Beaching It

It's been a long time since I took my clothes off in the back seat of a car.  (There are times I wish that my father didn't read this blog, but it's too good of an opening line to worry about parental embarrassment!)   And yet that's exactly what I (and Dorrit!) had to do last week when we needed an impromptu dressing room to change into our swimsuits to hit the beach.  Our intention had been to go kayaking but we arrived an hour late for the paddle, just in time to watch our group head into the distance.  (I swear they told me to be there at 9:45.)  Anyway, that left us near Fort Myers beach with a whole day ahead of us.

After setting up our umbrella (which is way easier to do when you have a cabana boy), we took a quick dip in the 80 degree water and headed down the beach for a walk and some shelling.  Even though the beach was fairly deserted, there were some real characters out there.   This couple caught our attention as they enjoyed the feel of the sun on way too much of their bodies.  (Dorrit's comment was that they must be French-Canadians.  I have no explanation.)  As we headed back towards our gear, we saw our umbrella take off towards the water.  Dorrit started jogging to retrieve it but I remembered my sister's admonition from the summer that my quick jog on the beach did not summon memories of Bo Derek in "10" and maintained my leisurely pace.  Luckily, a gentleman beachgoer rescued the umbrella before it hit the water.  I thought perhaps a cabana boy had miraculously appeared but it was actually just a helpful octogenarian.

We reset our umbrella and spent some time catching up, reading, and doing some more people watching.  This woman was pretty cute but I wasn't sure what the intention was behind the captain's hat.  I know there has to be a story there.  After carefully securing our umbrella, we headed out for a walk in the other direction and saw the cutest little sand crab scuttling around in the sand.  There were some great birds as well, including a lovely blue heron.   All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend the day, and we still have our kayaking adventure to look forward to.  Life is good in Southwest Florida.