Our main goal for a week-long road trip was not Orlando but to explore the northeast coast of Florida
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With some water spray and wind in our hair, it felt like an exhilarating theme park ride but it was in the open air with natural surroundings and real wildlife.
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Wild Florida, just outside Orlando, features exciting, hour-long airboat rides through the shallow, boggy edges of Cypress Lake. A large sign at the entrance gives credit to Canada’s Maritime provinces where Alexander Graham Bell invented the shallow bottomed airboat driven by a large aircraft type propellor mounted over its stern. Then, as we slowed down after speeding past alligators and a rich variety of bird life, Captain Mike gave verbal credit to Canada for presenting the United States with more than 30 breeding pairs of bald eagles in the 1930s. This generosity, he noted, basically kept the U.S. bald eagle population from extinction. It was a gesture we particularly appreciated after a few weeks of tense Canada-U.S. relations.
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Our main goal for a week-long road trip was not Orlando but to explore the northeast coast of Florida, particularly the fascinating history, culture and cuisine of St. Augustine and Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island. Here are some of the attractions we particularly enjoyed:
St. Augustine, founded by the Spanish in 1565, is the oldest continuously inhabited European established settlement in the United States. The city core is very walkable but we found the best way to absorb and appreciate its remarkable history is with the 90-minute, 22-stop, Hop-on, Hop-off narrated Trolley Tour.
Several attractions on the Trolley Tour stood out for us. Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the United States. The Spanish started construction in 1672 to defend Florida and protect the Atlantic trade route. It is remarkably well preserved. Also well preserved is the oldest wooden schoolhouse in the United States where an animatronic teacher and “dunce” student provide humorous commentary. Two former luxury hotels in St. Augustine were built in the Spanish Renaissance Revival style by oil and railway magnate Henry Flagler and were among the first buildings in the world to use poured concrete. Hotel Alcazar, built in 1887, is now the Lightner Museum, housing a grand collection of Gilded Age antiques. The 1888 Ponce de Leon Hotel is now the 2,500 student Flagler College. Design of its glorious interior was headed by Louis Tiffany. The woodwork, gold gilding and stained glass windows are stunning. In fact the college has the largest private collection of Tiffany stained glass in North America. It’s insured for more than $100 million.
Amelia Island
A happy surprise for us was our far-from-ordinary bed & breakfast accommodation in the historic district of Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, close to the border with Georgia. Fairbanks House is a glorious 8,000 square foot Italianate villa built in 1885 at the height of Fernandina’s Golden Era. The upscale neighbourhood has dozens of other stunning homes built in the late 1800s in Victorian or Classical Revival style.
Like many visitors we took the Cumberland Coastal Tour (Amelia River Cruises), sailing between Florida and Georgia along the shorelines of Amelia and Cumberland Islands. Wildlife sightings included playful dolphins and Cumberland wild horses. Several colourful shrimp boats are tied to docks on this pristine island.
For a small city (population, 14,000) Fernandina Beach has an excellent Museum of History in a former jail and a well-preserved Civil War era coastal garrison called Fort Clinch.
Cuisine
As Maritimers brought up on Deer Island and in Halifax, we love fresh seafood so we were looking forward to stuffing ourselves with Florida’s famous shrimp and local fish like grouper, mahi-mahi and pompano. Large (often too large) portions are common in Florida restaurants but we were usually impressed with the quality of our meals:
Two seafood dishes stood out in St. Augustine. Our best large shrimps came from the Salt Life Food Shack. They were served on skewers with glazed pineapple and pineapple fried rice. O.C. White’s Seafood Restaurant combines history (it’s located in the Worth House, circa 1790) with excellent cuisine. Its blackened shrimp and grits with cheese, bacon, and green onions was a hit with both of us. The Columbia Restaurant is a huge Spanish/Cuban eatery holding 700 guests. It’s usually full but service is very efficient and the food, especially our fresh grouper topped with local blue crab, was succulent.
Florida’s lucrative shrimp industry had its beginnings in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island in the early 1900s. As expected, even a modest fried fish take-out was extraordinary. Our golden basket at Timoti’s included deep fried shrimp, fries, hush puppies, and a giant fish sandwich. At The Salty Pelican, a busy waterfront restaurant and sports bar, we enjoyed its signature dish, blue crab dip. We could also choose among Shrimp & Oysters, a pound or half pound of local ‘peel ‘n eat’ shrimp, or fried gator bits. We can’t talk about food on Amelia Island without mentioning the breakfast at our historic B&B, Fairbanks House. The full breakfast, served with real silverware and nice China, included juice, fresh blueberries with sweet cream, blackberry waffles with chicken sausage and banana bread. A wonderful ending to a week of outstanding hospitality.
Sadly, there is now some tension in U.S.-Canada relations because of the trade war and talk of Canada becoming the “51st State’” Florida tourism officials we met were very concerned about a drop off in Canadian tourists. Hopefully relations can soon return to their normal friendly state.
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