Katherine and Rich took Pat, Mike and I to a vacation resort on the Gulf of Mexico – Panama City Beach in Florida. Wow – what a view from the room – and the colors of the sea and the sky soothed my restless spirit – I get skin cancer, so I limited my time to the pool to when the sun went down or was low in the sky. Mike loves the open water, so he and his sisters were in the Gulf walking through the waves every day - well, Mike surfed them as he usually does. He turned a wonderful shade of golden brown – while I turn red and splotchy – the Irish side beat out the Spanish side for my skin tone and color – I was almost scared to go to the pool – everyone would need sunglasses when my white thighs were unveiled. Of course, they’ve been in jeans my entire life. I did wear shorts once in Hawaii and got sun poisoning and ended up tearing up my skin up (read: scars).
So while I felt weird staying in the room a lot for the first few days, I did get some necklaces done and I started two books – three magazines and watched several movies – just the things I do to RELAX. It was great! Mike and I bought our food and cooked it while the others were on a TRUE vacation and went out to eat most of the time. Their tales of six huge French Toasts made from “breakfast bread” sounded yummy. We all went out to dinner one night to a seafood restaurant – Captain Anderson’s – and let me tell you, my cold shrimp was the BEST. I also had a Kaluha Pina Colada – it took me days to digest everything. The meal was terrific and the service was so good – I can’t imagine what it’s like to work in such a popular place. The waitress kept calling me ‘Hon and it made me smile. (Ok, I put the feminist back in the pocket for a while).
A good time was had and more importantly, we put fun back up to a priority for a while and it felt good. Mike and I took pictures of the “at the shore” wildness at the beachside stores – I started looking at them with a new eye – as a kid it was so cool to play miniature golf – when I saw the one there – it scared the crap out of me. Check out the pics. You can see me in the mouth of the whale photo.
One night I was floating alone in the pool. I was looking at the sky with its stars – the sounds were muted because my ears were underwater – I let the water lift me and carry me – carry my worries and pain away for a while. I had a moment of complete peace with the universe. I reconnected with a good feeling.
Filed under: Writing & Other Creative Endeavors, writing and other creative endeavors | Tagged: florida, panama city beach, pool, resorts, sunshine, vactions
