Your soundtrack for this post:

I was listening to that song one day at the beach while lying on my stomach in the sand and looking out to sea. I was low enough in the sand that it looked like the ocean was a thin strip of water lying on top of the sand, not beyond it, and somehow this song went perfectly with that notion. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take a photo from that perspective, so this will have to do:

Or this one:

The beach is part of Florida’s Emerald Coast, named that because of the emerald-colored waters. The waters weren’t so emerald while we were there as they were kind of pukey green because of a bad undertow churning up the junk in the ocean. The wind and the chop of the waves were strong enough that we really couldn’t get in the ocean, but it was still pretty to look at and we had sun each and every day, which I’m not sure has happened in any beach vacation in my life.

I had a lovely time of doing not much of anything. I sunned enough to get slightly burned early on but not too bad. I read. I walked in the surf. I ate a lot. And I did a lot of thinking, because the beach allows ample time for you to get lost in existential debates with yourself.

I discovered on the first day down there that I have a much, much harder time putting work behind me than in vacations past. Really, I never really had a problem leaving work behind until I started in my current position a little over a year ago, probably because I never quite had the responsibilities that I have now. The first day kinda sucked because of that — I had a hard time not thinking about work, I was kind of jumpy and couldn’t just unwind. Fortunately, it didn’t last.

I have a beach tradition dating back to my days as an insomniac high school student where I get up before the sun on my last full day at the beach and watch it rise. I used to watch from when it was pitch-black outside (because in those days I couldn’t sleep anyway), but this time around I had to set my alarm and I nearly slept through it. Here are a few photos …

Here is where my camera batteries ran out of juice. If you plan to watch the sun rise, remember to charge those batteries first. Take my word for it, it was spectacular.

I got to see so many wonderful people on my trip — my family, my friends from my days spent in Chattanooga and some friends sorta from my Nashville days and their beautiful new baby. I opted to take the back roads for parts of the drive, and I’m glad I did.

But alas, the fun had to end and I was back to work today. I dreaded work so much this morning that I had a stomach ache, but it turned out to not be so bad. It rarely ever is, eh?