Is Life a Beach or Not?

John D.  MacArthur Beach State Park, Florida
John D. MacArthur Beach State Park, Florida

I’ve written before how much I love the ocean and how I count a year as good if I get to spend time on the beach. By that reckoning, 2014 should be shaping up to be a good one.

I spent a day in late February basking in 80 degree sunshine on the beach at John D. MacArthur Beach State Park in Florida.

Mangrove roots in Biscayne National Park
Mangrove roots in Biscayne National Park

On our trip, my husband and I also watched pelicans as we ate conch fritters on Alabama Jack’s restaurant deck on our way north from Key Largo, canoed through mangroves at Biscayne National Park, and viewed Biscayne Bay from the Viscaya Museum & Gardens in Miami.

Viscaya Museum & Gardens, Miami
Viscaya Museum & Gardens, Miami

I wore shorts and t-shirts and sandals. No socks from the time I got off the airplane until the morning we headed home.

It was a good week. I shucked off the miasma of winter I’d been accruing since November.

Then we returned to winter in Kansas City. We froze as we stood outside the airport waiting for a taxi.

And less than a week after our return from Florida, we shoveled four inches of sleet and snow in single-digit temperatures with wind chills well below zero. The thermometer hit record lows for March.

Husband running snowblower in frigid cold and wind
Husband running snowblower in frigid cold and wind

If winter lasts much longer, maybe 2014 won’t be such a good year. My mood changes with the sunlight and temperature.

Spring has to come sometime, I tell myself every day. But I doubt even that truism, when the clouds loom low overhead and the wind slices through my heaviest coat.

By the time you read this post, maybe the latest polar vortex will have receded back to Canada. But I don’t think I’ll feel Florida’s warmth any time soon, except in my memories and photographs.

Still, spring has to come sometime. Doesn’t it?

How are you coping with our lengthy winter this year?

Share:

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
7 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
sallyjadlow
10 years ago

Gritting my teeth till spring!

Theresa Hupp
10 years ago

Me, too, Sally — but I look out my window right now and see snowflakes swirling.

trackback

[…] my recent trip to Florida, in addition to viewing wildlife and water activities, I went to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. This was my second visit to the […]

safelake
10 years ago

Reblogged this on Lavender Turquois.

trackback

[…] of my Washington waterfront walks were as warm nor as wild as what I encountered on my Florida trip. But they still count as days on the beach and add to my measure of a good […]

trackback

[…] was perfect—mid-70s, and lots of sunshine. I can’t say I got my fill of walks on the beach (see here and here), but I did enjoy what time I […]

trackback

[…] engine, and up popped many possibilities, including several places in the Caribbean with beaches. I love beaches. We’d been to the Caribbean twice before—to St. Thomas and to Aruba—and enjoyed both […]

Related Posts

7
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x