Beach beauties

The moon tonight, distorted by the camera into a mini-sun illuminating the fading day.

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The ocean and, closer, the deck and the pool, a minute later, the clouds smothering the sky.

Sarah's caramel cake, which tasted even better than it looks.

Beach life, like most life, is full of beauty of all kinds, but here it's easier to pause to notice the loveliness.

Sunset, with thunderclouds and occasional lightning

The picture does not do it justice, but do click on the photo for a better view.

The storm never hit us, but the threatening clouds demanded our attention.  Lucky for us, for they were beautiful.

Busy doing nothing

I'm accomplishing very little here at the beach, but I manage to be quite busy nonetheless.  Sleeping, reading, walking, lunching, splashing in the pool, sitting in the hot tub, watching movies, and eating fill the days.  Each day, I feel a bit more rested, but I'm not up to fully rested yet.

Another good reason to go to sleep.

Beach time is chillin' time

It's amazing how little you can do and fill a day. I'm working at mastering that technique, and so far, I'm doing quite well.

I am definitely enjoying the break.

I love being here.

Grilling at the beach

It's the Fourth of July, so we must obey the traditions.

I listened to Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers sing one of my favorite songs of his, "Fourth of July."  I do love that one.

We grilled burgers and dogs because, America.  Being at the beach, though, I had to resort to charcoal.

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I might have over-filled the Weber with charcoal because, damn, it was hot, hot enough to take off hand hair.

The burgers just fit

and turned out delicious but with a bit too much carbon; that was totally my fault. Yeah, that's 18 burgers on that grill.

Later, Kyle split a hot dog and added pimento cheese and bacon.

Oh, heck, yeah, that looked good.

Some even went to the grill much later and made s'mores.

I did not, but they're not a dessert I enjoy. Others did seem to like them.

On a serious note, our country is the most divided it's been in my life. Each side in the great political debate spends all of its time attacking the other side and nearly none of its time listening to those other viewpoints. This saddens me, because down this road, nothing good happens.

So, my wish for our country on its birthday is that we all pause to realize that we have more in common than not, that we are all Americans, and that if we can all come together to find solutions to our toughest problems, we can indeed remain a nation united.

What passes for a busy day at the beach

Sleep late.

Stroll and chat for two miles.

Pool.

Shower.

Lunch.

Grocery shopping.

Read.

Poker.

Nap.

Read.

Hot tub.

Pool.

And off to dinner.

Beach life is simple life.

The beach house says "Hi!"

As you can see, it and the beach wanted to send their greetings.

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They are doing quite well, thank you very much.

Sarah also wanted to say hello. She is toasting you with her drink, which is prosecco with a watermelon-mojito popsicle in it.

Yes, that's a thing down here.

All is well in beach land. At the Mexican restaurant, though, a new menu has appeared, and it features a new set of dishes, the "skillets." I tried one.

Fortunately, it was tasty.

Back to beach life.