An Impromptu Excursion To the Beach

The dear husband and I stared out at the overcast, drizzling sky and both agreed....we didn't want to be trapped in the house all day. We brushed ourselves off, grabbed car-keys, my purse, and hit the road in search of something to do. We thought to stop over at one of the local smoke-shops to see if they might be open...but sadly, no...no purchasing of cotton-candy flavored hookah shisha for us today. Then we strolled into the quaint pawnshop next door, and not seeing anything we just couldn't live without, we thanked the proprietor and left. Back on the road again, we drove down one street till we hit open country and turned back. What to do and where to go??? The dear husband then had the idea of going over to Padre Island and I enthusiastically consented. So over the bay and through the storm we go...watching the windshield be pelted with fat raindrops, and wondering....did I wear the right shoes for this(nope). Not really finding any adventure in the shops that lined the highway, we noticed a sign for the Padre Island National Seashore ( http://www.nps.gov/pais/) and decided to check it out. Eight miles and $10 for-the-week later, we hit paydirt( or should that be paysand??)...there was the gulf in all it's watery-splendor. Thankfully, the rain had stopped for the most part and even though the clouds threatened with deluge, they respectfully held off. Now you have to understand, our first duty station as a married couple was Jacksonville, Fl. It was there that I fell madly, passionately in love with the ocean; the smell of the salty air, the sound of the crashing waves hitting the beach, the squishy feeling of wet sand between your toes....oh there's almost nothing better on earth! Living in Pa, for the last 5 years, I had forgotten just how much I truly love the shore, so my first whiff of salt-scented breeze and I was near 7th heaven. We walked down along the beach( remember those shoes I mentioned earlier? Yeah totally not right for the beach) and I snapped pictures of birds playing in the surf, the shore meeting with the sullen sky, my husband freezing, and anything else that caught our eye. That's when my husband spotted this large object, lying on the sand, and we went over to invistigate. The beach is always a great place to find treasures from the sea and this was indeed a prime example of such. Sitting there, covered with barnacles and sea grass, was the T.V. pictured above. Yes ladies and gents, I said a T.V. It seems you can't go anywhere these days and escape the reaches of television, but I digress. Even with the storm, the chilly air, definitely the wrong shoes, and the camera batteries running out at just the wrong moment, it ended up being one of the best days I've had in a long, long time. I love impromptu excursions to the beach!!