Florida Living Done Right

gulf

The last couple of days were great, reflective in a way, and yet also a strange reminder of how sometimes I don’t feel as though I’m “living in Florida right.”

Yesterday we spent the afternoon out and about – went to have lunch at a restaurant by the water over where my Dad is staying, and then sat outside and talked a while longer before heading down to Clearwater Beach in an attempt to catch the sunset. We didn’t make it, but we walked with Christopher along the beach anyways, then poked around some of the gift shops and strolled down Pier 60 out into the water a ways.

I love looking down the coastline and seeing it all lit up from the various hotels and festivities, with the sound of the waves rolling up onto the shore around us.

One of the hotels looked like it even had a giant TV that it was projecting onto the side of one of its walls on the top – very cool!

Two days prior to that, while we were out getting Christopher is first haircut we stopped at a new seafood place by our house and had a great lunch just enjoying the atmosphere, showing Christopher all of the giant fish that were mounted up on the walls, and even giving him his first taste of conch fritters! 🙂

And I guess I classify some of this as strange simply because between all of the waves and the delicious crab and the random Corona (which I haven’t had in ages), it all seemed to come together in a way that made me yearn for that part of Florida that we probably don’t step out to enjoy nearly as often as we should. It was great to hear the island music playing in the distance and see people running around in swim suits everywhere and breathe the air coming in off the gulf.

It makes me sad that we live as far away from the actual coast as we do…

Of course the real trouble is, waterfront real estate is really expensive!!! Trust me – I spent far too much time this afternoon skimming over listings yet again, and even just empty lots that we could build on are few and far between. Yet as Sara and I talk about having more kids and expanding the family, I think we’re both starting to feel a little stir crazy in this house and it gets us thinking about our dream house that we eventually want to move into where we’ll (in theory) live out the rest of our days in relaxing luxury! 😉

Maybe that million-dollar beachfront estate is still a few years off, but in the meantime I don’t think it’s too far out of line to say that my life could use a little more of the following in it…

  • time spent at the beach
  • shrimp and crabs
  • Jimmy Buffett music
  • relaxation a la waves
  • seashells

*sigh*

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