The Good Life

Fernandina Beach
30 42.88 N 081 28.56 W

Some people would say we're spoiled.  It could be hard to disagree.  

We decided to stay the night in Ferandina.  I called my local friend Charley, he and his wife Mary invited us out to dinner.  They took us to The Amelia Plantation.   That is a gated community where Charley has work connections.   It was great, and very interesting.  

After dinner, we had a brief tour by car.  There is a gated community within the gated community at Amelia Plantation.  The consumption there is really conspicuous.

Charley pointed out places where they built houses with cutouts to avoid killing trees.  They went to great lengths to preserve the nature and it shows -- the place is really beautiful.

The tour continued.   We mentioned that we had seen a movie called Sunshine State about a water front enclave of black people.  It had resisted the seemingly inevitable fate of being bought out by developers.  Charley took us there.  It is called American Beach.   Sure enough, it is a charming little community of modest (not poor but modest) houses located right on the beach but completely surrounded by the super rich.  They have the Amelia Plantation to the south, and the Ritz Carleton Resort to their north.

It is also instructive to compare Amelia Island with it's nearest neighbor Cumberland Island.  Amelia is developed to saturation and populated by mostly affluent people.  Cumberland is mostly wilderness.  I'm sure that the histories are complex, but to me the obvious difference is that there is no bridge to connect Cumberland to the mainland.

Yes, I'll admit, we are spoiled.  We just bounce from one fun thing to the next.