Annie opens on Amelia Island as storms roll into the weekend

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Island Brief

Amelia Island • Nassau County • First Coast

Happy Friday, Nassau County! July goes out tonight and August walks in tomorrow, which around here means the last real stretch of summer before the buses start rolling again on the 10th. The good news is that the worst of the heat has backed off a few degrees. The catch is that the sky is going to open up most afternoons this weekend. Do your outdoor hours before lunch, keep something indoors in your back pocket for two o'clock, and read on.

Fernandina ⛈️ 89°/76° Yulee ⛈️ 90°/75°

Callahan ⛈️ 90°/74° Hilliard ⛈️ 90°/74°

🎉	This Weekend

Jul 31

"Annie" opens at Amelia Musical Playhouse 1955 Island Walkway • Tonight at 7:30, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:30 • $25 adults, $15 students; the run continues through Aug. 16 and the closing matinee is already sold out

Aug 1

Fernandina Beach Farmers Market N. 7th Street, downtown • 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. • Rain or shine, and the storms are not due until long after it packs up

Aug 1

Summer of Stories finale party Story & Song, 1430 Park Ave. • 10:30 a.m. • Free, no RSVP; Ms. Dearsha closes out the summer reading program with a prize party and a read-aloud of "All The Ice Cream in the Land"

Aug 1

Wildlight Market Place 123 Tinker Street, Wildlight • 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. • The mainland market runs first and third Saturdays, so this is one of its weekends

Aug 2

Acoustic guitar jam Story & Song courtyard, 1430 Park Ave. • Noon to 2 p.m. • Free; bring a guitar and a few songs, beginners welcome, and the courtyard is a decent place to be if the sky turns

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Try This

Everybody who lives here has been to Fort Clinch, and almost nobody goes as often as they mean to. This is the weekend to fix that. Get there not long after the gate opens, take the drive under the live oaks slowly, and you will have the brick, the ramparts and the north-end beach mostly to yourself before the afternoon storms roll in. The first weekend of the month is also when reenactors typically garrison the fort as 1864 Union soldiers, cooking and drilling in the casemates, so it is worth a quick call ahead to see what is on. And if you have never walked out to the end of the fishing pier and looked back at the island from the water side, do that part too.

📍 2601 Atlantic Ave. • Park open 8 a.m. to sundown, the fort 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. • $6 per vehicle for two to eight people, $2 to walk or bike in, plus $2.50 per person to tour the fort • (904) 277-7274

📰	In Case You Missed It

Nassau County middle and high schoolers who want to ride an e-bike or e-scooter onto campus have to be certified first. Superintendent Dr. Kathy Burns said this week that students have to complete an application, take a safety course and be certified before they get authorization. The courses are available now, and with the first day of school on Aug. 10, this is a next-week errand rather than a next-month one. It lands a few weeks after the city finished writing its own e-bike rules, so the island now has speed limits on the street and a permission slip at the bike rack.

Read More → News4Jax

The Observer hosted its City Commission Seat 4 candidates forum at City Hall on Wednesday night, and the video went up Thursday. Scott Inglis, Len Kreger and Staci McMonagle took questions on what is actually in front of the city right now, which means the budget, the waterfront and the parking question sharing their ballot. It is the cheapest hour of homework available before early voting opens Thursday. We take no side in any race. We just think it is worth hearing all three in their own words.

Read More → Fernandina Observer

Roseate spoonbills have returned in force, and Pat Foster-Turley found them thick along Heritage River Road off Heckscher Drive, just past Sisters Creek. They are the ones people mistake for flamingos at a distance, and late summer is when they turn up in numbers on this stretch of the First Coast. Her column is a good reminder that some of the best things to look at around here cost nothing and ask only that you slow the car down.

Read More → Fernandina Observer

📌	Briefly Noted

School starts a week from Monday, which makes this one of the last unclaimed weekends of the summer. What is the one thing your household still has to squeeze in before the alarm clocks come back? A last late night at the beach, a particular boat ride, one more scoop from one specific counter. Hit reply and let us know. We read every response.

Fort Clinch became one of Florida's first state parks in 1935, back when the fort itself was abandoned and half buried in sand. Which Depression-era work program dug it out and built the park roads and campground you still drive and sleep on today?

Answer: The Civilian Conservation Corps. CCC Company 1420 arrived in 1936, cleared the sand and debris out of the fort and built the roads, the campground and the museum. The park opened to the public in 1938.

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