I grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast, enjoying Galveston's "Stewart Beach" and Freeport's "Surfside" . . . David grew up in south Texas, admiring Padre Island, just a few miles from Mexico. Fortunately, neither of us saw the "Emerald Coast" end of the Gulf until we moved to Tennessee 23 years ago. Our first family vacation was to Sandestin with three preschoolers in tow . . . at once they were hooked on the clear, turquoise water, soft white sand and abundant shells. As our kids grew, we tried several different spots along the Florida panhandle--most of them pure, blissful playgrounds. One vacation our middle schooler realized that "Someday I could live on the beach if I wanted to . . . yeah, I'm gonna find a college down here!" (same son who graduated from a college where kayaking and snowboarding were P.E. options). Once the kids left for college, we'd still find time for long weekends at various ocean spots . . . but a new pattern emerged. . . it would rain every day or . . . we would arrive during a hurricane evacuation or . . . we would arrive as an unexpected tropical storm hit (at least we were the hotel where the media and insurance people rode it out) . . . even our 25th anniversary trip to Maui dealt us rain 5/8 days--"We've never seen rain like this in decades" read the newspaper announcing the cancellation of Honolulu's Centennial.
But true beach lovers are not easily deterred . . . our latest road trip included several days at the same resort where our kids first discovered the glorious beach life. Despite our friends' jokes about bad beach karma, we soaked in several hours of sun, blue skies and emerald seas on our first full day. Until about 3:00 pm. When the sky turned black. And the flag changed to red. And our "umbrella neighbors" exclaimed, "Dios mio!" as we all retreated to the hotel. Could it really be true? Should we head for the hills? Nah. A few hours later, the sky returned to blue, the breeze cooled the evening, and the most vivid full moon lit up the sand where people were still playing volleyball well after midnight.
