Here’s my choice for the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Relax.
I took it my last night on Zanzibar, before I began the hectic process of returning to America and back to ‘real life’. Stress of airports and TSA BS pretty much negated the beautiful peaceful month I spent traveling overseas.
Internet still really SUCKS, but here’s what I get to look at in the meantime. 🙂
I haven’t posted the last couple of days. I needed a break after finishing up the A to Z Challenge. I’m not used to posting every day and it was exhausting. It was fun and a great way to meet other bloggers, but I’m glad it’s over.
Today I’m back with a post for the Daily Post. The first one in a while I feel like I can respond to. I don’t really like what they’ve been doing lately with their ‘one word’ challenges. But I do know a lot about the beach. 😉
I’m from Florida. I spent a lot of time on the beach where I grew up, around Madeira Beach. It used to be so nice, quiet and peaceful. It was very relaxed and we were able to enjoy it pretty much every day.
I was never into sun bathing. As a redhead, I get sun burned easily, so I try to avoid just roasting myself. I liked to go swimming and snorkeling, shell hunting, observing the plants and animals, and just walking along the water. Friends would start up a game of frisbee, touch football, or volleyball. Sometimes we would have a BBQ with a bonfire.
I remember going out to Egmont Key, just outside Tampa Bay. We would head out in the Island Girl and raft up with a bunch of other sailors. We would spend the weekend out there, playing with our friends (all ages- from babies to oldsters). We had some really great times.
When I moved to Texas, I used to spend a lot of time on the beach at Surfside and Bryan Beach. My class would go down there to practice taking sights for our celestial navigation. We would go camp out for the weekends, have a bonfire where we’d cook out, sing songs, tell sea stories and play music.
I still like to go to Surfside. I love to go in the Winter when it’s quiet. I like to sit and watch the water, listen to the wind and the waves, watch the birds, look for shells, and just enjoy the peace away from everybody.
I travel a lot and there’s usually a beach involved at some point there too. In Thailand, it’s Phuket. In Indonesia (Bali), it’s Kuta. In Mexico, it’s Cancun, but I have to say Puerto Vallarta is hard to beat. 😉
Do you have a favorite beach? Which one? Why?
Today we had ourselves videotaped. We were all nervous in class and spent every minute practicing our grammar points and introductions. We went over to the other classroom (out of the glare) and we each got to present our grammar points in front of the camera. I’ll put up a link when they make it available.
Afterwards, I taught my one student again, we reviewed adverbs and adjectives and then had a few conversations to try and get the idea of how we show interest in English across. I think it went pretty well. Tomorrow we’ll start a new lesson and then it’s the weekend!
I went to watch the sunset on the beach right behind my apartment. There was a girl sitting out near the water with her little dachshund puppy. I enjoyed watching it running around and having so much fun.
It was a beautiful sunset, the tide was low today so I didn’t get soaked like last time. It was nice, with a little breeze and watching the sailboats, birds and the little puppy on the beach. Puerto Vallarta really is a great place to spend time. I could definitely see myself staying here for a while. 🙂
We’ve all been looking forward to our excursion to Sayulita and Nahui. We took off at around 1030 this morning, it took around an hour to get to Sayulita.
It’s a funky looking little town, with narrow winding cobblestone streets. Brightly colored 2-3 story houses line the roads. Shops selling clothes, jewelry, crafts, tourist and surfing stuff seemed to be the majority of things to see. There were plenty of bars, restaurants and coffee shops around too.
In the square, they had set up a market with local artists selling their wares. This was the most interesting to me. They were teaching a bunch of little girls how to weave, and they even had a yoga session for the kids. That was fun to watch. 🙂
The beach was very crowded and full of surfers. It looked like a good place to learn to surf and I guess it must be, since I saw at least 3 different surf schools in the 10 minutes I spent on the beach!
Sayulita seems like a cool little town, but I think a little too crowded for me, and for sure too touristy! I had enough of that in Florida.
So, we piled back into the car and headed to Nahui. It was a nice drive through forested mountains, catching glimpses of the blue-green ocean every few minutes. We arrived to a full parking lot and I was wondering what happened to the nice, quiet isolated beach we were hoping for?
The view from the edge of the cliff behind the parking lot was stunning. The ocean was clear all the way to Tahiti! You could see the mountains lining the bay far off in the distance and a couple of islands way offshore. A few sailboats were out enjoying the beautiful weather offshore.
We found the stairs (thank god) and wandered down the beach til we found a good spot up near the rocky cliffs to camp out.
The water was cold at first but after a minute it was perfect. The waves were a lot bigger than I was used to. We just don’t get large waves in the Gulf of Mexico (except when there’s a hurricane coming close). The waves stirred up a lot of sand and there really wasn’t any calm water til you got out past where the waves started breaking.
I never did manage that. I got washed around pretty good for a while. Gave it up and took a break. The sun started getting to me so I went back in the water for a while. It was OK if I stayed close to shore.
As the afternoon was ending, we were all pretty beat and ready to head back home. I was nodding asleep in the car til we would hit a sleeping policeman going a little too fast. Whoa! That’ll wake you up!
What a day! Just got back from a day out exploring the beach town of Sayulita and the beautiful beach of Nahui.
We left at 1015, just got home. It’s 1930. I’m a little burned and beat. There was no shade (and I forgot my suntan lotion) and the waves were awesome.
I’ve got to go get some dinner. I’ll post a few photos when I get back. 🙂
Horizon from the beach
I took this on the beach while I was at the International Living conference at the Mayakoba resort near Playa del Carmen Mexico.
Anyone else going out to the beach cleanup this morning? I posted this to my mariners meetup group (www.meetup.com/boating-39) calendar a couple of weeks ago (thanks P.) but only know of 1 other person going. I’ll be there (Surfside). 🙂
I know they do this worldwide. The link to the Ocean Conservancy at the bottom of my post will take you to their website and there you can find a location near you. I’m not exactly sure if they have it the same date as we do. Here we do it twice a year, in the Spring and in the Fall.
Click the links for more information!
http://www.glo.texas.gov/adopt-a-beach/cleanups/participate.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TMFQOrOk3Fo
http://www.oceanconservancy.org/our-work/international-coastal-cleanup/sign-up-to-clean-up.html
Riviera Maya near Cozumel April 2013
I was in Mexico for a conference (moving overseas by International Living). It was great but not nearly enough time to enjoy these beautiful beaches;-)