Monday-Day 2After a restful night we checked out of the hotel at about 10 AM and were back in our van due Northeast. We planned on stopping at Jerusalem Pizza in Ormond Beach, FL (which is just a bit north of Daytona Beach), picking up lunch for later in the day, and heading over to our first stop-Fort Matanzas. Ft. Matanzas was built back in the 1500’s and is located on an island out in middle of the ocean. The National Park Service provides a free ferry service to take visitors back and forth and the entire tour is free.
When we left Orlando in the morning the sun was shining bright and it was a beautiful day-but being in Florida-which all changed pretty quickly and by the time we got to Ormond Beach the sky was black and we were in the middle of a serious downpour! I decided to call the office at Ft. Matanzas to see if they were still running the ferry service and behold they had cancelled it for the rest of the day

. With that out, we decided to pick up our lunch and then decide what to do from there. I had previously called in our order for a small pie, a fries and lasagna so that I would not have to waste time waiting for the food. I came into the Pizza shop (which is located in their grocery store) and was greeted by an authentic Italian pizza maker, complete with Italian accent and all (he got seriously insulted when I asked for ketchup on the way out and I had to promise it was only for the fries and not the pizza and still beg for forgiveness before he reluctantly handed me our food

!). He told me that he was out of Lasagna noodles so he prepared us manicotti instead. The pizza was possibly from the most authentic and delicious pizza we have ever had and the manicotti was seriously amazing!!
Amazing authentic pizza

CLOSED!!

We gave one more shot at Ft, Matanzas and called them again (even though the weather was even worse now) to see if any of the later crossings were rescheduled but alas they were not. So, we decided to move onto our next stop which was visiting the city of St. Augustine-officially one of the oldest cities in the US. When we arrived it was still drizzling outside but we had ponchos and a rain cover for our stroller so we parked on the street and headed out. Shortly after the weather actually turned nice and we were left with a nice warm afternoon and sunny skies. There are many things to do in the city of St Augustine but we stuck to the main tourist drag where there are lots of quirky shops, cafes, and a few attractions. Among them was the oldest wooden schoolhouse (still intact) in the USA which we checked out for a few dollars. At the end of the main road right on the water is a huge fort known as Castillo De San Marcos built in the 1500’s which we visited and was pretty interesting. There are stairs so you can climb to the top of the fort walls where the old cannons are and the views from up there were pretty amazing. (No clue, though, why every time we took a pic up there using our rebel ts3 it came out dark-paging SF!!!!

).
Braving the rain in St Augustine

Oldest wooden schoolhouse in US



Bathroom (aka-meditation room)

View from the top of the fort


We stayed there until late afternoon and then headed on to Jacksonville, FL. We got into Jacksonville a bit late so we missed out on all the attractions there but we made a quick stop at the Winn Dixie there which has a huge kosher section. We stocked up on some deli, bread, nosh, etc. for that night’s dinner and back to the car it was!
We continued north and crossed into Georgia at about sunset time and an hour later we arrived at hour second night’s stop-Jekyll Island, Georgia. Jekyll Island is a huge strip of land that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean and is accessible by a huge bridge. The whole area is considered a state park and you need to pay a toll before entering, but it was not much IIRC. For the second night, again focusing on new hotels, we chose the Holiday Inn Resort Jekyll Island which had just opened 3 weeks before we got there using an IHG anniversary free night. The place was BRAND NEW and amazing

!! The resort was right on the beach and all the rooms overlook the water with balconies. Funny to say this about a HI, but I had one of the best hotel sleeps I have ever had there.
The obligatory road trip pic

Toll at entrance to Jekyll Island

Holiday Inn Resort Jekyll Island

View from room

(Notice how new the palm trees are)
