At The Beach

At the beach, you're allowed to have peanut pie and tea for breakfast.

At the beach, you're allowed to have eggs, bacon, and toast at lunch.

At the beach, you're allowed to wake up late.  You can read for hours on the front porch, or in the sunroom, or on a couch.  You can work on your language skills; you can play silly iPad games.  You can start a new cross-stitch pattern, or you can play a Mario game on the Wii U.  You can play card games at night, or watch movies during the day. 

At the beach, you can get ice cream in the afternoon, or buy a new book from a local bookstore.  Even though you know that the last thing you need is a new book.  You can also get Classic Literature-themed MadLibs.  Because when was the last time you played MadLibs?

At the beach, you can start the day in the hot tub.  You can also end the day in the hot tub.

At the beach, you can actually go to the beach.  You can also run into the ocean and play with the waves, and there's a long sandbar.  You can lounge on the sand or swim or wade.

At the beach, you can do whatever you please.


But the best part is that peanut pie for breakfast.

And it feels like I've never been gone...

Last week I spent a few days in Florida-- Captiva Island, to be specific.

I got off the plane and was instantly enveloped in warm, muggy air.  I haven't been so happy in ages.  Everyone says the best part of Seattle is no humidity on the few nice days we have.  While that's great and all, I grew up in the Midwest and the South.  I am no stranger to humidity.  Being able to wear a tank-top after dark, walking around comfortably in flip-flops from morning 'til night-- that's summer.

And does it get any better than days spent sitting on the beach, reading a good book and listening to the waves breaking on the seashells and sand?  Gathering beautiful shells and seeing living sand-dollars in the shallow water just off shore?  Spotting dolphins out in the Gulf?  Listening to thunderstorms after dark?  Enjoying the feel of air conditioning after a hot day in the sun?  Going for Bubble Bread and Smarvelous She-Crab Soup at the Bubble Room-- not to mention the orange crunch cake, rum runner, and Key Lime Colada?  Getting lobster tail, crabcakes, and fried clam strips at the Mucky Duck?  Watching the sunset on the ocean, with a margarita in hand?

Nope.  Nothing better.  That right there is my version of heaven.  Bring me that horizon.

Sun and Sand(erling)

When I downloaded my pictures this evening, my Adobe Photoshop informed me that I had 494 new items. That means that at the beach Zan and I (and a little bit of Lys and Justin, too) took FOUR HUNDRED AND NINETY FOUR pictures on my camera alone.

That's a lot of pictures. Zan took most of them on our last day at the beach. They are largely made up of pictures of me running in the waves and looking dubiously at the camera, in addition to all of the ones he took of flying seagulls. Plus all of the mini-golf photos. Boy, do I love mini-golf.

All in all, a relaxing and much-needed beach week. I feel a little bruised by this summer, and my heart still hurts from all of the loss. I don't imagine that that will go away soon. But with a sunset over the sound at the Spaniards house, hours spent laying on the beach with a good book and new friends, 'family' dinners with all thirteen of us gathered around the table, and falling asleep at night with the sound of the ocean in my ears, I felt my world-view beginning to switch back to my usual optimism and positivity about life.




(Photo by me, if you wish to reproduce this picture, please do so with a credit and a link)