Fun in the Sun

Thought for the day: If there is magic on the planet, it is contained in water. [Loren Eiseley]

There's something about the beach, about its salty scent, cawing gulls, and constant soothing rhythm of the waves that centers me and gives me peace.

There's also something about our grandchildren, about their boundless energy, giggles, smiles, and overall silliness, that does the same.

Put them together and you have a little piece of watery heaven. If only I could bottle that feeling... I could call it... Happiness.

Our long weekend with our older son and his family was absolutely glorious, albeit much too short. The Gulf Coast was oppressively H-O-T, but the water... aaaaah... the water was perfect. And therapeutic. We spent most of our time playing in it, but I did came out long enough to snap a few pictures when they started playing in the sand.

 Aaron is our unabashed Sheldon Cooper-like smartie. When we were back at the house, he and I played some of the new games purchased at the going-out-of-business sale held by Toys r Us. The games were new to him, but he learned them quickly, and had absolutely no shame about beating his poor grandmother.

Kymber's a girly girl who has already been in a beauty pageant. (Once was enough for her, though. She's done with all that, she says.) She's a smartie, too, and very wily. Definitely knows how to get her way.

Smarticus... the biggest kid of all.

Looks like Jaiden is about to run back into the water. No surprise there, because he's quite the waterbug. That little cutie to his right is Devyn, who's the youngest of the crew, but also the boss of 'em all. She's going to rule the world someday, the little stinker.

 Here's Devyn again. I reckon she was probably ordering the water to Calm down! Even the smaller waves had a way of catching her in the face when we were out in it.

Smarticus grabbed the camera and I grabbed Devyn so we could get at least one pic... almost... of her face. You'll have to trust me. She's adorable. Not that I'm biased or anything.

Our son and his lovely bride. (He's got a helluva lot of nerve having gray hair, doesn't he?)

Our son scooped up a small jellyfish in a bucket so the kids could get a closer look. In the bucket, it wasn't nearly as menacing-looking to them as the ones we encountered floating in the water. This little guy's tentacles were very short, too.

That's it. That's all the pictures I took this time around. What can I say? It's a lot more fun having fun than it is to waste time recording it for posterity. HA! Profound, eh?

P.S. The header picture was from an earlier visit, when we went to the Gulf so Grandma could get her feet wet. The kids got soaked. (Not my fault!) So we had to buy them all dry outfits before we could continue on to the museum in Pensacola. Lesson learned! We all wore bathing suits this time around.

                                     Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Things Go Better With Waves

Thought for the day:  The cure for anything is salt water— sweat, tears, or the sea.  [Isak Dinesen]

Yeah, without a doubt, I tend to lose my head (and heart) when it comes to the ocean, or any other body of water, for that matter.

Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.  [Robert Henri]

I don't know why I love the water so much. I just do. On a very primal level, it speaks to my soul. Corny? Maybe, but it's true.

To myself, I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me.  [Isaac Newton]

Yeah, what Isaac said. Plus, it smells good.

Before I get to the gist of this post, about our visit to Florida last month, let me preface it with a picture of someone we had the pleasure of meeting the weekend before we left town.

Blogging pal Mr. Charleston came to our little ol' town that weekend to attend an Italian car show with some of his buddies... and Smarticus and I met up with him there! How cool is that? Spiffy hat he's wearing, isn't it? Not sure who that fat old lady is standing next to him. (She does look vaguely familiar, though...)

Okay, on to Florida... and the beach. Cocoa Beach, to be precise.

Smartacus and I  had a good bit of free time during the weekdays, and bless his heart, he surprised me by taking me to the beach one day. Woo-Hoo!  I didn't even ask...! (And yes, he got a lot of brownie points for being so darned sweet.)

I was surprised at how many swimmers and surfers were in the water. And even more surprised at how warm the water was. Who'd a thunk it? In October!

There's a kind of bird I've always loved to watch at the beach. Sandpipers, maybe? They have such a funny way of scampering across the sand. Their legs move a hundred miles an hour, but their bodies stay stiff and erect, with barely a twitch. Hmmm, maybe they move so fast because the sand's so hot?

A long pier extends across the beach and out over the water. The covered section houses some little shops and a multitude of watering holes. Out at the end of the pier, a bunch of folks were testing their luck with heavy-duty fishing poles.

I'm not even one hundred percent sure what this sign is supposed to mean, but it cracked me up, anyway. Trespassed...?

Here's another shot of the pier from a different perspective. See that building out near the end? Know what it is?

Ta DA! A tiki bar! No wonder those fishermen weren't complaining about baking out there in the sun...





It was awesome being beside the ocean again... smelling it, feeling the water swirl around our feet and the salty breeze ruffle our hair. Well... okay, amend that to ruffle my hair... Smarticus' hair doesn't do much ruffling in the breeze anymore. Hey! He was wearing a hat! That's what I meant. Yeah, that's it...

Anyhow, one of the reasons the visit meant so much to me is because I didn't have to ask. He knew. Know why he knew? He read my book! In Hot Flashes and Cold Lemonade, Pearl loves the ocean as much as I do. (Fancy that!) And she wanted her husband to take her to Atlantic City, not because she asked, but because he knew how much she loved the ocean. Get the picture?

    Pearl felt like leaping and dancing her way to the ocean, and it was all she could do not to break into an all-out run. As soon as she reached the sand, she kicked off her shoes and squished its gritty warmth through her toes. Then, with shoes in hand, she continued toward the water, her attention focused on the distant whitecaps rolling into shore.
    The ocean's scent was unmistakable now. She breathed it in and let it out slowly, as though she hated to let any of it go. Salty mist caressed her face, a sun-kissed breeze ruffled her hair, and she walked faster.
    As she approached the water's edge, fleeting imprints of her feet followed her across the ocean-kissed sand. Watery fingers stretched toward her, and swiped a playful lap at her feet. She splashed through it, and with arms lifted in triumph, stepped into the surf.

I really wish that fat lady would stop hijacking her way into our pictures.


Yeah, I wore beach shoes. (That sand was hot!) And my sweet hubby packed our shoes in the car, without me knowing about it. (awww) We both forgot how difficult it could be to plod across the soft sand. The wet stuff, no problem, but that soft stuff... oh heck, maybe we're just soft. But the ocean? It's every bit as magical as I remember.


Before I go, one more picture. A fitting ending, with Mr. C the opening bracket, and this lovely lady the closing one...

The delightful Pixel Peeper and her hubby met Smarticus and me for brunch. We had a blast! Even though we'd never met before, we immediately recognized each other. (Or we thought we did... as we were enthusiastically squealing and hugging, she paused to say, "You are Susan, I hope...")

You know, I'm inclined to say that the people we meet and like online, the people we meet through blogging and feel an affinity for... that's real. Blogging pals aren't just blogging pals. They're not cyber-friends; they're friends.  How totally cool it was to meet two of those friends face-to-face instead of just blog-to-blog.

Oh, are you wondering if the ocean spoke to my soul this time? Nah.. it just waved. (HA! Just kidding.)

Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone.

                              Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

P.S. Next Monday is Veterans' Day. To all of you veterans out there, my heartfelt thanks and appreciation.

In Praise of Water

Thought for the day:  If there is magic on the planet, it is contained in water.  [Loren Eiseley]

[source]

Most of us are fascinated by water. Okay, so we might not go so far as to cast a fishing line into a pothole, but most other bodies of water are usually pretty high on our lists of favorite things.

Even drops of dew.

Everywhere water is a thing of beauty, gleaming in the dewdrop, singing in the summer rain.  [John Ballantine Gough]

The gentle patter of summer rain... the beauty of a glistening flower.

The beauty and serenity of a lake.

A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.  [Henry David Thoreau]

The lazy, mesmerizing current of a slow-moving river.


The trees reflected in the river... they are unconscious of a spiritual world so near to them. So are we.  [Nathaniel Hawthorne]

The heart-pounding excitement of whitewater rapids.

The sound of the water says what I think.  [Chuang Tzu]

The endless primal roll of ocean waves.

If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.  [Rachel Carson]

And who doesn't love a waterfall, no matter how large or small?

A cheery relaxation is man's natural state, just as nature itself is relaxed. A waterfall is concerned only with being itself, not with doing something it considers waterfall-like.  [Vernon Howard]


Yes, nature's beauty can be found in all kinds of water, but I never expected to find amazement in something man has done with water inside of...  an airport, of all things. Ben Gurian Airport in Israel, to be exact.

                                               
                                                                     Check it out!!!

       Pretty doggone amazing, huh? Have you ever seen anything like it?

Ya know, some years ago, I saw an episode of The Honeymooners (Hush! I SAID it was some years ago, didn't I?) in which Ralph and Ed were having one of their famous intellectual discussions, in which they agreed that the chemical formula for water was H2O.  But they also pontificated that whenever one expressed a chemical formula verbally, one should never ever say the number, so throughout the rest of the program, they kept calling water ... HO. In deference to that show, I considered calling this post In Praise of HOs, but was afraid it might attract the wrong kind of audience...

      So tell me. What's your favorite kind of HO... I mean water? Ocean, lake, river, hot tub?

For this week's Tiny Harmonies haiku challenge, the lovely Suze  has provided us with another single-word thematic prompt. That word is adaptability. Once again, I'm gonna try to tie the haiku in with my post. Here goes my tiny offering:

Relentless water
Carves paths through mighty mountains,
One drip at a time.










                        Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

I never drink water, because I know what fish do in there.  [W.C. Fields]

[Most images come to us courtesy of morguefile. Thanks to Suze for the kitty pic.]