Escape to the Beach 2006--Part 1

[lavendertook]

Back from five days in Florida on Sunday--tanned but not burned--yay! Beaches are indeed good for the soul--we had a lovely time and this is definitely not the last time I will set foot on Sanibel Island--it's still gorgeous.

We took two days driving down to Clearwater Beach, me squeeing at the first appearance of Spanish moss and palmettos in the undergrowth, as always. Driving wasn't bad until we passed thru Mouseville--we found traffic to be pretty heavy throughout Florida, about as bad as the DC area, which was the one downside to the road trip. However, we discovered that the second disc of Kate Bush's new album is just the perfect thing to be listening to as you cross the inter-coastal waterway and approach the beach after dark.

The next morning we got to have breakfast on a porch out on the beach, which is such a luxurious feeling. Arrrr! we got to watch a pirate ship go by as we munched as well--so much of this trip was all about the breakfasts--could mererid and I be more hobbity, I ask you? I think not. We saw a couple dolphins curl their fins out of the water as well. The sand was as white as I remember and the water even greener, and this was mererid's first viewing of a Florida gulf beach.

We took a day there to recoup, then took the wonderful long, high roller-coasty bridge over Tampa bay on I-275 on down to Sanibel Island.

To be continued . . .

Comments

[rosamundeb.livejournal.com]

The shelling seemed great to me!

Soft evergreens... ummmm... think loblolly pines? They look kind of... soft? *L*!

Actually, what I heard is that the trees they had there were something exotic, like... Australian Hemlocks? And they have very shallow roots. So everybody knew it was just a matter of time before they got knocked down in a hurricane.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

OK. I think there were some about, and it didn't feel bare there driving along, but I didn't have a sense of it being a tree-lined road, so a good part of them probably were downed.