Day at the Beach

Trip Pix.

I tend to prefer a pool to fresh water swimming -- I like to see the bottom and not worry about what might swim by me. When I swim in cold  Minnesota lakes, I like depths of over 100 feet so that I don't have to touch bottom. In salt water, I'm always a little afraid of sharks, jelly fish and sting rays, even though an encounter with any one of them is highly unlikely.

The first year visited Cocoa Beach, sometime in the late nineties, I rediscovered the fun of swimming in high waves. Our last trip to the Atlantic side was a six weeks after my first knee replacement, and my balance was too shaky to swim in the waves. The following year, we moved over to tamer (mostly) St. Pete Beach, and we've always had a great pool, so our beach swimming is much less frequent.



Don Cesar Hotel in the distance

Yesterday seemed like a perfect day to spend at the beach: a mid-week day with lots of sun, not too hot. We weren't disappointed, though plenty of others had the same idea and we had to drive to Pass-a-Grille, south on the Don Cesar Hotel, to find a parking space. We hoisted out bag chairs on our shoulders and walked across the boardwalk to the beach, carrying only our towels, sunscreen, water and small camera.

The water was surprisingly refreshing and therapeutic, quickly giving me a feeling of extreme wellbeing. Just as surprising was Bob's wisdom in packing up after a couple of hours, before the sun burned through our sunscreen and protective covering.

Turns out the beach was the best idea, because the pool was full of bathers when we returned home. I washed our salty swimwear and enjoyed the cool of the late afternoon.