St. Augustine to Daytona Beach (Halifax) to New Smyrna Beach

Day #479; Loop Miles to Date - 5,318

St Augustine was once again a lot of fun, and this time we enjoyed it with our friends on Corkscrew. There are lots of restaurants and shops, and we availed ourselves of both while there. We also took an afternoon and toured the Castillo de San Marcos...a fort originally built by the Spanish in 1672 to protect St Augustine from the invading British. Over the years this fort was never once breached in battle, although the Spanish, British and the US have all at one time or another had it under their command. It is now a National Monument, and definitely worth a visit if you find yourselves in the area. Lots of history to absorb...you can read about it here.



Included just so some of you can remember what we look like...

From St Augustine we journeyed down the coast to Daytona. We didn't stop here on the way north last spring, so we decided that we wanted to stop here this time around. The marina (Halifax) is HUGE...550 slips, and very well run. We were just adjacent to downtown Daytona (not Daytona Beach) and we found it to be a nice little town with a variety of shops and restaurants. We never made it over to Daytona Beach proper...the wind, some on and off rain, and cooler temps just didn't make this sound all that appealing. But what we did do, was to tour a Chocolate Factory...Angell & Phelps. This is a small chocolatier, but it was fun, friendly, and there were plenty of choices on sweets to eat. Really good stuff...

Part of the production line.

A small sampler that we just had to buy...and it was all good (now all gone)!

Then yesterday, we ventured just a short ways further south to New Smyrna Beach. We were here last spring, and we are enjoying it again. A small, friendly marina, and a couple of restaurants and shops not far away. And had we known what we were going to stumble into yesterday upon arrival, we would have left earlier in the day. We found a large art festival winding down...250 or more vendors from all over the eastern part of the country. It is one of the larger events of the art festival season here in FL, and we just didn't know that it was going to be here. Fortunately, we were able to stroll around for an hour and a half before they shut down, but we easily could have spent all day (and way too much $$) had we known.

All for now...we're off to Titusville tomorrow, and then on to Cocoa thereafter...