Next Stop : Amelia Island


This week, I'll be on a press trip to Amelia Island, one of the southernmost of the Sea Islands, located off the coast of Florida.  Steeped in history, this 13-mile island is also called  the "Isle of Eight Flags"  since it has flown the flags of France,  Spain (twice), Great Britain, the Patriots of Amelia Island,  the Green Cross of Florida,  Mexico, the Confederate States of America and the United States, since 1562.  I'll be staying in a charming inn on Fernandina Beach, pictured above, complete with rocking chairs to watch the blue herons. My activities will include delving into all that intriguing history as well as horseback riding on the beach, a segway tour of the Amelia Island Plantation nature center and a walking tour of American Beach, a storied African American enclave  frequented by legends like Zora Neale Hurston, A. Phillip Randolph and Joe Louis during the Jim crow era of the 30s-60s.   Of course, I hope to sneak in some beach time too. Stay tuned for posts next week.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I'm making reservations for sure! Great for our
THREE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Thanks!
May 17, 2010 at 7:20 PM
Radical Selfie said…
Looking forward to your posts on Amelia Island. I have friends who've been there, and the reviews are blissful!! Safe travels!
May 17, 2010 at 7:21 PM
A Cuban In London said…
That photo is hilarious! I love it. Many thanks. I look forward to your posts. By the way, did you mean 1962 instead of 1562? The US wasn't even born then. :-)

Greetings from London.
May 18, 2010 at 5:28 AM
Rachel Cotterill said…
Sounds fabulous - I'll look forwards to hearing all about it :)
May 19, 2010 at 1:36 PM
Jean-Luc Picard said…
I hadn't heard of this island. Thanks for telling me all about it.
May 20, 2010 at 12:24 PM
eden said…
What a beautiful place! Thank you for sharing information about the island.Looking forward to your next post.
May 20, 2010 at 4:59 PM
Fly Girl said…
Thanks for all the kind thoughts! Posts to come soon. Cubano, I meant 1562, European explorers were claiming many parts of Noth America then, which is why Amelia Island can claim so many flags.
May 23, 2010 at 6:15 AM
Wendy said…
Hope you are having a great trip. Look forward to your posts which are always full of colorful and interesting culture.
May 23, 2010 at 8:20 AM
Fly Girl said…
Thanks Wendy, indeed, I have some colorful culture posts coming your way.
May 23, 2010 at 2:26 PM
Catherine said…
Have a fun trip - and look forward to reading about why so many flags have been flown here...
May 23, 2010 at 6:47 PM
Unknown said…
Looking forward to your discoveries...
May 25, 2010 at 10:26 AM
Fly Girl said…
Catherine and Cate, those posts are going up shortly!
May 25, 2010 at 11:41 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Puerto Rico's Taino Culture

Image
The original inhabitants of the Caribbean region of North America were the Arawak, Taino and Carib  native peoples.  The Tainos are a subgroup of the Arawaks and are recognized as the founders of the island of Boriken or Puerto Rico.  These were the people who offered a peaceful welcome to Columbus in 1493.  They didn't know the cruelty and violence that would follow his so-called "discovery" of the land that they had cultivated for centuries. Despite official government pronouncements that the Taino have been killed off by the massacres and slavery that followed in Columbus' wake, they live on.  As demonstrated in the photo above by  members of  the Puerto Rico Folklorico Dance & Culture Cultural Cente r, Taino traditions, food and names remain strong. Throughout Puerto Rico, town names like Mayaquez, Utuado and Caquas echo the Taino language as do the musical instrument maracas and hamaca or hammock. Legends of Taino warriors, like Hatuey, who organized the ba
Read more

Traveling Through A Liberian Childhood

Image
I like to explore the world with books as much as I like to actually travel. A well-written narrative can transport you to places that you'd never experience with just superficial details like photos and descriptions. I've been interviewing writers about the criteria they use to select books for Summer reading and it made me think about my own general reading criteria. As a journalist, I'm really drawn to biographies, autobiographies and memoirs more than fiction. There's something about using the facts to entice readers into your world that gets me. It's no coincidence that some of my favorite writers--Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zora Neale Hurston, Hemingway, started out as journalists. So when I glimpsed The House at Sugar Beach , at my local bookstore and saw it was a memoir written by a journalist, it was pretty much a done deal that I would buy it. Now it wasn't only that the author Helene Cooper was a journalist, it was that she was a Liberian journalist chro
Read more

Switzerland's Fete Des Vignerons

Image
                                               Once every generation, the centuries-old viticultural festival, Fete des Vignerons, unfolds in Vevey, Switzerland. Watching this spectacle of music, dancing, wine and fanciful costumes, felt like I had been transported to something out of a Dr. Seuss story. With a law that prohibits the fest from taking place more than five times in a century, I felt incredibly lucky to witness this celebration of Swiss wine traditions dating back to the 17th century.  Some of the fetes 5,500 performers in costumes strolled the narrow streets of Vevey after a show that featured fairies, bees, royal courts, playing cards and 17th-century wine growers. The performance was in French but the drama transcended language barriers. It's a difficult experience to describe but if I had to sum it up, I would explain it as the magic of Cirque Du Soleil combined with the pageantry of the Olympics, topped with the history of folk celebrations.  Take a peek at my v
Read more