Love Beach.

Dan and I almost got engaged at the water's edge in Kissimmee, Florida. We had previously exchanged Valentines at a park with a bog. On that day we heard a boy shout "Yahoo!" without referencing the website. So Dan tried to take me back to that park and engage me but the wind was so windy and it was making it too chilly to stay outside, and I made him let us leave. Too bad for Dan. All that to say that we went to the Port Charlotte Beach today on Valentine's Day. Anytime anyone knows I'm from Florida, they always enthuse how I'm so close to the beach! But the beach I grew up minutes from was never fit for beach activities. Having visited it today in my adulthood, though, I wonder if that was a line fed us youngsters to keep us from asking to go the beach. Meaning, it didn't seem all that bad. But I mentioned it to my dad after we got home, and he told me that they've cleaned it up a lot. Or maybe he was sustaining the subterfuge.



I have oft remarked that I find it hard to keep my eyes open in the Florida sun, as I am prone to migraines and light sensitivity. Dan usually scoffs at me. I am posting this picture (and subsequent pictures in which he struggles to keep his eyes open) as a subtle revenge.


Check out them palms.


Dumb birds. The first blog I ever wrote (on Xanga, though I pulled my archives over to Blogger) was about these types of birds...and their propensity to poop on people and the power they weild because of that.


Peace River's Charlotte Harbor.


Pick your poison. Dan claimed that he would jump off this dock in the summertime, even though it is prohibited. Easy for him to say since we're leaving the country.


Dear bird, please do not poop on me.



This is my fave blanket. It's Alpaca. I am taking it to Korea. Dan's brother just randomly got it for me when he was in Peru years ago. I think it's cause, at the time, he didn't know me well enough to get me something else. But, turns out he knew me perfectly without knowing me at all, because I love it so. (Soliloquy: My cousin's daughter Willow and I were having a conversation about Disney princesses and Disney in general, really, how she wished to grow up and live there, how she was filling a money jar and maybe they would accept that one day as payment and let her live there and do whatever she wants. I told her she could grow up and work at Disney World, that Dan himself did so, and she was all, "No, I don't want to work". So we were talking about our favorite princesses, and hers is Cinderella, and I said that Snow White was my fave, and she looked up at me and said in seven year old kid voice, "Your favorite?" and it was real cute.)


I went over there and gave them birds what for.


But I know my limitations, so I walked away while I was ahead.


Dan is a little more dignified than I.


Sand in grooves.


Usually the water is filled with junk like this stuff. Truly, though, most of the beach was pretty clear.


Pyramids.



I am laughing in the face of Dan's closed eyes.


Big fat leafs.


Water quality info. When it is not safe to swim, it tells you so in red letters like red tide.


Perch.