Our adventures in Amelia Island continued the next day! If you missed the first day, check it out here. Our adventure continues at Amelia Island below!
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Sometimes in the morning we leave the blinds open so we can wake up to the sunrise instead of an alarm. As the first rays of the sun streamed through, Sarah nudged me awake so I quickly hopped out of bed to take in the scene. I had to get a few colorful shots with the camera.
We started with a hearty breakfast of coffee and tea, toast with almond butter, salmon, and delicious fruit to keep us going strong. Another day of biking and exploring was on our agenda!
Mishap #4: Flat Tire
We head out to unlock our bikes for another day on the trails, only to discover one of Sarah’s tires is totally flat. Fortunately I carry a spare inner tube, but the tools I have will take forever to fix the flat.
We remembered passing a cute bike shop in the middle of town called Amelia’s Wheels that rents bikes and could maybe fix it for a small fee. We give them a call and they said they’d change out the inner tube for $10! So, we could have them do it cheap, quick, and be back on the trail in no time? Deal!
TIP: Sometimes paying someone else to do a job is better than doing it yourself. An expert with the right tools can save you precious time and happiness.
Driving the bike to the shop and waiting around for it to be changed was actually a fun adventure in itself! I could’ve fixed it, but would have wasted precious time and been miserable. Time is precious, especially on vacation.
Along with horseback riding, there are other things to do in Amelia Island like renting bicycles and even segway tours. Given the amazing trails, you’ll have a great time all over the area. Amelia’s Wheels is a great place if you’re near there.
Mishap #5: My phone is breaking down with our memories inside!
I continue snapping photos and shooting video – and then it happens. Not only was my phone screen cracked into spiderwebs, but the bottom half suddenly flickers bright white!
It’s starting to break down, with all of my photos and videos on it. Omg! Our first adventure vlog was in jeopardy! We finish enjoying our time down by the beach and race up to the room to start transferring everything from my phone to the computer while Sarah cooked a delicious Asian stir fry.
Close call and crisis averted! I successfully transferred all the files.
End of mishaps, thankfully. Yes there were a handful of hiccups, but we didn’t let them stop us from enjoying our time. Sometimes you just have to stay positive, figure it out, and move on. All in all the rest of the trip was awesome!
Resort Life
It’s one thing to stay at a single resort, but having a complex of resorts is a level up. Multiple pools connected by bike trails and a never ending ocean to enjoy is quite the life! Having bicycles on this vacation allowed us to explore the entire area.
We’d walk down to our pool and enjoy for a bit, go float in the warm water of the ocean, and then hop on our bikes to find another place with a view. The main resort had multiple levels of pools to enjoy along with live music and a bar.
Getting back to our complex, on our way to the ocean we see multiple floats and noodles sitting on a bench with a sign saying “FREE – Please enjoy. Would not fit on plane.”
The universe must love us. Sarah is overjoyed since back at the grocery store she had wished for a float just like the one right in front of us. She takes her winnings, I grab a noodle, and we head down to the beach to enjoy the warm water.
Wildlife in Amelia Island is Abundant
In our short time in Amelia Island, we watched a cute pair of cardinals chasing each other in the bushes every day, saw several gopher tortoises and rabbits munching on grass, watched a sunbathing snake, cringed at ground wasps making their home in pavers on the pool deck, marveled at flocks of pelicans skimming above the water, and smiled seeing pods of dolphins playing in the ocean.
The tortoises made us nervous since they kept finding their way into the pool area. As gopher tortoises can’t swim, they could drown in the pool so we kept a close watch over them.
Oh, The Beautiful Food
No vacation is complete without delicious and tasty food to make us feel good. Like I mentioned in the previous post, we started off our trip in St. Augustine at Manatee Cafe for takeout to keep our food budget low.
In Fernandina at Harris Teeter grocery we filled our shopping cart with all kinds of deliciousness from hummus, bread, olives, ready-made Indian, smoked salmon, and a bunch of fresh produce along with jasmine rice for a good stir fry. I also couldn’t pass up a mix-and-match assortment of craft beer. A good chocolatey porter is hard to resist.
Saying Goodbye, but Treats in Jacksonville!
The last morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the ocean from our balcony. We had to check out by 11am so we weren’t going to be able to enjoy the pool.
At the end of hotel stays, we always wish we had more time so we use a travel tip that we do every time we stay anywhere.
TIP: Always ask if you can extend your room to a later time.
We ring the front desk clerk, and they happily extended our checkout time by an hour! Sometimes it works out to several hours. This meant we had plenty of time to pack and enjoy the pool one last time before heading out.
After a relaxing trip to the pool, time got away from us a bit so we rushed back and made it out just in time. We showered, loaded the bikes, packed the car and headed back home.
On the way home, we passed through Jacksonville and checked out the insanely good Sweet Theory bakery. They specialize in vegan donuts, ice cream, cupcakes, and other gluten free baked goods. Since we finally caught them when they were open, we made it a point to get an assortment of sweet treats from coconut glazed donut, maple bacon donut, brownie donut, a luscious cinnamon roll, and raspberry chocolate chip muffins. These are insanely good donuts!
We also visited one of our favorite places, Foo Dog Curry Traders. They specialize in vegan and non-vegan style dishes with genres from around the world as displayed by their decor. We can’t resist their jackfruit nuggets and made an order for each of us.
We never pass up opportunities to try dishes made from jackfruit. If you’ve never seen a jackfruit in real life, you could probably think of a dinosaur egg and have a good idea of what it looks like. Weighing in at 30-50 pounds on average, these tree-fruits are the largest in the world and can weigh up to 100 pounds each! Check out our video above for a closer look at this incredible fruit.
And that was our trip! It’s amazing the places you can find and the fun you can have not too far from home. If we could have more weekends like this, we’d smile just a bit more. Simple, fun, and adventurous. More Saturdays please.
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