It pays to take a walk around your own town. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the activities of our bed and breakfast that we forget to stop and smell the roses. I took a walk around our wonderful town this morning enjoying all of the fresh plantings all along Centre Street, all of the water bowls out in front of the shops for the island's treasured four-legged friends, the locals out having their morning coffee at the cafes or on their own front porches and I got to catch up on some new happenings.

There is a lovely boardwalk going in along the river front at our harbor. It's got nice benches for viewing so that you can watch the shrimp boats and sailboats come and go. We frequently spot otters, dolphins, gators and manatees right at our riverfront, as well. I ran into Captain Ritch on the river while he was working on one of his boats, and he informed me that he's got a new website to feature the many boating options he offers his customers. Here's a link: http://www.captainritch.com .

Speaking of boat tours, our guests have been enjoying some very nice outings this summer getting the history of the area, checking out the wild horses on Cumberland Island, spotting lots and lots of dolphins along the way, and occassionally seeing a submarine from King's Bay. Here's another great option: www.ameliarivercruises.com for a wonderful narrated history of both Amelia Island and Cumberland Island. Around here, all of the kids are back in school, so it's a nice quiet mellow time of year - kind of like "adult swim" time... Come join us; the natives are friendly.

It's Wednesday afternoon and we still have a room available in each of our Classic and Deluxe Romance Package categories for this weekend. It looks like a good pool and beach weekend coming up. Come enjoy our Saturday Farmers Market, take a private carriage tour or a sunset sail. Take advantage of our Amelia Summer Endings Romance Package Sale http://www.fairbankshouse.com/romance.html . Mention that you saw this post on our blog and take 10% off the sale rate for either the Schoolhouse Cottage or the Hideaway this weekend. To receive this rate, you must fill out a reservation request form on our website including credit card information for the deposit. Mention code "blog17" in the Special Needs section.

Goylz, goylz, goylz. For the last three years, Fairbanks House has featured "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Getaways" http://www.fairbankshouse.com/girls.html . This extremely popular package has ratcheted up the laugh factor at our house exponentially. Do not misunderstand; this is not the Girls Gone Wild crowd - it's the Girls Gone Mild version, but we still have lots of fun.

Since the inception of the package, we've noticed that there's lots of competition for certain times of the year. This weekend, we've got three "girls' groups" in-house from all over. If you're planning a girls getaway, and we hope you are, please note that you should plan way ahead if you're planning on coming in March, April, June July, September, October and November. The first weekend in April this year, we had 25 women from five different groups. And three men all named "Tom". Nice guys - they handled it well. Not sure about their wives...

A popular weekend for a Girls Getaway is during our Christmas Tour of Inns http://www.fairbankshouse.com/christmas.html . Rooms are still available, but you should book now for this wonderful event. This year's Tour will be held the second weekend of December.

Believe it or not, it's time to think about Thanksgiving and Christmas. We've got packages for both - where we do all of the work and you sit back and enjoy the holiday. We've only got a few rooms left for Christmas. The house is fully decorated for Christmas by Thanksgiving week, including a tree in every guest room. Here are links to details: http://www.fairbankshouse.com/thanksgiving.html
http://www.fairbankshouse.com/christmaspack.html .

Welcome to the Fairbanks House Blog. We hope to keep you informed of special events, packages and happenings related to Fairbanks House, as well as to entertain and amuse you. Every day we find ourselves wanting to be able to share some wonderful moments that we've experienced through our guests, our staff, our neighbors or our community at large, and we've finally found a way to do it.

You may find photos, current events, announcements, funny things that happened at the inn, or random thoughts. You might even find an occassional recipe - if we ever take the time to measure, or write anything down.

Please check back often; you'll never know what you'll find here. Fairbanks House guests do and say the darndest things......