We woke up at a reasonable time, but enjoyed some computer time until hotel check out at 11am. Heading out, we retread the path to the restaurant from the night before. As we arrived at historic downtown, we started to slowly coast our bike through, but a nearby local with a bike and rolled up sleeping bag on the back warned us that cops would ticket us so we walked it the rest of the way. It was really interesting to see all the old buildings on the street, but the area was also clearly very touristy. We were curious if any of the buildings weren't truly old but instead just recreations. At the end of the street, we caught decent glimpses of the old cathedral and governor's mansion before taking a another bridge back out of town.
The next 10 or so miles on an off and on bike lane passed really quickly without any particularly memorable scenery. We did, however, pass an old man in a gold colored captain's suit, a white captain's hat, and a beat-up car straight from the 80s pulling out of a parking lot in front of us.
A long while after we'd left anything recognizable as city or even suburbs, we stopped at Fort Matanzas National Monument for a quick rest. There was a cute little turtle sun-bathing just outside of his home on the way in. In the park we set up at a picnic table under some tangled looking trees.
The next (flat) 15 or so miles flew by. As we passed Flagler Beach, we knew we had to stop. The area was very reminiscent of our favorite areas along the coast of Maine. The road along the beach had completely unobstructed views and a nice rocky barrier separating the beach from the road. On the side opposite from the beach, the road was sparsely dotted with reasonably sized houses and small businesses. Upon closer examination, we saw the sand had an interesting orange color to it, much coarser than the usual white granular shores. We also realized that the rocky barrier was actually comprised of collections of shells smushed together, held together by limestone (called coquinas). Camille claims this is her favorite beach ever.
We went the rest of the way to the campsite at a more reasonable pace and ended up taking a different route from both East Coast Greenway and Adventure Cycling routes, but it was beautiful none the less. It definitely had more of a swampy, jungly feel to it. Along the way to the campground, we made a quick detour for some groceries at Publix and arrived at the campground just before dusk. We set up camp, ate dinner, and turned in just after a nice sunset view over the water.
