For 19 years my husband and I have travelled to a patch of sand on the “redneck riviera,” the panhandle which encompasses Alabama and Florida. From Gulf Shores to Seaside, the white sandy beaches are amazing, the blue and green waters of the gulf mesmerising and the Apalachicola Oysters stuff of legend. Today I sat in a local coffee shop here in Cincinnati thinking about the sandy paths that run through Seaside, the white picket fences and wide front porches. The rosemary and pine. And I wondered about our upcoming pilgrimage to our favorite place on the planet. Where time slows down and the only errand you might entertain for the day is a visit to Sundog Books with it’s old itchy black lab padding around the wood planked floors amidst stacks of books by southern writers great and small.
This is a place that lets us all exhale. It is where we shake off great clumps of care and worry and dig our toes in the sand. We eat fried chicken and fried hushpuppies and cheese grits and hot dogs and shake the crumbs off onto the floor to rest with the sand our towels brought in. We ride bikes everywhere. A good day is a day when the car doesn’t leave it’s spot in the shade and we tromp off after a day at the shore to cocktails at the Tarpon Bar where there is a daily contest to guess the exact moment of the sunset. Then on to dinner with our cheeks and shoulders radiating heat from the day’s sun.
View From The East Ruskin Pavilion at Seaside
We have swum with dolphins and, unfortunately, sharks. Protected turtle nests and smiled at geckos and bright green frogs with suction cup toes. All manner of birds and bugs and scrub pine and the nicest smell of sandalwood (even though I know it doesn’t grow there I swear I can smell it). My children have grown up to the sights and sounds of Seaside and I have grown there too. I worry, deeply, what will happen to this place, this beautiful place. Will we get there soon enough this year to see it’s glorious mornings and spectacular sunsets? Hunt crabs on the beach with flashlights? Slide into the canvass deck chairs with a stack of books and peer into the shallows from time to time looking for sharks inside the sand bar? With less than a month to go we are counting the days. I’ll keep you posted.
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