Cocoa to Titusville to New Smyrna Beach to Palm Coast to St Augustine to Ortega River

Day #495; Loop Miles to Date = 5,558

Ok...time to catch us up a bit...it has been a busy week or so.

Once again, Cocoa was a nice stop, but a week here was just about right. We made the decision here that for this year, this was as far south as we were going to go. This will allow us a leisurely pace back up the coast, with intermediate targets of Ortega River, Brunswick, GA, Savannah, and ultimately New Bern, NC for the Spring AGLCA Rendezvous. There will be plenty of stops in between, but these stops we know for certain. So, off we go north...first stop was to Titusville just for a night, and then back to New Smyrna Beach for two. This small town has really grown on us, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time here again.

The beach at New Smyrna Beach is wonderful...a lot like Daytona Beach. Really wide and flat...and like Daytona, there are areas where you can drive your car right down the beach.

And yes...again it was a windy beach day, and a tad chilly.

From New Smyrna Beach, we headed to Palm Coast, a spot that we had not visited on either of our other 2 trips on this stretch of the ICW. We found a nice marina there, and as anticipated this is a very large residential area. Not any downtown per se, but it was obvious that scads of folks vacation and retire here. One really nice feature is a very lengthy walking/biking path that follows the ICW for miles. We pulled our bikes down and spent an afternoon having a ball just wandering down the path. There is a small European Village near the marina that we stopped at for a time...mostly its restaurants and bars, but a couple of very nice shops.

 

Sample shot of the bike path. Although this pic doesn't show it, there were plenty of folks out walking and biking, and just enjoying the day like us.

Next up was St Augustine again...this was our 3rd visit here, another favorite of ours, but only for a night this time.

A couple of you out there know exactly where this is from in St Augustine! This is probably our 3rd trip to this place (Pizza Time...with claim to the 2nd best pizza in the country). And after many tastings we've decided that their Margherita pizza is our favorite. Shout out to our friends on ACT III and Corkscrew for helping us narrow our choices down to this one over time!

And after St Augustine, we made our way back to Ortega River Marina in Jacksonville. We'll be here for a couple of weeks most likely, and then start venturing further north. Here are a few random shots from our trip up the coast this past week or so...

 

This is the FEC Railroad Bridge in downtown Jacksonville. When we left a few weeks ago, it was going to be closed to marine traffic for a week or so, and our heart skipped a beat when we saw it was closed from a distance...even though we had checked online, and received assurances from the marina that it was open for business. Fortunately, as we got closer we realized that it was closed for a train to pass through. A short 15 minutes later, and it opened up with no issues. Phew!



Nothing says "Florida" like a fish on a roof...