Biking & Mishaps SHATTERED Phone // Amelia Island, FL

Aug 3, 2019 | Adventure, Travel, Vlog

Florida is a subtropical wonderland of adventures, full of beautiful places to visit. One such place to explore lies only a stone’s throw south of the Florida-Georgia border on the east coast near Fernandina Beach.

It’s called Amelia Island.

Check out our very first Vlog about it and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. It helps us a ton!

Amelia Island has a lot going for it with a beautiful coastline, sandy beaches, and is renowned for its signature activity of horseback riding on the beach. While we’ve visited twice, we have yet to try it. On our first trip many years ago, we booked a ride but it got cancelled due to pouring rain. We considered it on this trip and weighed our options, but for the price we happily chose a hotel upgrade with an ocean view instead. Hmm.. A choice between one hour of horseback riding on the beach versus three days of gorgeous views? That was a no brainer for us, but for you it all depends on your budget and desires.

Another great activity while in Amelia Island is exploring the area by bicycle. Not only does Florida boast endless coastlines north to south, but there are also bike trails scattered all over the state. On our recent trip to Amelia Island, we thoroughly enjoyed many of the connecting trails in the area.

And this is where our mishaps began, before we even pulled out of our driveway. ?

Mishaps On Our Journey

So we excitedly pack for our adventure the morning we leave and start hitting speed bumps right away.

Mishap #1: A Shattered Smartphone

We get the car all packed up, I set up the tripod with my phone in the driveway to get a time lapse of putting the bikes on the car and as I’m lifting the bikes, behind me I hear the bone-chilling sound of glass smashing on the concrete. My phone had slipped out of the cheap holder, dramatically flipped through the air, and finally, pancakes hard face-down on the concrete below. I bought my beautiful Samsung Galaxy S8 phone only six months before (of course with no insurance). Because insurance is a waste of money right? We plan on getting about three years of use out of our phones.

Ugh!

My heart sinks as I bend over, pick the phone up, and see the shattered glass in the “ballistic” grade case that I had bought to protect it. Uh huh. The depressing thought makes me sick knowing that the screen will cost at least $100 to fix. In reality, it was more than $220! The funny part is you can actually see the split-second that the phone starts slipping out of the holder in the time lapse. Check it out in the video!

So my advice is if you have the option of buying a phone tripod holder that looks like this:

Do yourself a favor. DON’T.

After licking my wounds from the phone fiasco, there was nothing else I could do, so I’d just have to live with my cracked screen for a while. On the positive side, the camera still worked so I went ahead filming and shooting for the rest of the trip.

(More on that later, as it was worse than I thought)

Mishap #2: Bike Falling On the Highway

Time to hit the highway! We’re now on vacation and finally left the house. It can’t get any worse than this! Just as our spirits start to lift, I look in the rear-view mirror and see the straps on the rear bike flying free and the bike dangling about the drag on the ground! I quickly pull over to the emergency lane and readjust it, also skillfully tearing a hole in Sarah’s bike seat. Face palm.

Okay. Should we even go on this trip?

St. Augustine brings much-needed food at the Manatee Cafe. One trick we like to do on trips to save time and money is order food ahead and then eat in the car or a nice park. Dining at a restaurant is nice, but if the situation calls for it, take out can be pretty amazing. If you’re passing through St. Augustine, try some of the food at Manatee Cafe! Our favorites are the Veggie Burger and the Cajun Tofu Pita. Particularly, the hash browns and their homemade hot sauce is heavenly, but they also have a ton of other breakfast-style dishes.

As we cross over bridges and drive through beautiful forests, we’re getting excited about the relaxation to come. We pass by Little Talbot Island bringing up previous memories camping there and also see the port at Jacksonville with all the parked cars of cruisers. The whole drive to Amelia Island along the coast is scenic with a lot of water views and interesting scenes of dilapidated bridges with people fishing. The foliage becomes more manicured and we’ve finally made it to our destination – The Villas Of Amelia Island Plantation by Omni Hotels.

Mishap #3: No Reservation

We go into the office to check in, and surprise! No reservation can be found. We’re a little nervous that this whole trip isn’t going to work out, but the woman behind the desk reassures us. We’re not too surprised by the glitch, since the travel agent who booked it ended up being pretty unreliable. She had booked it for a previous weekend making us look like a no-show to the hotel! Ugh! Fortunately, our new friend behind the desk worked her magic to get us a room.

The massive Villas of Amelia Island Plantation is a network of several condo-style complexes that lie along the coast with ocean views except for a few with tennis courts. Since she was fixing the issue that the travel agent caused she books us into the tennis villas. An ocean view would have been nice.

We walk out to the car a little down but quickly about-face to see if we can get an ocean view instead. She happily punches a few keys on the keyboard and says we could upgrade for $60 per night! We jump at the chance and are on our way. This trip just got better.

Tip: Always ask for an upgrade. It could be free or worth a little extra money.

After a short winding drive through beautiful, lush neighborhoods, we check into our place and are surprised by a gorgeous ocean view with a kitchen! Oh yeah! Let’s get this vacation started. A couple of trips to the car to unpack and we’re done. We grab the bicycles and roll down the sidewalks through beautiful scenery. The breeze feels nice on our faces.

What a great place to ride bicycles!

The whole area is a network of golf courses so the sidewalks crisscross on diagonals and curve over hills designed for golf carts, but makes for an exciting ride on bikes. Many of the trails sport signs that read “Beach Access” meaning they dead-end with great views of the beach.

While we’re exploring, a storm is building overhead with a good chance of rain so we race back to beat the storm. Fortunately, it stays out in the ocean giving us the chance to check out the beach and do a little seashell hunting with the relaxing sound of the ocean in the background. With our first day at Amelia Island almost complete, we wind down to a couple glasses of champagne on our balcony and take in the beautiful view.

All this adventure makes our stomachs growl, but with nothing in the fridge it’s time to go grocery shopping! Sure, we could go out to eat, but we’re on a budget. Our first option on vacation is always to go to the local grocery store for fresh items to last several meals. We try the local market at the Villas which is pretty and has a lot of offer, but at a steep price. We hop in the car and take a quick drive up to Fernandina Beach and in less than ten minutes are at a Harris Teeter grocery store with everything we could have ever hoped for at great prices!

We’re starving at this point so we snack on appetizers while cooking up a quick dinner of Indian with rice accompanied by a rich, chocolatey porter, a sweet cider, and then settle in to watch the series finale of Game of Thrones.

Our first day began with a rocky start, but ended with smiles on our faces from a great day.

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