A Day at the Beach

We had a tough week. 

So this weekend, we stayed on the beach.

OK, we live on the beach.  We just never go there. 

Around here, when you say you "live on the beach", it doesn't mean you actually live on the fifty foot sandy strip between A1A and the Atlantic Ocean.  It means you live somewhere on the hundreds of miles of long skinny barrier islands that stretch from Miami to Georgia and beyond.

So, that's still a fairly good ranging distance, even if you decide to stay "on the beach" all day long.

It's amazing how much time can be sucked away in discussion of the proposed new house and it's design details.  In order to make sure the furniture will fit in the cost conscious spaces, we had a little arts and crafts project going on Sunday morning.  Cutting out little squares to scale of the furniture, and laying them out on the architect's latest rendition, took up most of the morning.  But hey, it was kind of fun, in a 1st grade sort of way.  And what a relief to find that it all fits.

Enough, already.  Morning's gone.  Time to get outdoors! 

Heading down to drag out the kayaks, we notice a visitor. 

Don't let anyone tell you that manatees are slow.  They may not be fast enough to escape a speedboat, but they sure can boogie once the camera comes out.  This one gave a last big tug at the vines, and in a wink, slid gracefully under the dock to munch in private.

I am sure the neighbors think it's very lazy of us, letting the dune sunflowers grow crazy, down over the seawall like that.  But truthfully, we are the only house on our watery little cul de sac that provides snacks for manatees, and I just can't see any good reason to change that.  Swirls arc from under the dock in manatee agreement.


Two hours of afternoon paddling in a stiff wind from the south is a good indicator of which way to head first when it comes to the evening bike ride.  On the hardtails, never leaving the beach all day doesn't restrict your distance, only your direction.  Today it's an easy choice. 

Head south first!  Save the downwind leg for last.

One of my favorite blogs is FatCyclist.com.  Fatty is one blogger with about a million notions to make you think.  Like - what would you rather have?  One hundred, $75 Wal-Mart bikes?  Or one, $7500 bike?  As of this morning, he had 117 comments.

My favorite response answers Fatty's follow-up question;

What is a $75 bike suitable for?

Comment by Tommy F

09.24.2010
8:37 am


"A $75 bike could be immensely fun, depending upon the situation…as in the “Hold my beer, watch this” kind of scenario as long as you are the spectator and not the performer."


Actually I thought maybe I'd send Fatty a photo. Nothing as immensely fun as "Hold my beer, watch this!",  just something we saw on the Sunday-stay-on-the-beach ride.

OK, I probably would have done something un-artistic,

 like trying to match the turquoise trim on the house.

Seeing as we are the types to let the yard go just for sake of manatee snacking, any effort at groovy, blue, Wal-Mart-yard-art probably isn't going to happen at our house.  But it's still a fine idea for that 6 month old Wal-Mart bike leaning against the neighbor's trash can, don'tcha think? 

Maybe I'll check the house plan for spare wall space.  We will likely miss our bikes hanging behind the couch once we have a garage.

Unexpectedly, right down the street, there is a second manatee sighting, this time as a blur from the bike, as we roll by the culvert east of the marina.  Again, the notion that manatees are slow movers seems ludicrous.  Rolling, gray skinned water-elephants, these two churn the surface of the ample canal.   Maybe their motions appear so captivatingly rapid because they displace about a half ton of water each with the merest undulation of those fan shaped tails?

We haven't brought lights.  It seems far too bright out to have reached the turn-around time on our upwind climb so soon!  

Pedaling east, it's only a few blocks to the boardwalk to check out the waves before the downwind descent.

The downwind sleigh ride is fast.  We get home with time for a dock drink or two. 

It's been the weekend of no intensity, and just what the doctor ordered.

Today is the second day "on the beach" for me, the first day of my once-every-two-years vacation.  I am wondering if we tied up the kayaks well enough on Sunday.  Maybe when this lets up, I'll go out and check.

Typical vacation weather!

Mother Nature sure is somethin'. 

She must have heard us mention camping.