No Access

Route 30A stretches along about 30 miles of the Florida panhandle coastline.  Lots of people each year drive a long way to get to 30A or one of the other strips close to the water.  Staying at the beach, after all, is fun.  Most of the property bordering the beach, however, is privately owned, so it's unlikely that you'll just be able to park your car anywhere and walk down the water.  What you will see is this:  Gates and signs and fences, and I'm sure this is true for many beaches in the country.  You can be really close to the water, but you will not be allowed to just walk to it.  You will have to find, unless you own a bit of that property next to the water, or unless you are staying at a place next to the water, an access point in which the public is allowed to pass.  If you look, you will find government-guaranteed walkways every few miles, almost like secret entrances.  That is your access point, your walkway to the ocean.

Sunset on the Beach

I saw the sun setting, the reflection stretching across the water to the horizon.  This was odd only in the sense I don't see it very often and it was very striking.  I saw a pelican nose dive for a fish, then I watched him swallow the fish.  I looked at a seagull and it looked at me, waiting for something, food, I think.  I listened to Mozart on my iPod while I walked along the shore, and everything seems so much more grand when you listen to Mozart, even a sunset at the beach.  I saw a guy sitting on bongo drum of some sort, and he banged on his drum, I guess along with the beat from the music on his MP3 player.  A sand crab came out early and I poked around a little bit at him with a stick, though I didn't harm him.  I didn't take this photograph; I just wanted to add a visual.

Can I have some Jesus?

Again, Nathan, with an odd religious remark, or at least what we thought was a religious remark.  He walks into the kitchen while we were talking about Sunday's message and asks, "Can I have some Jesus?" That cracked us up.  But then we realized, he was asking for Cheez-Its, not Jesus, and that cracked us up some more.

Water on Four Sides

I Thought You Were God

I called to Nathan, our four-year-old, the other day from my office window; he was playing outside on the front steps.  He looked up and around and couldn't see me.  I called again and he found me in the office window.  He laughed and said, "I thought you were God."