What. A. Day.

We left St. Augustine this morning prepared to be rained on.  But it never happened. We had cool, cloudy and breeeeezy weather as we moved 60 miles up the coast.  The ocean was much choppier than we had seen it anywhere else.

We rode along the coast, passed some HUUUUGE houses belonging to the obscenely rich and perhaps famous (or infamous). Wound through neighborhoods of the merely ridiculously rich.  A fascinating conservation/protection area for a totally different type of resident.

But the whales and turtles weren't home, so we left our calling cards and moseyed on down the road.   What all these neighborhoods had in common was that they protected us from crosswinds that were building throughout the morning.  When  we reached the spot  to cross to Amelia Island,   WE GOT TO RIDE THE FERRY!!!!  Not far, but still so fun.

After docking we started to run into stronger headwinds, relieved when we could get off the road and on to sheltered bike paths but pretty much constantly 12-15 mph.  The farther north we moved, the stronger they got. We also encountered a completely different kind of beach, fine white sand and a huge variety of birds.

As we traveled the last 10 miles or so the winds picked up into the 20-25mph range and the riding was slow and painful - no  fun at all.  But........ I'm including a happy picture to end this post.  I finally got a good picture of a manatee mailbox.

On to Georgia tomorrow - and our first border-crossing Margarita party!