It Only Hurts When I Blog

Avast there, you Sandy-Bloggoms! Brush yourselves off and set a spell...

The first time I saw the white sands and dunes of the Panhandle, it looked like SNOW to my Yankee eyes.

The sand in New England is much darker and more coarse than the sand in the Panhandle. They call the sand 'sugar sand', and it's true - it is so white that if I see it in my car I think I've spilled sugar there.

The only place I've been that can match the white sand of the Panhandle is Aruba. Aruba's sun and sand were so bright that I could not step on the beach without sunglasses. I would literally cry until I got them on. I keep 2 pairs of sunglasses - one medium-tinted pair for driving and one pair of darker lenses for being around the ocean. The darker pair were perfect for the Panhandle.

I guess I should also mention that a nickname for the Panhandle is the 'Redneck Riviera'.

I assume that's because it's a such a beautiful place, and easily accessible to those of us who live in the Southern states.

If you are interested in reading more about that, here's a link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Riviera

The two photos above were taken on a bluebird-clear day, which really makes the white sand stand out. We had a mix of weather during our stay, with a little of everything - clear, cloudy, rainy, but most days very windy. The waves increased in volume each day.

We would take our coffee out to the patio each morning around 6:30am. We'd drink our coffee, watch the squadrons of pelicans flying in formation, look for dolphins (which we saw one day!) and watch the very-hyperactive beach-chair rental guy set up all the chairs and umbrellas while we relaxed in comfort. You can barely see him in this photo, but he is there in the center putting the chair pads on the wooden-framed beach chairs.

He ran everywhere he went, and would go through all sorts of acrobatic moves and jumps and twists while doing his setup work. He would twirl the umbrellas, put the elastics that held them closed on and off a certain way, and always appear busy even when he wasn't. Every day, he set up all the chair pads and umbrellas, and every afternoon he'd take them down again and put them away in large white crates on the beach.

We laughed heartily when we saw him take his broom one afternoon and start sweeping the sand off the chairs, whether or not there were any people in them! They didn't seem to mind being 'swept', but I thought it was rather intrusive. He made plenty of tips from what we noticed.

Another character we noticed one day was during stormy weather.

See how dark and gray the clouds are? We had some rain overnight and during the morning that day, then it cleared off.

There was one man on the beach at that time. He was standing by himself on the beach, watching the waves.


He was really the only person out there.

I just happened to get him in this photo (he's in the center), then started to watch him to see what he was up to.

Here he is, shortly afterwards, and as Charlie would say - 'failing crack-check'.

Yes, that's right, bloggies, he has squatted down on the beach behind a little podium (which blew over later, by the way) so he could make some calls on his CELL PHONE.

Good grief - go inside, buddy! Can't you TELL it's not a good time to make a CALL? The wind is blowing at 30 miles an hour!

He doesn't know he's famous now that he's become 'bloggy fodder'.

That's all for today folks, lots more to come! TTFN!