Weekend Edition: July 3, 2026

If you have out-of-town family in for the Fourth and want to show them the real Fernandina, this is where you take them. T-Ray's runs out of an old gas station on Eighth Street, and it has been quietly turning out some of the best burgers in Florida for years; USA Today once put it on a list of the 51 best burger joints in the country. Go early Saturday, before the market and the 5K crowd, and get the breakfast: the biscuits and the Station burger are the moves, and the line goes fast even when it looks long. It is cash-friendly, unfussy, and full of locals, which is exactly the point. One heads-up for the holiday: they are open Saturday morning but closed Sundays.

📍 202 S. 8th Street • Mon to Fri 7 AM to 2 PM, Sat 8 AM to 1 PM (breakfast until 10:30), closed Sunday

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The wait is over. After 432 days of driving to Yulee or making do, the rebuilt Publix at Island Walk reopened Thursday morning, and it is not the store islanders remembered. The ground-up rebuild comes in at nearly 59,000 square feet and adds things the old store never had: a Publix Pours bar with beer and wine on tap, a pizza oven, made-to-order burrito bowls, and a much bigger prepared-foods spread. Regulars lined up before the 7 AM opening to see it. With the south-end store already back, the island is finally home to two full-size Publix locations again.

Here is a good-news one to carry into the holiday. At its recent social at the Kraft Athletic Club, the Nassau Sport Fishing Association handed out $22,000 in scholarships to seven graduating seniors from Nassau County high schools. The club has quietly built its scholarship program into a real launchpad for local kids headed off to college, funded by the tournaments and events its members run all year. It is the kind of steady, behind-the-scenes generosity that does not always make the front page, but adds up to a lot for the families on the receiving end.

In her latest Wildways column, naturalist Pat Foster-Turley admits something a lot of us can relate to: she has lived beside a property full of horses in Simmons Cove for more than 20 years and never once talked to the owners. This week she finally did, and the result is a warm little dispatch about the equine neighbors just over the fence and the people who care for them. It is a gentle, unhurried read, exactly the pace a hot holiday weekend calls for, and a nice reminder that some of the best stories on the island are right next door.

Every family has that one thing that makes it the Fourth. So tell us: what absolutely has to be on the grill or the table this Saturday, the dish nobody is allowed to skip? Hit reply and let us know. We read every response.

Here is a fun bit of irony to chew on while the fireworks celebrate independence from the British crown: Amelia Island itself is named after British royalty. Which royal got the island named in her honor?

Answer: Princess Amelia, daughter of King George II. Georgia's founder James Oglethorpe named the island for her in 1735, decades before the American Revolution made her nephew, King George III, rather less popular around here.

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