We're Finally Home From Vacation And Boy Was It A Whirlwind Of A Road Trip. We Visited Places We've Been And Explored Places New. Along The Way We Stayed At Some Pretty Neat Joints. Status: The Palms Retro Motel - Atlantic Beach FLA.

This might have been our favorite crash pad the entire 14 nights we were gone.  It's the Palms Retro Motel in Atlantic Beach, Florida.  I (unlike the Girlfriend) am not one to plan out a vacation adventure very much.  I like to discover great things rather than research and suss things out...that way, when you find a place like this, it's all the more special!

We were on our way from Myrtle Beach South Carolina toward the Florida Keys and arrived in

Jacksonville Beach just as the sun set with no place to stay.  Like I said...I'm not much good at

planning.  We figured that the Jacksonville area would be much like Myrtle Beach wherein there are

small "mom and pop" motels on one side of the strip and large high rise hotels on the other.  If there

is such an area in Jacksonville Beach, we couldn't find it. 

We stopped at a gas station to "take a break" and I pulled up our area map on my phone and searched

it for motels.  Clicking through the results yielded this joint!  It wasn't as cheap as what we are

accustomed to, but c'mon...just look at the place!  We were lucky enough to snatch the last available

room for the evening and OMG...the beds were SO much more comfortable than the $50-$80 a night

places we normally frequent.  Beds?  Yeah, there are two beds in this room but I didn't take the pics

until the morning AFTER we had messed one all up.  Note the Theme of the room?  Elvis movies. 

All the rooms have similar '50s theme!   This is one of those places that will be on our list to revisit

for sure.  It was lovely and it was sad that we only had the one evening to enjoy it.  At check in the

proprietor answered all our questions about how the motel came to be (I can't begin to guess how

many times he has to go over this!) and was happy to suggest some local places to get a late dinner

(Sliders Seafood Grille) as well as a perfect dive bar (Pete's Bar - cash only AND serves Sailor

Jerry rum!). 

We never did get a chance to get to the local beach for the same reason that I never got a shot of the

neon motel sign...it started raining just as we finished loading the car back up!  We took the

opportunity to hit some local antique malls, thrift stores and a small flea market.  Then it was back on

the road.  The Keys was a calling my name!