November on Amelia Island

With Hurricane Eta making its way across Florida, my vacay buddy, Christian fiction writer Lynn Wood Rix (writing as Dalyn Woods) and I kept our eye on the weather report.

This year we took our annual vacation/writing retreat in historic Fernandina Beach, on Florida’s Amelia Island and arrived before the storm. BTW, I got two more chapters written in my work-in-progress, LAST DAYS, to be released in late January.

Our vacation condo rental had beach access right across the street. I was very excited about being on Amelia Island because the head of the covert ops organization in my series of novels has his home/compound/headquarters on Amelia Island. Up until now, I’ve determined where his compound is via maps. I couldn’t wait to drive to where I had placed it.

 

After we unloaded the car and unpacked, we were famished and drove to OPS, a nearby local Italian restaurant/pizza place. I have no idea what OPS stands for. I should’ve asked but was too hungry to think about that. In any event, I was super pleased. For over a month, I’d been looking all over Jacksonville (my home) for eggplant parmigiana and couldn’t find it. I tried all my fave Italian places, but it had been taken off of the limited Covid-19 menus.

 

It seemed so amazing that I had to come to Amelia Island to find real Italian eggplant parm with spaghetti the way an Italian grandmother would make it.

The dish in the back is Lynn’s stuffed shells.

 

We didn’t escape Hurricane Eta completely. After it reached Jacksonville, it headed north for Amelia Island and we got 45 – 50 mile per hour winds which did take some tree limbs down. Lynn and I decided that was an excellent time to take a walk on the beach.

 

These are the type of boardwalks running from the street to the beach, allowing residents and visitors to walk to the beach. In the distance is haze from the storm. This is facing the ocean which is several miles beyond this.

Time spent in Fernandina would be dull without a visit to the picturesque historic district. The streets are lined with shops and restaurants.

 

 

I can’t resist a bookstore.

 

 

Then there’s Christmas stores and they make me so happy.  I’ve had several personal tragedies come during the Christmas holiday season and somehow the true spirit of Christmas wraps me in a glow and is a comfort and a joy that overcomes.

 

 

 

 A true Florida white and blue beach Christmas tree.

 

Lynn Woods Rix (writing as Dalyn Woods), my vacay buddy in front of the condo we rented.

 

Purchase THE BRIDE ESCAPE on Amazon

 

Moi at our rented vacay condo complex.

 

Purchase ACTS OF MALICE on Amazon