This is Part 3 of the Beach series. Check out Part 2.

We hit the east coast last year at summer time, the perfect for the beach and enjoying the water. Here’s some of east coast beach experience!

Ft Lauderdale, Florida

Ft Lauderdale beach was one of my favorite swimming beaches of the entire trip. Unlike my native California beach water, the beach water was about 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit and the waves lightly lap against the sand (Southern California beach water tends to be around 50 degrees Fahrenheit year round). It was easy to spend most of the afternoon, floating in the refreshing blue water.

Nothing like a beach day, especially at the Ft Lauderdale Beach.

Canaveral National Seashore, Florida

With the storm in the distance and a threat of lightning, we didn’t swim in the water, but the Canaveral National Seashore is beautiful. We walked up and down the beach, enjoying the beauty.

Just outside the Canaveral National Seashore we found a county park right on the beach, where set up under a covered park picnic table and cooked dinner with a view of the beach and ocean. It was a good thing that we choose the covered bench because the storm we saw in the National Seashore showed up and poured down while we cooked. One of the best cooking experiences on this trip.

Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts

Over the fourth of July, we visited some of KC’s family on Cape Cod and took a side trip the next day to Martha’s Vineyard. We got to see the beautiful New England sandy beaches.

Fun note, Amity Island in Jaws is Martha’s Vineyard.

Although very nice, it was very crowded after the fourth of July.

Acadia National Park, Maine

Acadia National Park is on the coast in Maine and has some amazing beaches. The best swimming beach is Sand Beach, surrounded on either side by rocky cliffs.

Something else that’s really cool about Acadia National Park is that you can rock climb on the cliffs, right above the water. It was one of the coolest climbing experiences of the road trip especially when you consider the early morning views (the photo below).

We got up at 5AM to pack up our camp and get some early morning climbs in at Otter Cliffs so that we can do some hiking later in the day and cross over to Canada. It was so worth it to get up early to climb the cliffs and watch the morning mists recede, revealing the rock beach shoreline.

Halifax, Nova Scotia

We caught a wave in Halifax… well, an art installation wave. Still, it was good fun to take pictures along the boardwalk with all the art.

Walking along one water-side park, sail boats appear out of clouds sitting on the water, find the turning point, and return to the clouds.

The next day, we spent the afternoon at this beach, just outside of Halifax. The stillness of the water with the occasional big granite rock reminded me of Lake Tahoe, but the color of the water and the sand reminded me of the Caribbean. That blew me away – how could a beach in Canada remind me of a tropical Caribbean beach? (see Part 2)

The water was cold and a bit shocking, so while it looked like a Caribbean beach, it definitely felt like we were far north.

Prince Edward Island National Park, Prince Edward Island

Walking back to the car from the Halifax, we started talking to one of the locals about Canadian beaches. He recommended that we check out the beaches on Prince Edward Island (PEI). After looking online at pictures of PEI, we decided to explore the island over a couple days. On the second day, we explored the PEI National Park and found these amazing beaches.