Tom and I took a day off to drive to Florida and eat at Palms Fish Camp. Our friends, Wendy and Ron Bower were back for their month on Amelia Island and we went down to spend the day with them.
Palms Fish Camp is the place Wendy and Ron chose for our lunch together. It is across the river from Jacksonville and was a bit of a drive from their condo in Fernandina Beach. It was a beautiful, although very cold, day so it was nice to do a little sightseeing as we drove. Wendy is one of my faithful readers and thought Palms Fish Camp would be a good place to highlight in my blog.
She was right. For those of you who stay in the north, a Fish Camp is a family restaurant that serves fresh caught seafood and fish. Along the coast, they are usually somewhere between a dive and a nice restaurant. Palms Fish Camp was right in between. Located on the north shore of the St. Johns River, the camp serves fish and shrimp fresh off the boat. The menu, not surprisingly, is heavy on shrimp: fried, blackened, steamed.
It reminded me a little bit of Bubba in the movie “Forrest Gump.” “Anyway, like I was sayin’, shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sauté it. Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that’s about it.” I think they had all those kinds of shrimp on the menu.
But what do you order if you can’t each shrimp and aren’t a big fan of fish? Chicken! On the daily specials Palms Fish Camp had Orange Chicken and Chicken Alfredo. Tom ordered the Orange Chicken and I got the Chicken Alfredo. Wendy got Peel and Eat shrimp and Ron got Baja (shrimp) Tacos with fried okra on the side. We weren’t expecting much from the chicken dishes, but they turned out to be very good. The Orange chicken was lightly breaded and the Alfredo sauce wasn’t too heavy. Wendy and Ron enjoyed their shrimp dishes.
Wendy and Ron really like Key Lime Pie. They try it just about every place they can. Their favorite – so far – is the Key Lime Pie at the Palms. It did look delicious.
After our delicious lunch at Palms Fish Camp, we headed to downtown Fernandina to the Amelia Island Museum of History. Wendy, who was our tour director, had a challenge because she had to find a place we could all enjoy that wasn’t outside. It was just too cold to walk on the beach. History is always a good choice with Tom and me. The museum advertises that it is the first “spoken history museum” in Florida. They highlight their docent-led, story-telling tours. Ron, Wendy, and I are all communications majors, so that sounded good.
Unfortunately, the docent-led tour was an hour long. Most of the time was spent in one area of the museum, where we were all seated as the docent told stories about the history of Amelia Island. At first the 15 people on the tour listened very politely. But, after 20 minutes, people started looking at their watches or phones. After 30 minutes, people started leaving. We hung in there for 45 minutes before we bailed. He was interesting enough, it was just too long.
The museum is housed in the former Nassau County Jail, a couple of blocks from downtown. We were only allowed in four rooms of the two-story building and there weren’t many displays or artifacts. It was an interesting place to visit but we wouldn’t feel like returning.
Having expended a lot of energy in listening, I suggested finding a bakery or sweet shop. Fortunately there was a very good bakery just a short distance away. Nana Teresa’s Bake Shop had a nice selection of cookies, cakes, pies, sweet rolls, colorful macarons, and Kouign Amann. I had never heard of Kouign Amann before and would have gotten it but they only had apricot left and I was in the mood for chocolate. Kouign Amann is a buttery pastry with different fillings. The name comes from the Breton (a region of France) for “bread” and “butter”.
Tom got a jumbo chocolate chip cookie and I got a s’more cookie. I also got a piece of lemon blueberry cake, which was some of the best pound cake that I have every had. It was heavy and moist and delicious. The cookies were also very good. Wendy and Ron got a cinnamon roll and a cookie.
After selecting our treats from the bakery, we stopped at The Book Loft, an old-fashioned bookstore in downtown Fernandina. It had an excellent local history section with lots of books on pirates. There was also a nice selection of fiction and non-fiction. It felt the way a bookstore should feel. I was tempted to buy a book based solely on the title, “
Having explored sufficiently for one day, we dropped Wendy and Ron back at their condo and then headed back to St. Simons. It was a really nice visit with some good food and great company.