The 'Suns' Road Trip 2022 - 5 : Melbourne, Vero Beach & Port Saint Lucie

[anji]

Florida 2022 – The ‘Suns’ Road Trip – 5 : Melbourne, Vero Beach & Port Saint Lucie

Time to move on, but first another visit to the lake with our pastries and coffee – no Sandhill Crane today but plenty of ducks.

We checked out and headed off up the 192 again, going east. We’d not been this way and down the east coast before, so new territory. The road was fairly busy with it being Presidents Day weekend, a Sunday and something big going on at Daytona.

First stop was Melbourne and a visit to the birthplace of Jim Morrison of the Doors. They were obviously well used to visitors as his picture was in the windows!

From here we went over the bridge to the Atlantic coat and joined the 1A to travel south. We had a look at the beach at Melbourne – it was very windy so we didn’t stay too long. I was so impressed by the beach cleaning signs – either take a basked to fill or take a carrier bag and fill it with trash off the beach. All our holiday there was so very little of this on the beaches, anywhere else for that matter. I wish we would do the same here!

There was a big Publix nearby and we called in for supplies. Any overseas supermarket is an absolute joy to me and I could spend hours in there. It always astounds me how much bigger and nicer looking everyone else’s fruit and vegetables are than in the UK!

We bought some filled rolls for a picnic lunch, crisps, Will’s favourite watermelon chewing gum, Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups for DD’s boyfriend, some chocolate, water and sodas. One of the bags of snacks was Lay’s Layers in 3 Cheese variety. These were a bit like a big Quaver but stronger and absolutely gorgeous. They were new and we never found them anywhere else all holiday ☹ If Walker’s start doing them here I will be very happy!

We drove on a bit and found Juan Ponce de Leon Landing – carpark, picnic area and beach – also a statue of said Juan, who was the first European to set foot in Florida. We’ve seen the bridge named after him at St Augustine too. We decided to picnic at the tables rather than on the beach as it was still windy – we didn’t want added sand to eat.

We were joined after a while by a couple from St Louis and had a good chat with them. They were amazed how much of America we’d seen and how many visits! They were concerned about the Queen catching Coronavirus. I bad-joked that she got it off Prince Charles and he was waiting his chance at the crown. She was absolutely horrified and didn’t understand at all! We walked off some of our lunch on the beach before heading on again.

Next stop was Vero Beach. I’d seen this place mentioned so many times on The Dibb, so had to see it for myself. It was very busy, so I asked the Parking Angel to find us a space and someone backed out right in front of us. It works – try it! Kilwin’s was beckoning – I love a Kilwin’s. Sea Salt Caramel with chocolate pieces for me and Vanilla for Will. We sat outside at the tables in the shade to try to stop them melting. Yummy!

We had a good walk around and looked at the Art Sale which was going on at Humiston Beach Park. I’ve no idea if some of the people sold anything as their work was dreadful – but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so who knows! Other works were lovely but very expensive.

Back over the causeway at the end of the 1A and onto Route 1. On this road was the Manatee Observation & Education Center at Fort Pierce and also our hotel. The Manatee place was a lovely little dock and small aquarium ($2 entry!) with gift shop but the manatees had headed out to sea as the water was warm enough, so no luck there. Lots of Gar fish, but no manatees.

We finally arrived at the Holiday Inn at Port Saint Lucie and checked in. Staff couldn’t have been more helpful and we had a lovely room with the usual very high bed – always raises a laugh for shorty me getting onto it! We were staying here 2 nights. This was our only chain (other than Gatwick) and we had breakfast included.

We ate that night at Denny’s nearby. This involved crossing the Route 1 road, which was a 6-lane dual carriageway at this point, but the push buttons saw us across safely.

We like to go to a Denny’s and an IHop while we’re away! Over 55’s Salmon for me (got to take advantage!) and Chicken Fried Chicken for Will, along with 2 Bud Lights. For some reason this seemed to be a rare thing to order – we could hear them discussing which glasses to give us, or whether to at all. Eventually we were given two too-small glasses but really didn’t mind as would have been happy with the bottles! They were also advertising $4 cocktails with no other explanation – Will asked for a Vodka and orange (they’d never heard of a Harvey Wallbanger) and was brought a miniature bottle of vodka and a glass of orange – DIY cocktails! We had a good time there and total was $37 before tip, so great value too.

We braved the road again, which was a lot quieter now, and went back to the hotel. We watched tv and had a game of Crib – I won! We slept really well on the big bed with no traffic noise whatsoever.

Tomorrow – space rocket launch, Port Saint Lucie and cinema

Index - https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...2#post15302382

[mick]

A good day looking at various places

Joan

[Rob & Jan]

Loving your trip reports.

[Melbatb]

Got to love a Denny’s! And a foreign supermarket! You certainly packed a lot in👍🏻

[MOUSEMARSH]

Love the pic of the big wide road, one of the things I love on our trips is the driving or riding, hate it in the UK though. Also love how they just dont get our sense of humour!

[anji]

Originally Posted by MOUSEMARSH

Love the pic of the big wide road, one of the things I love on our trips is the driving or riding, hate it in the UK though. Also love how they just dont get our sense of humour!

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Yes - big roads and parking spaces, usually free too! She was just horrified I said that about Prince Charles. I 'think' she saw the joke in the end though

[smithlane]

I love a Publix, you can lose me for hours in a foreign supermarket!
We love a Denny’s too, you know what you’re getting and very reasonable too!

[scottishnellie]

I can just imagine the queen /covid Jokes going down like a lead balloon! Never done vero beach so that’s still on my to do list x

[cornishfrogboy]

A really nice day.

So much to see outside of Orlando.