Seagrove Beach, shuffleboard, and sunshine
Our trip to beautiful, gorgeous, sunny Seagrove Beach, Florida was beautiful and gorgeous, but not so sunny. Well, let me rephrase: it was sunny for about one-third of the time. Or maybe even one-half. Definitely not three-quarters. More importantly and unfortunately, it was cloudy and rainy some the time. But it was lovely and beautiful nonetheless.
Aside from visiting Eden Gardens State Park and eating so much seafood, donuts and birthday cake that our shorts no longer fit comfortably (thank god bathing suits are so stretchy!), we pretty much relaxed the entire time on the gorgeous, beautiful white sands of Florida's Emerald Coast. Rain or shine, we were on the beach - except for when the rain was coming down so quickly it caused flash flooding. But other than that, we were sitting on the beach, listening to the sounds of the waves crashing against the shore, people-watching, napping, reading, napping some more, and doing more people-watching.
Speaking of people-watching, one family entertained us for hours when the dad honored his son’s wishes to be buried in the sand, not once but twice. Both times, the parents seemed content to drink their beer as their son struggled to release himself from his sandy deathtrap.
Another highlight was teaching Lucky how to play shuffleboard. Prior to this weekend, she had no idea how to play. Now that she is versed in the ways of shuffle boarding, there's no turning back. My girl is a shuffleboard champion. Check out this posed action shot. (As you can see, we were able to squeeze our butts into those shorts, but just barely.)
By the way, I'm quite certain my girl would've beaten every single one of these competitors in a shuffleboard competition. Perhaps in her next career she'll be a shuffleboard hustler. She's got skillz. I'm just sayin'.
What we realized during this trip was how much we fit in with the, uh, silver-haired crowd. We enjoy eating dinner early (especially if it includes an "early bird special"), we enjoy driving slow, we enjoy playing shuffleboard, we enjoy volunteering for projects, we love talking about and hearing about what life was like "back in the day" and we love the look of wraparound sunglasses. If that's not a recipe for success in a retirement community, I don't know what is.
Oh yeah, one last thing. My girl got a tattoo for her birthday. See the finished art in the picture gallery above.
As always, we're sending lots of love and hugs across the miles...the girlz