Tag Archives: siesta key beach

Sunset is for the Birds

Last Sunday, I started my day on Siesta Key Beach.  Today, I ended my day there.  Every once in a while John and I like to feel like tourists, and Sundays at sunset always offer a great opportunity for that.  A drum circle forms on the public section of the beach, so unlike my last trip, there were people everywhere.  But regardless of the sunrise, sunset, drums, dancers, it always seems to be the birds that get my attention lately.

That last picture just doesn’t do the experience justice.  A flock of hundreds was right over our heads, and the birds were vocal.  The chaos of all those chirps together translated into extremely loud screeching.  As I was snapping a picture, my neck and eyes faced up in amazement, John the germaphobe was hunched over shielding his head and face.  It’s supposedly lucky to have a bird s@$# on you, but he deemed us the luckiest people on earth to have that many birds fly over our heads and not s@$# on us.  Finally, the universe gave us one.  :)

I normally sleep through this stuff.

As a former waitress, I’m a night person that rarely goes to bed before midnight.  Accordingly, I’m not the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed type.  I may get to work at nine but don’t really function until ten.  Still my reputation has been somewhat exaggerated over the years.  When my mother missed my call at 8:30 in the morning about six-months ago and she didn’t reach me when she tried back, that alone warranted a call to my sister to see if I was okay.  Seeing as I’m now an adult who holds a day-job, I found this a tad much.  But when I complained to my sister about our mother’s clear overreaction, all she said was, “Well, it was weird that you called so early.”  Geesh, you just can’t shake a reputation with your family, so here’s the proof that the police should not be called if I’m awake before noon.  Due to guests, stress, life, whatnot, I was asleep by 10:30 last night which had me up at 6:30 this morning.  It’s quite the mixed bag when you wake up before dawn… A wolf spider in the bathroom wasn’t exactly encouraging.  Through one squinted eye, had I not heard rumors about it from John’s sister already, I would’ve sleepily assumed this massive spider was a leftover dream fragment.  It was almost the size of my hand, had spikes and was missing a leg.  I’ve never been scared of spiders, but there was no way I was messing with this one…so it was tap, tap, tap with my finger and the sweetest little whisper, john, john... Thirty seconds and a little mumbling later, the bathroom was sans spider and it was off to the beach……much better and most definitely worth getting up in the dark for…at least every once in a while.  That early, the canopy of umbrellas and labyrinth of towels haven’t been established yet, and human foot prints haven’t obliterated the triangle trails of webbed feet in the sand.  The birds outnumber the people fifty to one…  …and it was really nice.

Hands Across the Sand ~ Siesta Key

We had already planned a sunny Saturday at the beach when we heard about Hands Across the Sand on the news. 

For fifteen minutes, between 12 and 12:15, people joined hands to protest offshore drilling.  It would have been neat to see an arial view of Florida at about 12:10.  Check out this map to see how many beaches statewide participated.

We’re among the lucky residents; the Gulf of Mexico we know is still pristine and oil-free…for how long?  We don’t know.  My mother didn’t think my last BP post was completely appropriate, but I’m angry and a little FU here and there isn’t the worst thing in the world.  I’m expressing myself, mom!  At least it was a well-deserved FU.  BP took chances they didn’t have to take.  They risked wildlife, livlihoods and lifestyles.  I am angry, and I am heartbroken over this oil spill.  I’ve lived 10 minutes away from Siesta Key Beach for over 15 years.  The sand wins awards regularly for being the whitest sand in the world.  It’s 99% quartz and blindingly white.  I took my sunglasses off yesterday to take a swim.  I felt like a bear fresh from hibernation seeing the sun for the first time; my left eye would not fully open!  For all of you land lovers living away from the shores, where this oil spill will inevidibly become yesterday’s news, this is what’s at risk – the whitest sand in the world turning black.