Escaping

My entire family decided to escape reality and go to the beach this weekend. So, as soon as I was able on Friday afternoon I tore out of the school parking lot, rushed home and threw my stuff in the back of my mom's car and we headed out.
When we got to the beach it was a beautiful late summer evening. The sun was just starting to sink toward the water (we went to the gulf, of course), the wind was blowing through the sea oats and on the breeze was the faint smell of dead fish. Yep, dead fish. We got down there and realized that the red tide that had been in the lower part of the state had moved north and was gracing our quaint little beachy village with its presence.
My mom and I decided that the smell wasn't really that bad, and we were determined to work on our tans this weekend. So we trekked the 50 ft. from our back door to the beach and then hopped across about 50 more feet of hot sand toward the water, only to realize that it was actually far worse than we first thought. Not only did it smell like dead fish, the shore line was covered, literally, with thousands of fish and hundreds of seagulls feasting to their heart's content.
The water was black, rather than the normal blue/green color, like in the picture at the top that I took a few years ago, and it wasn't long before my mother and I were both coughing (which is a side effect of the red tide, not the smell from the fish).
So my family stayed inside the whole weekend, playing games and not killing each other (surprisingly). We also went to Tampa to see the Bodies exhibit at MOSI. Overall a great weekend, but my tan still needs work. And, I was looking forward to a long river-filled Labor Day weekend, but since Ernesto seems to be heading this way I guess that's not likely to happen either. Oh well! The tan will have to wait.