Beach Memories

Pensacola Beach through the Sea Oats

I hadn't realized this would be a trip down memory lane, but that's what it is, at least today. I pulled out some old photo albums, the ones from my teen years, to look for beach photos. The pictures were old, faded, some even in black and white, but each one has a memory attached. So I've decided to install a Slideshow of beach photos, a few as far back as 1965. My parents weren't into cameras, so though we frequented beaches as a family from my earliest days, there are no beach photos older than 1965.

I grew up in southern California and frequented beaches all up and down the coast, from Coronado Island, San Diego, to Doheny Beach (where I learned to tandem surf), Laguna Beach (where I learned the basics of surfing but spent most of my time underwater trying to avoid the rocks), Newport Beach (where I lived for many years), Huntington Beach (where I watched some surfing championships & had some great beach barbecues), Malibu (only to watch the surfers there with awe), Big Sur (where I camped by the beach in my college days). In my teens I spent many a weekend or summer vacation on Catalina Island, transported there on my Dad's sport fishing boat, first the "Jon-Dee" (an Owens 24')  then the "Jon-Dee II" and the "Jon-Dee III" (both Owen's 32's with a flying bridge). There were Baja California beaches I frequented as a kid and later in my 20s when I sailed from Newport Beach south to Costa Rica. There were those beautiful Hawaiian beaches that I visited only once, at age 17, after I graduated from high school (gee, that was 1969). Those beautiful Caribbean beaches on St. Thomas and Tortola,  that I sailed around in my 20s.  The Jamaica beaches, Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, in my 30s.

Through the years my husband and I have traveled up and down the East Coast, visiting beaches from Miami to Kitty Hawk and parts between. For a while we lived on St. Simons Island, Georgia, (where our dogs could run the beach off-leash, chase seagulls and play in the surf). We lived in Florida off and on for over 28 years and so consider just about every Florida beach as home. Then there's visits to Australia and Alaska beaches (spectacular). Now we're finally settled almost a stone's throw from Pensacola Beach. So yeah, I guess you could say that beaches have always been a part of my life. Are there more beaches that I want to see? You bet! I can't surf any more, my back and arthritis give me pains so I can't walk all that far, but I can take short walks on the beach and can just sit and watch the birds and the surf and dream and remember. I hope through this blog that I can share some of those memories with you and that you'll share some with me. As I sit here I can feel that sand between my toes and that soft ocean breeze ...