresh air.

We saw lots of bunnies on the trail! Very sweet.

Such a pretty walk to the creek.

After the walk, we checked out a great pizza place I read about. It's a great local spot which was fun to see. Everyone seemed to know each other and our food was great. I had heard about the gluten free pizza which I really enjoyed and recommend - Nick sampled pieces (HUGE pieces that is!) of 4 different kinds of pizzas for fun.

We ended the day with a sunset beach walk. Oh so lovely.

Sunset + ocean + palm trees.

Our last oceanside selfie. Not ready to leave yet.

We got up early the next morning, since I had to see a sunrise over our little island paradise.

I'm so glad we did - it was beautiful to slowly watch the sun peek over the horizon.

What a peaceful final morning of our trip.

One last picture with the ocean and me.

What a pretty patio view! We miss this.

Here's out hotel as we drove away - you can see our second floor balcony and the ocean.

We stopped in downtown again to grab coffee at our favorite little spot before driving back to Orlando.

Amelia Island coffee - so delicious!

On the bridge leaving the island - here you can see the pretty marshland over Amelia River that flows between the island and mainland Florida.

Passing Daytona Beach on our way back to the airport. What a great trip! Vacations seem to go by so fast, but this trip was a great break away to enjoy relaxation and the best food. Locals like to keep this little island a secret, and I see why - it's perfect not having crowds on the beach and enjoying a slower pace. We went "off season" which helped I think too. Thank you, Lord, for this great getaway!

*Here are the rest of the vacation posts*

Amelia Island, FL: Day One

Amelia Island, FL: Day Two

Amelia Island, FL: Day Three

Amelia Island, FL: Day Four

Today's Pinspiration:

I can relate to this quote. Taking a step away from normal daily life responsibilities is so refreshing for the soul. Being able to wake up and do whatever you want with your time is the best freeing feeling. I'm so thankful and blessed we took time for this getaway for ourselves and our marriage.

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Sunday, June 12, 2016

Our Sweet Island Vacation {Part 3}

We're up to day 3 of our vacation now! If you missed the first two days, click here to see what you missed:

Amelia Island, FL: Day One

Amelia Island, FL: Day Two

We started our day on a river cruise we had booked a few weeks earlier. I read great reviews of it and knew we wanted to hear more history of the islands in this area - we loved it! We wouldn't have appreciated the history of the area so much without the tour.

Cruisin' the islands on a beautiful day! It was great to get out on the water to see the islands from there. We cruised on Amelia River, in between mainland Florida and Georgia and the barrier islands.

This was the house in the movie Pippi Longstocking! It's on Amelia Island.

A view of Fort Clinch from the boat. We toured it on foot the next day, so you'll see more photos to come of that place!

Gorgeous views from the boat.

Interesting fact if you like history- Fernandina Beach (the main city on Amelia Island) has had the flags of the following nations flown over it since 1562: France, Spain, Great Britain, Spain (again), the Patriots of Amelia Island, the Green Cross of Florida, Mexico, the Confederate States of America, and the United States. It is the only municipality in the United States that has flown eight different national flags. Isn't that fascinating?! I loved learning about the history of this island.

Between the trees, you can see wild horses on Cumberland Island, Georgia. Only 38 people live on that island, the southernmost island in Georgia, and the only access to it is by boat. Great names like the Carnegies, Rockefellers, Kennedy's and more are tied to this island.

We also got the coolest experience ever which was seeing a U.S. nuclear submarine heading out to the ocean. The Coastguard is in the first small boat leading it out. This submarine is HUGE! I think our guide said these are 7 stories tall or something. It was a pretty AWEsome thing to see. He told us some neat stories about it and said the guys usually go out for 6 month stints at a time. Can you imagine? 6 months under water pretty much. We lucked out getting to see and learn about this! It ended up being an unexpected highlight of the trip for us.

We got to see dolphins jumping around during the cruise too! I was so thankful we got to see them.

Two dolphins playing. One dolphin swam right next to our side of the boat too which was the coolest thing!

Once we were off the boat, it was time for lunch. Our 2 hour mid-morning cruise turned into 3 hours since we were delayed by the sub (along with our guide talking a lot which we enjoyed!), so we were hungry!

This restaurant has homemade sangria, so I had to try it. It was pretty too!

Side note - the PATIOS on this vacation were all amazing. There's such low humidity there that I could sit out on those patios all day. We only ate one meal inside I think (aside from breakfast each morning at our hotel). Eating the best food on beautiful patios was one of my favorite things!

This photo hardly tells you how good this meal was. A turkey cuban and most fresh salad. As we reflected back on our meals, this one is a top favorite of mine during the whole trip!

The food (yes - all gluten free for me!) was SO GOOD on this vacation.

After lunch was an afternoon at the beach. Yesssssssss :)

Nick had fun in the waves while I enjoyed relaxing on the beach watching him.

Haha, yep that's Nick in that wave! We had some pretty good waves.

Our hotel provided chairs and towels for beachgoers. I wanted to be closer to the water so laid my towel on the sand to listen to the water.

I could spend lots more afternoons like this.

The view from my spot on the beach.

Here's the video I took to re-live the ocean once our vacation was over.

Our hotel is the taller gray one on the upper right.

Here's where we walk out to the beach from our hotel - and those are the beach chairs and umbrellas provided by our hotel.

The rest of the walkway to get back to our hotel. (Ours was the gray one on the right).

After getting showered & getting sand out of my hair:), we went out to eat dinner downtown. Ciao was so good. We both loved the atmosphere and our food!

Seafood pasta for both of us. (yes, mine's gluten free!) The meal and patio setting were great. Our waiter was Italian which made it even better! :) He referred to me as "ma lady" in his accent and us together as "ma friends", we loved it.

Such a sweet, quaint downtown. You can see our restaurant (Ciao) in this one.

Nick enjoyed homemade ice cream from a cute little shop downtown for dessert. I got the most delicious homemade dark chocolates with different fillings like caramel or cashews or almonds. And peanut butter. Mmmmm, I could go for those again right now.