The Water's Edge

The first picture I ever posted on Facebook was of me and my kids, but the second was a picture of my feet in the sand.

There's just something about the beach. Maybe it's because I lived in Florida as a child, but if I'm too far inland, I get antsy. Where I live now in San Antonio is about 2 hours from the beach and that's about and hour and 45 minutes too far away. :) I don't know how people can live in South Dakota, for example. I'd be claustrophobic. I lived in Lubbock and Oklahoma, but I always knew it was temporary, and I went to the water often.  

There's nothing like sitting on the beach and gazing out into the endless horizon. Listening to the waves crash into the shore. The sound of seagulls. The smell of salt.  The wind whipping through my hair. Of course, let's be real here: when that happens I'm typically sitting in a fabulous beach house with a glass of wine in my hand. I admit that I have a love/hate relationship with sand and sunscreen. 

The beach is what really calls to me but I can make do with a good sized lake or river as well. It's not the same, but I'm always comforted at the water's edge. I probably couldn't love San Antonio as much as I do without it's proximity to places like the Guadalupe River and Canyon Lake. 

I don't have a really big bucket list. My life has been so awesome already that I'm pretty content with it, but if there was one thing I could do tomorrow, it would be to buy a little vacation house on the beach, but close enough to home. I'd decorate it with all that tacky stuff you see in souvenir shops like seashell lamps and night lights and framed anchors and nautical knots and pillows with seahorses and dolphins on them. I'd go there often, at least once a month, and sit on my little patio or deck with a glass of wine and watch the setting sun. 

Next week I'm going to stay in North Padre Island with friends and family for 6 days with no agenda other than that. Cheers to the beach!

My photo albums are filled with pictures from the water's edge:  here are a few from over the past 30 years.  

2014, Avila Beach in Southern California for Lacey's internship

2014, first beach selfie, Corpus Christi, Texas

2014, North Padre Beach, Texas with old friends

2013, St Pete Beach, Florida for the Singer Family Reunion

2012 The Florida Keys, Wechsler family Reunion*

2012 Sunset in the Florida Keys

Zoe and I on some beach in the Keys in 2012

2011 the beach house in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

2011, my mom and I on Myrtle Beach

2011 Galveston Beach,  when Lacey went to the beach for college

2010 Corpus Christi, TX at the Lexington

2009 Pensacola, Florida with the girls

2009 Panama City, Florida para-sailing with my dad

2008 Port Aransas, Texas with Zoe

 

2007, The Comal River

2007 Corpus

 

 

 

2006 Destin, Florida we loved so much we went 2 years in a row

2005 in Destin, Florida para-sailing with Lacey

2005 Destin, Florida with the extended family*

2005 Hawaii with my girls

2004 in the Florida Keys on a jet ski*

2003, Canyon Lake

2002, Zoe with her feet in the backyard  pool

2001 Myrtle Beach Family Reunion*

2001 Marble Falls. TX

2000, Catalina Island, California with my sister

2000 Catalina Island, California, every picture I took there is postcard worthy

1999, San Diego work trip

1999, hot tub birthday party in lieu of the water's edge

1998 Corpus Christi, home to Texas

1998 Jacksonville, the kids love a good water hose. ;) 

1998 Niagra Falls

1998 St Augustine, Florida

1998 the Mighty Mississippi

1997 (or 98), Virginia Beach

1996 Camping on a lake in Oklahoma

Ariel and Lacey on a Lake mid 90's

Early to mid 90's, a water park would do

1994 or 93 St Louis, Mississippi River

1993 or 94 Ariel and Lacey in the hottub

1993 pregnant at the condo

In the 90's before the beach houses, there was the condo at Canyon Lake, Texas

1992 Ariel on Canyon Lake in Texas

1991- first place we went when we returned from England was a beach: Ormond Beach, FL

1991 Mediterranean Cruise with the ex

1991 an island in the Aegean Sea

1990 Cornwall. England with Ariel

1989 - Dover Beach, even in England we sought out the coast

1988 Ft Walton Beach with a tiny Ariel Marie (3 months omg)

1987 Monterey,  California

1987 Pebble Beach

1987 San Francisco, honeymoon

1986 Miami Beach, age 20, posing 

1986 Jacksonville Florida on my grandpa's boat

1986 my brother liked to throw me in the water

1985 tubing the Guadalupe at night holding on for dear life

1984 Daytona Beach, Florida Family Reunion, age 18


*There are pictures of former boyfriends and spouses of family members but I am not censoring my pictures of them. ;)