After retrieving my car, I drove across the Bridge of Lions onto Anastasia Island. The next half hour or so didn’t go as planned. I found the St. Augustine Lighthouse, but I didn’t want to pay to get inside because I didn’t have time, or didn’t think I did anyway. I tried to get a photo with the chair from outside the fence, but it didn’t work. My plan was to drive south along Florida A1A, stopping at a beach for a short time, then heading over to I-95 and heading to Orlando.
But I blindly relied on my GPS and soon found myself cruising along Highway 1, several miles inland from the shore. I didn’t want to leave without even a glance at the ocean, so I took the next left and found A1A again in Crescent Beach. A little while later, I found a parking lot in Fort Matanzas National Monument. I strode down the boardwalk across the dunes and finally saw the ocean. A quick walk across the sand, three minutes to pick up a few shells and take a few photos and it was time to go. I don’t think I was on the beach for five minutes.
Only later, when I got home, did I realize that if I hadn’t done all that backtracking, I probably would have been able to go up in the lighthouse and seen the beach that was right up the road. That’s what happens when you try to do to much in too short a time. For the record, as I resumed my ride south, I looked back over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of Fort Matanzas. Of course, there wasn’t time to take the ferry across the river to see it well.
