Amelia Island is a barrier island along the east coast of Florida.  It’s just a few miles south of Cumberland Island, Georgia, where we were a few days ago.  This is not a wilderness-type island like Cumberland Island was, it has two communities, Fernandina Beach and Amelia City, as well as several vacation resorts.

Fernandina Beach is the only city in the United States that has flown eight different national flags over it. We took the trolley tour which took us around the small town and showed us some historic sites while getting a little history lesson.

Fernandina Beach, FL

The history tour also took us by the historic Captain’s House, locally called the Pippi Longstocking house. That movie was filmed on location here in the 1980’s.

Pippi Longstocking House

After the trolley tour we went looking for the beach and somewhere to go for a walk.  Most of the access to the beach on the south part of the island is behind private property or belongs to vacation resorts.  We did find one public access point and walked out to the beach.  A long boardwalk takes you over dunes before you hit the beach.  If you look carefully you can see a golf course green in the middle of the dunes in the picture here.

Amelia Island

Amelia Island

It was windy on the beach.  The sand was blowing and drifting just like the snow does back home in Minnesota.  We turned around and went back to the car.

Amelia Island

• Gasoline Expense:  none
• Lodging Expense:  $30
• Trolley Tour:         $30