we stopped at home to regroup, then made the rather long drive down to marco island. i know a woman who has a condo there, and she told me that she and her husband love to just hang out on the beach, and that marco island is a lovely place. mom and wanda read about it in a guidebook and wanted to see it, but i wasn’t exactly sure what we’d see that might be different from naples. it was a trafficky trip, and we drove over a huge bridge to get there.
the woman i know said that they like the south side of the island, so i decided to head for the south beach. it’s a large island, and lined with huge condos, like on ft. myers beach, and in naples. we did find parking across the wide street – it was a flat $8 fee, but somebody who was leaving gave us her pass, which was certainly nice of her. we carried our beach chairs and marched across the street and down the long walkway toward the beach.
yaaaaay, we made it! it was about five o’clock here, not too far from sunset…but would mom and wanda be content to sit and stare at the waves? because i could do that exclusively.
i also love to watch the birds running all around on the beach. i guess there’s really nothing about the beach that i don’t love.
i didn’t know what this meant – it says “feel the bern,” and wanda pointed out that they were talking about bernie sanders. nice piece of sand sculpture.
next to it was this church, but somebody had smashed in the roof. terrorists?
it was breezy, and got a little nippy, and mom and wanda didn’t want to stay on the beach anymore. but it was so close to sunset! they said they were cold and going to go to the car. hmmm. if i’d been completely accommodating, i’d have said, “sure, let’s go back to our place,” but it was less than an hour til the sun was going to set, i’d done a large amount of driving all day, and i just wanted to see the sun set over the water.
whenever mom tells people that i like to see the sun set over the ocean, she kind of acts like i’m a little bit bonkers. but it’s something i love, and how many times in my life will i have the opportunity to see the sun set over the ocean? not many. and since it was so very close to happening, i decided i’d let them go and try to find some warmth for a while. maybe they could sit in the car and complain about my irrationality. i didn’t care.
i was happy to sit there, and wrapped myself in my towel to keep warm.
the beach hadn’t been crowded when we got there, but it was really starting to empty out.
i decided to walk on the sand a little, and was immediately much warmer. the water didn’t even feel too cold. i passed this place, which i think was an open-air restaurant, and i thought it was open, but it’s kind of hard to tell. surely it mus have been open, otherwise it’d have been wrecked by the elements.
wanda called me – they had decided to go the restaurant we’d passed overlooking the beach, and they’d come back to my chair to find me but i was gone. i told them i was walking, and i’d meet them back at the restaurant.
of course i kept taking pictures of the sunset, but managed to whittle them down to show you.
here’s my lonely beach chair.
after the sun set, i joined them in the restaurant, and my feet and shoes were so very filled with sand. i made a messy trail over the carpeting to the table inside where they were sitting. mom and wanda said everybody in the restaurant cheered when the sun went down. but the place was loud and filled with many, many TVs – and yet there were big windows looking out on the beach.
i had a lovely glass of wine, fortification for the drive back. it wasn’t as long now, because not as much traffic. we stopped by a lucky’s grocery store, and i saw this sign.
i bought some malted milk balls. they were delicious.
a perfect day, because i got to see the sun set over the ocean.
ok then,
mrs. h.
I’m glad you stayed to watch & photo the sunset! It was gorgeous…. I think the last sunset picture looks like a whale tail flipping as the rest of the whale dives under the surface and into the setting sun! This is one you should do in watercolor!!!
thanks, honey!!!