Tag: beach

Snapshot #134

This is the last of the Jamaica photos. I call this one, “A Little Slice of Heaven.”

The Grandkids are Coming! The Grandkids are Coming!

Saturday (tomorrow!) I am meeting our son in Jackson, Mississippi, and bringing our oldest granddaughter, Dominique (13), and our youngest grandson, Jackson (10), home with me for two whole weeks! 

Eeeee! Time spent with the grands is the best.

I have a list of fun stuff to do while they’re with me in Havana, Florida, including trips to the beach, to the water park in Valdosta, Georgia, and to the wonderful Tallahassee Museum. Plus we’ll fish off of the dock in our backyard and maybe play Pokemon Go! I see exhaustion in my future.  

The blog might take a backseat for two weeks, but surely I’ll have time to add some pictures of our adventures to keep me in the habit of posting daily. I have a few posts queued up, as well.

Now I need to go freshen the bedding in the guest rooms and make sure my stock of snacks is sufficient for two hungry kids.

So excited! Peace, people!

We saw the kids in May when they were forced to sit still for a photo.

Apalachicola Art Walk

Saturday morning I had no idea I’d be sipping a beer at noon at a corner cafe in the small port town of Apalachicola. Having had the most luxurious night of sleep I’ve experienced in years, I lingered in bed feeling as if I’d been kissed by an angel. 

Of course, it was probably only Studly Doright who’d pecked me on the brow on his way to the golf course. I guess his grey hair was halo-like in the semidarkness, but you never know.

Before showering I looked on Facebook and read a post about an art walk in Apalachicola. Knowing that Studly would be tied up with his favorite hobby well into the afternoon I made haste with my shower and got on the road.

I’ve written about Apalachicola before. The quaint fishing village on Florida’s forgotten coast is known for oysters and sponges and apparently, art. 

I snapped a few photos as I walked about town:

  
    
    
    
    
   
I even purchased a photograph (below) by and directly from photojournalist Richard Bickel whose work has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Conde Naste Traveler, Newsweek, and other publications of note. It makes me happy.

  
After a lunch of salmon and grapefruit salad (oddly wonderful) at Tamara’s Cafe, I drove across the bridge to Eastpoint and then crossed another bridge for my first taste of the beach this year on Saint George Island.

   
    
  
   
Studly Doright doesn’t understand my attraction to the ocean. I tell him I have a compulsion to be in the presence of sand and waves and water, but the only sand and water he acknowledges are on the golf courses he plays, and he does his best to avoid landing in either.

So I sent him this photo, and told him sand was a good thing. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t impressed.

  

I’m already planning my next beach day. 

Peace, people.

 
  
  
  

  
 

Inside Out (Sort of a Review)

Wednesday is Studly’s night to play in the men’s golf league at Southwood in Tallahassee.  One might think that playing both Saturday and Sunday morning would satisfy his golf addiction, but one would be wrong. 

I don’t mind this Wednesday ritual, though. For one thing I don’t have to cook a meal on Wednesday nights, but more importantly I am free to do just about anything my heart desires on Wednesdays. As long as I’m home by 8:30 p.m. After that I revert to a pumpkin I think. I’ve never tested the theory, but it could happen.

Some Wednesdays I head to the beach. It’s a great day for that because apparently tourists believe the beach to be closed mid-week. Please don’t tell them otherwise. 
Other times I see a movie that I’m positive Studly Doright would rather die than see, such as Magic Mike XXL. I saw that last week. Ok story; great nearly naked men. I should have waited to see it on tv.

This afternoon I watched Inside Out, the new Disney/Pixar offering. Of course the theater was full of moms and grandmothers each with one or more kids in tow. My first thought was, “Crap. Darn kids are going to be fussing, and crying, and raising Cain all through this movie.” And it started off a bit slowly–typical Disney. But then it sucked me and all the other little darlings in. 

The children in the audience ranged in age from two to fifteen and they were spellbound. The younger ones were captivated by the colorful emotional characters: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger, who live inside the control center of a little girl named Riley. I’d worried that they’d be uninterested in the storyline, but the action was enough to keep them in the game.

After explaining a little about Riley’s core memories, Riley’s emotions are set to enjoy smooth sailing. Then Riley turns 11. That in itself would have brought about changes, but to add insult to injury her family moves across the country from Minnesota to San Francisco and a series of unfortunate events throw her emotions into chaos. To fix the emotional train wreck, Riley’s emotions have to work together in new ways. 

This is a great movie. Go see it by yourself if you have to, but go see it. If there’s a pre-teen in your life make sure they see it, preferably with you or someone that cares about them. There are some emotional moments, given the characters ARE emotions, but there are some excellent conversations just waiting to happen once the lights come up. I heard the beginnings of a few as I lingered during the closing credits.

I’m hoping for a sequel. After all, Riley’s new control panel has a big red button with PUBERTY stamped on it. 

 

Peace, people!

Benches

All along the wooden pier,
benches sit immobile,
beckoning visitors to rest.
Words etched on brass plates
for all to see:
“In Loving Memory of My Parents”
“For My Dearest Aunt Laura”
“In Memory of a Great Fisherman”

One imagines the benches might
mark the places at which each
memorialized person spent time
casting hooked lines
into the gulf’s waters
while drinking cold Budweiser
to better pass the time
between sunrise and sunset.

Now, lovers claim the benches
wrapped in embraces, scarcely
noticing the memorial plaques
on the creaky, weathered slats.
Fishing for affection
in the early evening hours
catching no fish,
but not caring.

  

sea

Clouds blend with ocean 

Waves overlap sandy shores

Salt tang hangs in air

  

I’ll Sea You There

In response to The Daily Post’s daily prompt: if you could live anyplace else on earth where would it be? There is no doubt where I’d go.

I. Give me salt and sea

Let me wake to ocean’s roar

Guide my steps in sand.



II.  Relentless waves shrug

Nudging shells onto soft sand

Here are her treasures.





III.  Sunset on ocean

Mist caressing horizon

Capturing the light.



Peace, People!



Lesson Learned

Note to self: Never hit Panama City Beach during March! 

I’m picking Studly up at the Panama City airport in a couple of hours, and thought I’d come on over a little early and eat dinner at the beach before his plane lands. 

It is a zooooo!!! People who have no business on motorcycles are riding scooters and splitting lanes. Families in these funky little street buggies–colorful little golf carts, really, are pulling in front of lane splitting scooter riders. College kids are everywhere. Of course at my age they all look like preschoolers. 

On the plus side, and it is a BIG plus, I can see the beach from my table, and I’m having fresh mahi mahi. And, Studly will be home soon!



Peace, people!