We slept in and had another leisurely morning. Our plan was to leave at 10:00 for the 2 hour ride to St. Augustine where we could check in at our campground anytime after noon. It was a STEAMY day even though the thermometer read 88 degrees. The skies were sunny with a light wind. We crossed over the St. Mary’s River which separates GA and FL near Jacksonville and stopped for some Florida orange juice at the Welcome Center.
From there, we continued south towards Jacksonville, but first we had to cross this beautiful bridge over the St. John’s River which literally cuts Jacksonville in half.
This bridge is gorgeous and is probably as tall as the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay.
After Jacksonville, we cut over to Highway A1A that runs down the coast. The northern part of A1A runs along the ocean, but the area is forested with young live oaks and scrub brush. It’s very woodsy.
Some of the area is part of the Guana-Totomato-Matanzas Reserve where there are beach accesses.
We came upon an area that had been under a “controlled burn” to get rid of the dead underbrush or a regular old forest fire.
Everything was blackened and charred.
We saw this castle structure in the distance but didn’t have a chance to check out what it really was.
Along our drive we got glimpses of the ocean over the sand dunes or between the houses. We arrived at 12:12 and checked in at the North Beach Camp Resort.
Our site is nicely wooded with shade and trees for Auggie to search for geckos.
We are very close to the pool and bathrooms. The beach is just across the street.
This tunnel of trees led us to our site.
We were set up in no time and relaxing in the AC. By now the temp was 91 and climbing. Around 3:30 we drove over to Aunt Kate’s Restaurant on the opposite end of the campground where they had “happy hour” from 3-7.
We sat on the outside deck where we had a great view of the ICW.
There were fishermen on the pier, jet-skiers running up and down the river, and even a sportfish boat cruising towards St. Augustine.
There was an interesting boathouse next door that serves as a bait and tackle store. Check out the decorations and signs hanging there.
Bob had calamari and I had clam strips with fries. I asked if I could try a sample of their cheese grits just to see what it was like. I had heard good things about it. The waiter brought out a sample for us to try and it was delicious…..it had the consistency of Cream of Wheat with cheese. Very tasty!
The skies across the river were dark and earlier we had heard thunder coming from that direction. The storms were staying inland so we wouldn’t get any rain tonight.
It remained steamy until the sun started going down. Then Auggie and I took a walk across the street to check out the beach.
On the way back, we stopped to get a good look at the pool here at the camground.
We relaxed a little with some TV and crashed early. Tomorrow we would check out Vilano Beach at the St. Augustine Inlet where we’ve seen many people on the beach with their cars in all our travels past this area. We would get to see it for ourselves…up close and personal.
