A Saturday Morning Walk

Gracie and I just returned from a nice long Saturday morning walk. Even before noon, it's hot and humid. I'm sitting here with a tall glass of fresh, homemade lemonade - nothing like it for quenching a thirst.

We crossed Estero at the Mango Street access - there's no crosswalk, so it's sort of a no-no, but the closest crosswalk is at the Chapel Street access, and there's a year-long litigation going on between the Town and the adjacent property owner, and I am staying as far away from that area as I can! When Gracie's nostrils fill with the salt air, she lunges and pulls me to the shore. I kick off my flip-flops and tuck them in the back of my shorts. The tide is strong, incoming, and high. The surf is kicked up and the water is turbid. The sky is partly cloudy and the humidity is high. There is a lot of beach activity, with all the parasail, jet-ski and umbrella and lounge chair vendors setting up in anticipation of a busy day.

We've had a lot of rain this past week, and the storms have kicked up the gulf. The shoreline has large deposits of shells turned up from the sea floor, that have not yet been bleached or broken. We pass a group of women in the "sanibel stoop" as it's been known, bent over with a shirt-sack full of sea shells. We strolled past the Lani Kai, a rare glimpse of its bare blue canvas chairs, which will be completely filled with bathing suit bodies before the day is through.

Passing in front of the Beach Pierside Grill, the tide is way up on the seawall, forcing us to walk knee deep to get up to the pier. We walked up to Times Square where merchants served breakfast al fresco and set up their outdoor displays of t-shirts and sand toys. Remembering an ad in the beach paper about a new building about to have a grand opening, I decided to walk down and check it out. The building is in the place of a favorite spot of mine; Dockside. Dockside had the BEST pizza and wings EVER. They have been around forever, and the building was falling down. So the owners tore it down and are replacing it with a type of "shopping village." They promise me they will have their famous pizza and wings. We'll see.

We paused at the fountain and gazebo at the back bay. Two public works guys who work for the Town were doing their rounds, and we chatted briefly. I noticed that the bay was far calmer than the gulf and momentarily thought I could take my kayak out in the bay. We returned home on the sidewalk. As we passed a paid parking lot, the attendant gave Gracie two milkbone cookies. (She would probably have prefered a drink of water!) As we walked in front of the DiamondHead Beach Resort, Gracie just laid down. In the shade, and panted.... and panted. Poor thing - I guess she was tuckered out. (This was a longer walk than we normally take). So I stood along the walk, while she rested.

We couldn't get in the house fast enough. Ahh. Air conditioning! Water! Gracie raced to her water dish and I juiced some lemons. I'd been thinking about a tall glass of fresh lemonade for the past thirty minutes or so!

I have a long list of things that I need to and want to accomplish today and tomorrow. I have the usual laundry, dishes, cleaning stuff, I have several new books (oh! That reminds me to get to the library before 1:00 today!) that I ordered from Amazon that arrived this week. My garden could use some attention (although the lillies are blooming! How delightful!). And somewhere in here and there I need to buy a camera.

Have a wonderful Saturday, and glorious weekend!