Mommy and Daddy's Vacation

Stephen and I got to go on a vacation, just the two of us to celebrate our anniversary a month early. We went to Amelia Island for three nights, while my mom came to Gainesville and stayed with Leah. This trip was only my second time being away from Leah, and the first time we were both away from her. It was so strange to not feel like we were always "on" - no one needing constant attention. We got to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, without paying attention to a schedule. With that being said, we really missed our little girl. I watched a video of her on my phone about a hundred times. Stephen woke up right at 6:00 every morning just like at home, only Leah wasn't there to snuggle in bed with us while she had her morning bottle.

Amelia Island is only about 2 hours from Gainesville, so it was a short trip to get there. We decided to stop in Jacksonville on our way through to go to dinner. As soon as we got to Amelia Island, we immediately went to the beach, which was just across the street from our hotel. Our room was very big and really nice.

We did a lot of stuff in the two full days we spent on the island. We brought our bikes and took a self-guided tour through the 50 square block area of historic downtown Fernandina Beach. Fernandina Beach is the main town on Amelia Island, but is on the river side of the island opposite the ocean. It is full of Victorian-style homes that are all over 100 years old! It was so pretty!!

We toured a Civil War era fort, Fort Clinch, that is pretty well preserved.

One of the most interesting things we got to see was Kingsley Plantation, a part of the National Park System, which is a pre-Civil War plantation that has 25 amazingly preserved slave quarter houses. The kitchens, barn, and main house were also on the grounds. Both the kitchens and the barn are set up with exhibits for visitors to see. The best part of our whole trip for me was the fact that we didn't have to deal with tons of people. We hardly saw anyone at the fort or the plantation and there were very few people on the beaches ever. It was wonderful! We had so much fun on our vacation, but we were so glad to be home and to see our sweet little girl!