Blissful beaches

Moving on from the old time architecture of St Augustines we drive clear across the state to the West coast to start exploring some of the famous Florida beaches for some sand and sun!!

Close to Clearwater, strung long a thin strip of land in the Gulf of Mexico you will find some of the most incredible stretches of sand imaginable!

We cross the Dunedin Causeway and head right to the very end of the peninsula to check out Honeymoon beach – a vast stretch of sand that is so fine it feels like walking on flour!

One of Florida’s best-loved state parks, Honeymoon Island has more than four miles of beach to explore.

The sand is so incredibly white that you almost get blinded if you stare too long at it!

Look at us pair of gurning goons! Still happy after all these years 🙂

The eerie blanched remains of storm battered trees poke up through the brilliant white sands.

Cheesy grins all round as this is just such a beautiful place and it doesn’t take much to get away from the crowds either.

The tiny imp does his jump for joy as he is solar powered and is reenergised by the sunshine that is finally seeing Florida live up to its reputation as the Sunshine State!

After enjoying getting wind whipped and salt baked we head back to our motel for the night via a quick pit stop at St Pete beach.

Named as Tripadvisor’s No. 1 beach in the U.S. in 2021, this is another endless wing of white sands, this time backed by hotels and a smattering of high rises.

The sun sets quickly in Florida in November, so we do not have long before the sky starts to turn to its evening glory.

I love these mackerel cloud formations that only serve to accentuate the blueness of the huge skies.

St Augustines

Our home for the night is the oldest city in Florida, in fact in the USA – St Augustines.

We’re stopping in the delightful Marion Motor Lodge motel just minutes away from the historic heart of the city.

St. Augustine was founded in 1565, by Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Florida’s first governor.

It is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in what is now the contiguous United States.

Here’s the ‘authentically recreated’ historical district.

Most of which has either been heavily restored or moved from other places.

Proving yet again that Florida feels like a stage set rather than a real place!

Saint George Street is where you will find the majority of the bars, shops and eateries. Each with their own ‘olde worlde’ charm.

Even though it’s not entirely authentic, it still is very pretty and worth a wander around.

Above is the oldest wooden school house in the USA. This original building is more than 200 years old and made of red cedar and cypress,

Beautiful Flagler College is a private liberal arts college founded in 1968.

The pretty campus comprises 19 acres, the centerpiece of which is the Ponce de León Hotel, built in 1888 as a luxury hotel.

You can take a tour and discover windows made of Tiffany glass, hand-laid tiles, carved wood and more.

There’s plenty more architectural delights to see in St Augustines which makes it markedly different to the majority of Florida’s rather homogeneous towns.

A fun thing to do is the self service booze at Auggies Draft room. Only buy what you try!!

Daytona Beach

Rev heads and speed freaks will all be very aware of the next pitstop on our Florida tour.

We’re driving up the east coast and enroute we’re stopping at Daytona Beach.

Daytona beach has an impeccable racing pedigree and is home to one of the most famous tracks in the world.

It also attracts motorbikers, and their inevitable rivalries, in vast numbers too

Sadly the unseasonably grey weather we’re having makes it a bit more Skeggy beach than the racing hotspot that it’s world renowned for!

Below is the actual beach where NASCAR was born.

Starting way back in 1936 the first beach race was held and, apart from World War two, they continued until the 1950s when officials created an official stock car league- NASCAR, to please the increasing number of spectators.

A new speedway was built and the last beach race was hosted in 1958.

Here the husband is clearly regretting shaving off his bushy beard, he coulda been a contender!!

My tiny beach boy and some of the tacky merchandise and dodgy political decisions that America is so fond of making!

Without the beach racing and beating sun, Daytona Beach felt a little like just another soulless, run down East coast UK seaside resort out of season.

So another one off the list, but pretty underwhelming tbh!!

Surf and sand

Scheduling failed on this post for some reason! So it is out of order (annoying!)

After visiting some of Cocoa beach we spot this blue and yellow monstrosity and naturally have to pull in for a closer look.

This is Ron Jon’s Surf Shack – the largest surf shop in the world!

Clocking in at 52,000 square feet, this surfing mecca has everything you could ever want, or need, to practice the noble art of riding the waves.

As I have absolutely no ability in this area I bought a bumper sticker!

The sun is starting to set so we head to Westgate Cocoa Beach Pier for some final beach snaps.

The famous Rikki Tikki Tavern can be found at the end of this pier, but the rough seas meant it was closed when we visited.

We’ve already reached the end of another Florida day – the short days mean we have to pack lots in but with a limited amount of day light.

Cocoa village

Sporting a very cute downtown, artsy Cocoa village has a very different feel to many of the anonymous town and strip malls we have seen so far.

It feels very much like a perfectly curated ideal of a small town, boho American town that you’d see on a TV show like Ghost Whisperer or Schitts Creek.

The artsy vibe is continued with lots of vivid murals covering the downtown walls. From tropical flowers to nods to the maritime lifestyle.

They celebrate their proximity to the NASA base here too.

Founded in 1885, the S.F. Travis Company is the oldest continuously operating business in the city of Cocoa and one of the oldest hardware stores in Florida.

It looks straight out of a scene from Red Dead Redemption! We kept expecting a posse to saunter up on horse back at any time.

Colourful murals adorn the walls of this gallery so the photo prop is wheeled out to do his thing!

Obviously I am an overgrown child so delight in this particular photo opportunity.

Then we just have time to grab a 50th birthday pizza for this gorgeous human being before heading to the wind whipped beach to get salty.

We take a brief pitstop at Cocoa beach with its colourful Coconuts on the Beach tikki bar, with just a little splash of cultural appropriation.

Then it’s on to possibly the biggest surf shop in the world! Ron Jon’s Surf Shack!!

The Orlando wetlands

In a complete contrast to the incredible man made achievements of the Kennedy Space Centre and NASA base, to the stunning natural environs of Florida.

Today’s explorations take us to the Orlando Wetland national park.

Amazingly for Florida, it is free to visit – and to park!

With wide expanses of water and sky, and the evocative Spanish moss dropping from every tree, it is an oasis of wildlife.

The wetlands are a bird spotters paradise with all manner of feathered finds.

Ranging from huge prehistoric herons to massive birds of prey, everywhere you look there’s a bird!!

Another one to tick off our bucket list, as day two of our trip and we have spotted the native Florida gator in its natural habitat!

This sinister, yet fairly small example, was just sunning himself at the side of the path as we walked by.

A fantastic start to exploring the natural, wilder side of Florida that we would experience throughout the trip, and which personally was one of the highlights of our state tour.

Nasa and space stuff

The day has dawned rather grey for Florida, but still, we’re on our way to do bucket list stuff!!

And today’s is an exciting one for the husband, space nerd that he is, as we’re visiting the Kennedy Space Centre!!

Home to a huge visitor’s centre where you can get close to a huge array of space related stuff.

Plus it’s also still a working NASA base too.

Below is one of the worlds most iconic time pieces. NASA’s launch clock for years ticked down the hours, minutes and seconds remaining to the next launch.

It stood for more than four decades outside the press centre and now sits at the visitor centre’s entrance.

Below is the Rocket Garden. It is home to real rockets including those that launched NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs into space.

Delving further into deep space exploration we’re heading to see some mega structures.

The imposing entrance to the Atlantis space shuttle is a full-scale space shuttle stack of two solid rocket boosters and orange external tank.

Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter whose maiden voyage was October 3, 1985.

By the end of its final mission, Atlantis  had orbited the Earth a total of 4,848 times, traveling nearly 126,000,000 miles!

Atlantis is displayed with its payload bay doors opened and mounted at an angle to give the appearance of being in orbit around the Earth.

You can get a little taste of space life with an out of this world toilet, the vehicle that took astronauts to their rockets and a mock up of the inside of a space shuttle.

Then we’re taking a bus trip to the actual working section of NASA and we sail past the biggest set of doors in the entire world!!

This is the Vehicle Assembly Building where the rockets are wheeled out and ready to take to their launch pads.

Each of the four doors is 456 feet (139 metres) high!!

Below is the actual console that was used during the first crewed NASA mission to orbit the Moon in 1968 on the Saturn V rocket.

An interactive exhibition takes you through the launch in real time as the iconic NASA clock counts down the minutes till takeoff.

Then we get to see one of the actual real Saturn V rockets, the type of rocket that launched humans to the Moon.

The scale of it has to be seen to be believed, it just goes on and on!!

Below is an reconstruction of the lunar landing, and I get to TOUCH MOON ROCK!!

Below we get to walk across part of the actual gantry that the moon mission astronauts crossed to board their rocket.

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins walked across this red grate swing arm to begin the first moon landing mission over 50 years ago.

And here is a statue to commemorate the incredible achievements of those three men.

In the distance (if you squint) you can see the actual launch pads where iconic missions, including the Apollo 11 moon landing, blazed a trail into outer space.

It was a fantastic day all in all, and one that left me surprisingly emotional.

There’s something about being up close to these huge machines, that have broken free of our atmosphere, and hurtled through the darkness of space itself, that really makes you feel small.

Buckle up, it’s roadtripping time

It’s touchdown time for our second trip ever to the good old USA.

This time it’s a fortnights fly drive around the sunshine state of Florida.

Landing in the smaller, less hectic Orlando Melbourne airport our first stop is to pick up our trusted steed for the next 14 days.

We opt for an American brand with a Chevrolet Malibu.

Then it’s our first taste of cruising the Florida highways.

In November it’s short days and night falls very quickly so there’s not much time for more than a quick pitstop to a nearby beach.

It’s a breezy start to our trip and little did we know that the weather would take a dire nosedive very quickly!

But for now we’re enjoying our first Floridian sunset!!

Then we’re checking into the wonderful Hyatt Place Melbourne Airport.

A perfect place to start our epic trek around the state!!

Fantastic Florida!

So the hubby is 50 and we’d been planning a special break since March this year. Which up until four days before we we due to fly was going to be Egypt complete with pyramids, Nile cruise and all manner of ancient wonders.

However, sadly due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the region, we took the difficult decision to change our plans – and what a complete 360 it was!

So instead of ancient culture, deserts and mummies, we headed to brash, bold and bonkers Florida instead.

So come with us as we take a 14 day fly drive whirlwind tour around the sunshine state!!

Flying into Orlando Melbourne airport we would head up the East coast to the Kennedy Space Centre to geek out on all things rocket and space related.

Then we took in the sights of the oldest city in the state – St Augustines, via the racing hotspot of Daytona Beach.

Then we crossed the state to the West Coast to explore the beautiful beaches and sea salt washed shores of Anne Marie Island, Sarasota, Fort Myers and other stunning spots.

After a healthy dose of vitamin sea we washed up in Everglade City for a tour of the spectacular Everglades before spending time exploring the Florida Keys.

We rounded it all off with four days in the neon chic metropolis of Miami.

So let’s buckle up for a wild ride!

Beach day

Final looks at our trip around Thassos and it’s all about the beaches including Glyfoneri.

My face may not full convey the delight I am experiencing tbf . . .

Then onto Potos for a final snorkle and swimming session for the water baby.

Off to check out some fishys! My all action hero 🙂

And just like that, another Greek island is in the bag and we are onto the next adventure, which turns out to be a complete U turn on what we had originally planned!