Amelia Island, Fla. ? Launching our kayaks from the primitive boat ramp on the Fort George River, we saw and heard the fighter jets landing at nearby Naval Air Station Mayport.

We had to wait to paddle out because the narrow ramp was blocked by a john boat with a balky, smoky outboard engine.

Steady auto traffic rumbled by on A-1A. But a 10-minute paddle north on Simpson Creek left greater Jacksonville as far behind as if we had taken off from Mars.

The spartina marsh rimmed with live oaks, palms and pines muted the raucous sounds of the city and recalled the days thousands of years ago when the Timucua Indians plied the quiet waters in their dugout canoes. Ray and Jody Hetchka gave up careers in nursing and public health in Maine nine years ago to make this 46,000-acre preserve the headquarters for Kayak Amelia.

With son, C.J., 21, and daughter Caitie, 18, they operate a retail shop and fleet of 50 touring kayaks for rent and guided tours.

As the only kayak concessionaire in the park complex, Kayak Amelia serves a clientele of mostly beginners. So the Hetchkas schedule their trips with the tides so paddlers don’t feel like they’re struggling against nature.

“We gear it so that when you get to the end, you say, ‘Wow that was fun,'” Ray Hetchka said.

Kayak Amelia’s guided tours are a balanced mixture of basic instruction, sightseeing, environmental and historical education, exercise and fun.

Stopping in a quiet cove off Simpson Creek, Ray pointed out a couple of ospreys and egrets perched in trees on the bank and talked about the Timucua and the European settlers who followed in the 16th century. He said beach walkers still find shell middens where the Indians deposited the remains of the oysters they ate.

As we paddled, I passed a kayaker wielding a spinning rod. Tucked into an opening in the spartina bank, he said he had caught and released six redfish already that morning. So, now I knew what else the Timucua feasted on before European diseases drove them to extinction.

Among our group of 11 was a couple from St. Louis with twin 5-year-olds and an 8-year-old – all girls – divided between two kayaks. While the children didn’t seem all that interested in the local history, they were fascinated by the creatures they encountered.

Stopping for a break on a sandbar to swim and munch Ray’s homemade chocolate-chip cookies, the girls delighted in picking up hermit crabs, examining shells and watching mullet jump on the surface.

In a three-mile paddle to Kayak Amelia’s headquarters, they never whined. They giggled, pointed and urged their mom and dad to paddle faster.

“That was fun!” one of the twins told me as I disembarked.

Which was just what the Hetchkas wanted to hear.