Early to Rise

When you get up early and head out to the beach you sometimes are in for a great surprise! That surprise today is that we were pretty close to the only ones on the Air Force beach. We flashed our ID and with in a few steps we were on the sugar white sands of the Emerald Coast. The gulf was beautiful this morning. The water was brilliant greens and blues, just like the water in the Virgin Islands. With no one except the birds wandering the shore line, we had a great time. The water was cool, but once you get your shoulders wet it was no big deal! Plus, the cool water is a nice retreat from the suns 100 degree rays beating down on us.
After 45 minutes in the water we took a little stroll down the sandy shore to take a few pictures. We found some great drift wood formations.

Since we are only 15 miuntes from the beach we stayed for an hour and half, then stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up all the stuff we need for the weekend of entertaining the family! Tonight we will head back to Eglin Air Force Beach for sunset after we have dinner.
What an awesome place to live!

Missing the water

Back in Florida it was a regular thing to grab your swimsuit and head out for some aquatic therapy. Swimming that is. There is nothing better than a hot summer day than to run full speed, jump, canon ball into a sparkling pool of water. Of course, in Florida the pools are outside, or in a screened area, but we are not as fortunate in the weather department as they are in the south, I guess an indoor pool would be a good alternative. Up here, pools are only a summer fling, and some people that I have encountered living here, admitted they have never gone swimming. I can't fully understand that, but it is what it is.

If I had decided to make Chicago my home, I would have had to set up my own spa area, where I could retreat from the winter and become revitalized despite what was happening outside. The winter blues could easily be dismissed with your own indoor hydrotherapy pool! I can see it now, swimming inside, with the snow falling outside.

For me, in the winter, it is hard to get motivated to do any sort of exercise. With the resistance jets of a swim spa I could get all the exercise I care to within the comforts of my home. The pool is not just for exercise either, many of them feature jets for massage. I would even just enjoy hanging out in the pool just to relax. With the water heater, the pool would be like a gigantic bathtub, nothing more relaxing than that! I can just imagine the pool with it's crystal clear water, slightly warmed by a pool heater, how inviting that sounds right about now.
A girl can dream.