I never thought I would be one of those "snow birds" that headed south for the winter. I have always loved winter, snow, soft sweaters and cozy nights in. But the past few years I haven't handled the cold as well. Maybe my circulation isn't what it was 30 years ago. Enter the "Bucket List". Several items on my list involved getting to a coast - a northern coast. As a life-long mid-westerner, I had never seen an ocean, and I definitely wanted to rectify that, but I wanted to go to Maine, or Cape Hatteras - - no tropical beaches for me!
Ummm..... Can I revise that list? We got the opportunity to go to Florida last week. Dave had training for work so I tagged along - and neither of us wanted to come back. Not that Hutchinson Island, Florida is "tropical" in January - but sitting on the beach with a book when it's 75 degrees is close enough to paradise for me.
I was hooked from the first glimpse:
We walked down this path and the ocean spread before us - the most amazing shade of turquoise - and I was awe-struck! I've seen God's creation displayed in may ways, but this was . . . was . . . beyond words! If you could wake up to that view and fall asleep to the sound of the lapping waves, life would be good. So a plan to retire to the beach is my new obsession - not to mention visiting as frequently as possible between now and then. It only makes sense that we should visit a variety of beaches before making our retirement decision, right?
I took hundreds - seriously, hundreds - of pictures of the ocean. I culled them down to the top 175, but that's still a bit much to post, so here are a few of my favorite memories of our FIRST trip to the beach.
And the funniest moment:
The thing that makes this so funny - other than watching Dave get soaked - was that he knew the water as going to shoot up there (although he may not have expected quite as MUCH water as he got) and when I missed the shot, he stood there and got sprayed again to give me a second chance. What a guy!
