Amelia Island Plantation Vacation

Brian and I first visited Amelia Island in 2006, before we had kids. We had a great time. Beautiful beaches, dolphin cruises, horseback riding, forts to explore, and a small town feel that isn't completely over-taken with tourists.
Right after Lucy was born, we visited again.  Imma has always loved the beach and we were so looking forward to spending time with her in the sand.  Unfortunately, she didn't get to see much of the waves because she was violently ill the entire trip.  It's the sickest our little girl has ever been.  That trip was a bit of a bust but we stayed at the Amelia Island Plantation and had a gorgeous view of the ocean.
When planning our vacation this year, we considered several locations but we ultimately decided to go back to Amelia Island Plantation.  Thankfully, no one was sick this time. Though we did end up spending the night in Houston because of a mechanical problem with our plane out of Jacksonville which caused us to miss our connection, ( and Brian's bag also spent some extra time in Houston!) we had a lovely trip. I would highly recommend Amelia Island Plantation to any family looking for a beautiful, peaceful beach with just the right mix of touristy/private sightseeing.

This was my neighbor on the plane.  She was a little hyper.

And the little girl sitting in front of me kept sticking her head through to say, "Hi!"

The view from our room in the Ship Watch Villas.

Master bedroom

The girl's room

We always visit this pirate statue downtown .

And the giant anchor.

We went on a dolphin cruise and saw lots of dolphins. . . and some princesses.

Lucy is on the look out for wildlife!

Imma really didn't want to go on the cruise, which is odd because she usually loves boats.

Keeping Rapunzel out of the water.

Part of Dungenous, the Carnegie plantation on Cumberland Island, Georgia.

Wild horses in front of the remains of the main house.

More of the amazing wild horses.

I would love to visit Cumberland Island some day.

Lucy Carnegie built houses for all 9 of her children on this island and  JFK Jr. was married here.

Amelia Island Plantation also has a wildlife refuge.

We went back to the main Omni hotel for lunch.  Lucy was not in the best mood.

Imma was all smiles!

We waited for Daddy to go get the car and Lucy put on quite the show for the people working at the front desk.  She was dancing away!

One night we ate dinner at the Falcon's Nest. Strangest eating arrangement ever.  I literally couldn't talk to Brian because he was soooo far away on the other side of the table.

Hello, over there!

One of the reasons we love Amelia Island is because we love lighthouses.  This one sits in the middle of town and isn't really accessible.  But we always stop by to see it from afar.

We visited the Jacksonville Zoo and they had lots of wildlife roaming around , particularly birds, like this guy.

Lucy checking out the giraffes.

These elephants were not real but Lucy really wanted to ride them!

Daddy went for a ride on the trunk!

The girls' favorite part of the zoo was the train ride!

We really were lucky that all of our problems happened on the way home and not on the way there so they didn't mess up our vacation plans.  Nevertheless, with all of the challenges of getting two little girls and myself through TSA without anyone being violated, I am seriously looking into the possibilities of either buying our own plane soon or at least getting in on a partnership. When your husband is a pilot, you may as well take advantage of that if you can and avoid the frustrations of the airport, if possible.  That's my theory anyway.  We'll have to look into the feasibility of that but I worry about the girls every single time we have to go through security because I've heard too many horror stories of little kids being traumatized.  

We had an amazing trip and I would definitely recommend Amelia Island to anyone looking for a fun family vacation spot that's off the beaten path but easily accessible.