Wordless Wednesday: Tale of Two Beaches: 7/16/14

What I disliked most about Massachusetts was the greyness but lately I wondered if my memory was selectively negative..  Apparently not!   A long time friend took this pic (this morning) at Revere Beach (MA)

Now check out the photo I took at Jaycee Beach/Seaside Grille within minutes of the one above:

Granted it isn’t ALWAYS bleak in MA or bright and sunny here, but the contrast today is pretty damn amazing!

For more on Wordless Wednesday click the Zemanta related links below.

Until next time…

🙂 🙂 🙂

Revere Beach photograph by Victor DeRubeis: Thank you!

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“Joy in one’s heart, and laughter on one’s lips…..”

“Joy in one’s heart and laughter on one’s lips is a sign that person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life.” —Hugh Sidey, Journalist

I ran across the above quote awhile back, and it came to mind as I was uploading the last few pics from Jack’s vacation week.

The return of Florida’s iconic sunshine allowed us to spend his final 3 days beachside, with plenty of time for laughs and conversation.

If there’s a plus side to geographic separation from family, it may be the startling awareness of growth you notice when reunited.  In early childhood, visitors exclaim “look how BIG you’ve gotten!” and I found myself thinking the same of Jack, not physically of course (although he is GIGANTIC 😉 ) but emotionally and–for lack of a better word–spiritually.

In the annals of Jack’s life, 2013 will be recorded as his first big “setback year” ➡ sooner or later it happens to all of us, and how we react (and cope) determines much of what comes next.  From my vantage of time and distance, I was thrilled to note big changes in self awareness, sensitivity, and character since his visit last May.  His sense of humor is as irreverent as ever, and deep down he has a pretty good grasp of life.

As a parent, you can’t ask for better than that!

Until next time….

🙂 🙂 🙂

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Wordless Wednesday: January 8, 2013

“It’s 8° in Boston, but who cares?”
-John K. Mulhern

😉 6 hours later…
“Maybe I should’ve worn block!?”

We’re having so much fun playing Bananagrams and Scrabble, and just all around hanging out. 🙂

Until next time…..

The tall gene didn’t come from us!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Good Morning!

This week’s photo challenge asks us to share our first activity of the day.  Since photos of using the bathroom and taking meds are respectively disgusting and boring, I”ll start with “Good Morning” rituals #3 and #4: brewing a Keurig (I suffer from K-cup obsession!) and stepping outside to greet the day!  As a transplanted northerner, you have NO IDEA how good it feels to do this year round without benefit of long underwear/heavy clothes! 🙄 only slightly exaggerating, here! 🙄

Today, I was met by Super Cosmos at peak bloom…and height!  It’s not often you stand under a flower and look up through a lens:

The largest one topped out at 8’2″!!!l

On especially pretty days, I forego the K-cup and say Good Morning to the Seaside Grille, instead:

and then I return to my favorite chair, in my favorite spot: Good Morning Jaycee Beach

Sometimes I step outside and see the unusual:

A rainbow in the western sky at 8:12am! Sept. 17 was a very Good Morning, indeed!

For other Good Morning images, be sure to check out the related Zemanta links below!

Until next time….

🙂 🙂 🙂

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Let me tell you about New Smyrna Beach!

Blue sky meets 13 miles of white sand at New Smyrna Beach, consistently voted one of Florida’s “Best Beaches” by a variety of publications.

Driving on New Smyrna is a tradition that dates back to the earliest days of the automobile. This past Sunday, Maggie and I took our first leisurely cruise on the wide, hard-packed sands.  Of course, I had to lean out the passenger window for photos.  🙂

New Smyrna lies at the mouth of the Indian River, 5miles from a rocky ledge (in the Atlantic Ocean) that creates steep, wedging waves that break near its inlet. Despite being off-season, hundreds of cars lined this laid-back surfing outpost, so we banged a U-ey, and headed south:

As you can see, clouds were forming in the southwest, beginning a slow build toward the late-day downpour typical of Florida’s east coast.

Realizing we wouldn’t find a good parking spot on the sand, we decided to exit onto Flagler Avenue, a quaint seaside strip of restaurants and shoppes.  Finding a way off  the beach is easier said than done, though!  We kept driving….

and driving…but when we finally reached the Flagler “exit” it was just another one way egress!  (click on pic below for an enlarged view of the entrance ramp)

So we forged on:

Finally, beyond this next group of entrepreneurs, we found the way out:

Seeing the huge “Food” sign reminded us we’d skipped breakfast!  We wound our way back to Chuckeyta’s Surfing Sea Monkey Shack, the best little coffeeshop on Flagler.

We ordered two Jamaica Me Crazy coffees and enjoyed the wonderfully air-conditioned interior. For those who don’t mind the heat, outdoor porch seating is also available:

There’s more I’d love to show you about New Smyrna, but my smartphone died as we left the coffeeshop!  On our next trip there, I hope to visit the historic Little Drug Co., a 100yr old drugstore with a real, working soda fountain, and the old Egyptian-styled canals that date back to British colonization in 1768.  New Smyrna Beach was recently placed on a list of the ‘100 Best Small Art Towns in America’ so there are galleries to explore and a Surf Film Festival to attend this Fall and again next Spring.

So much to see and do!

Until next time……

🙂 🙂 🙂

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting

I’ve been loving the recent Photo Challenge topics!  This week, we’re asked to share images of something fleeting so I’ve decided to focus on the weather!

During the first week of May, Vero Beach was alternately shrouded in haze, drowning in rain, or baking under the sun.  As you can see in these pictures, all three seem to be happening at once….that’s what I call fleeting weather!

A thundercloud above cast our chairs into shadow, but looking toward the east you can see the sun’s glare and the hazy outline of people playing in the surf!  Such strange, fleeting light that day!

Although it’s early in the challenge week, many bloggers have already posted EXCELLENT submissions, so be sure to click the Zemanta links, below. 🙂  I’ll be back for another shot at this topic in a day or so.

Until next time…..

🙂 🙂 🙂

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond

I was beyond thrilled when beyond was chosen as this week’s photo challenge ➡ During our trip to Miami last Mother’s Day, I took the perfect pics!  Let’s begin. 🙂

Beyond the park at 18th Street, a glimpse of the Atlantic:

Beyond the entrance, colorful cabanas shrouded in sea-mist

Beyond the cabanas, a menacing sky:

I hope you enjoyed my journey to the beyond! To see where others went, click on the Zemanta provided links below

Until next time….

🙂 🙂 🙂

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Wordless Wednesday: January 16, 2013

50 Tsunami Hazard signs have recently popped up along Vero’s  A1A beaches.

But are they necessary or another waste of Federal taxpayer money?

Click this short news video to help you decide AND see one of my fave spots, The Driftwood! 🙂

Until next time…..

🙂 🙂 🙂

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Geometry

This week’s challenge asks for photos that highlight “the shapes and rhythms that make up the geometry of our world.”  At first I thought it would be difficult, but on a trip to the beach last Sunday, I noticed geometry all around me: 🙂

Cement cubes, triangular shadehouses, and hedges sculpted to look like arcs…..all examples of applied mathematics at work.

But geometry is not the province of man alone.

Nature reveals her own complex pattern of spirals and swirls. The Fibonacci Sequence (a common geometric curve structure) is seen in seashells and cresting waves:

And what of hyperbolic geometry in which the surface of an object curves away from itself along any given point?  Coincidentally, marine organisms with “ruffles”  grow in ways that perfectly illustrate the mathematical form of hyperbolic geometry, like this piece of coral washed ashore on Jaycee Beach:

For more information on Hyperbolic Geometry, check out this YouTube lecture:

To see how other bloggers interpreted this week’s challenge, click the Zemanta links below:

Until next time…..

🙂 🙂

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary

I took this picture on Sunday and thought it a perfect representation of solitary.

One second later and she’d have been gone!!! 🙂

This next image illustrates solitary gone awry….or said another way: when the hand of man interferes with the hand of God, strange things happen 😉

See those little plantlets along the leaf margins?  Those are new Mexican Donkey Ear “daughters” coming out in force because I removed the original solitary new growth (note the notch near the leaftip.)   Not my brightest idea ➡ sensing annhilation it just produced more!

Nature’s survival instinct outsmarted my desire for less of this succulent. 😉

Time for Plan B!

Until next time….

🙂

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