the beach

So we take the kiddies out to the beach after dinner to play in the surf till sunset. We get out to Clearwater Beach, the spot right past the little fire station and Frenchey’s and we walk out past the dunes to the surf. The kids dart straight to the water and get down to the serious business of playing in the ankle deep waves.

Over the seagulls and the whisper (I think I’m supposed to say roar here, but this is the gulf we’re talking about) of the surf I hear german and british accents nearby and I’m reminded of how amazing a place it is that I get to live. I mean, people work and save and pick out their hotels and email their friends and facebook about how excited they are about coming here. Then they fly a quarter of the way around the world to hang out right in my back yard!

The next night, Lisa and Jay got married right down the beach a few hundred yards at the Hilton. They flew in from Ohio, and all their friends and family with them because they thought the gulf would be an awesome place to exchange their vows. And I gotta agree.

Good families make for good families, anybody could tell from a glance how much Lisa's dad loved her.... 

 ...and that Jay's mom thought he was the greatest...

...and that makes for a good dad.