Honeymoon Island

Yesterday morning, with a tropical storm churning toward Tampa, I did what anyone would do. I went to the beach!

I was scheduled to have dinner with my friend Sue last night, but during the day I had nothing on my agenda. I figured a little road trip over to Pinellas County would be fun. I decided to go to Honeymoon Island in Dunedin, a beach I remember visiting as a child.

In fact, here's a picture of my brother and I in Dunedin when we were kids, taken some time in the mid-'70s. (I'm on the right.) It's a weird beach, littered with limestone rocks and not particularly sandy. As kids we collected some of those rocks and had them lying around the house for years. (I used to love that beach towel I'm wrapped in, by the way.)

As it turns out, during my drive to Dunedin yesterday, Sue cancelled our dinner because she had to work. (She's still in journalism and subject to the whims of nature and happenstance, and of course, with a tropical storm coming, it was all-hands-on-deck at the newspaper.)

So then I contacted my brother and we agreed it might be smart for me to just hit the road and come to Jacksonville a day early.

I hung around Dunedin just long enough to walk on the beach, smell the salt air and see some sights.

Those limestone rocks I mentioned are often studded with fossils. Someday I'll have to figure out why the geology of this beach is so different from sandy Clearwater Beach, just to the south.

Someone put the rocks to use and built a small cairn.

Someone else wandered away and left their possessions unattended on their beach chair, and I watched this mischievous crow digging around in the folds of cloth looking for a treat.

There were quite a few wildflowers blooming -- lantana, beach morning glory and these blue dayflowers among them. (The plant-identifying app that I recently added to my phone works in Florida too!) I also saw a brilliant gulf fritillary butterfly, but I wasn't fast enough with my camera.

Then I hopped back in the car, zipped back to Tampa and set out for the long drive north. Satellite radio kept me company, first classic rock and then an '80s progressive station. I learned that Ringo Starr's 81st birthday is today, and according to the deejay, Ringo wants us all to pause at noon -- whatever our time zone -- and say, "Peace and Love." (Subsequent research reveals that this is apparently true.)

The weather was entirely dry for the journey and although I hear Tampa got some rain and wind last night, I don't think it was anything devastating. We're still waiting for the storm to strike here, but as I said in yesterday's post, I don't think it's going to be much. It sounds mildly windy at the moment.

I even got to visit Mom. I arrived in Jacksonville around 4 p.m. and my brother wasn't home yet, so I went straight to her retirement center and sat with her a while there. She was happy and energetic and seems like she's doing well. It astonishes me to think that Covid kept me from visiting her for almost two years!

By the way, I realize I am behind on responding to comments and keeping up in the blogosphere. Sorry about that! I am reading every comment, I promise.