"Let it be a moving sea, between the shore of your souls................."

                                                     Seaside, Florida

Believe it or not, I have one week before I have to be back at school.  For a sun-aholic like myself that is very hard to deal with!  I will be just like the students looking out the window at 'ole Sol and wondering why I can't be out there enjoying myself. I will have to rely on my time at the beach this summer to get me through the long days of school.
Pictures and memories.........It won't be the Real Deal, but hopefully it will suffice until I can return to the beach.

 When I was uploading this photo, it occurred to me (uhmmmm, probably because I have put my school-is-near-thinking-cap-back-on), that these words could apply to SO much more than just jumping into the ocean.  Wouldn't you agree?  Is that philosophical or what?  We are always 'swimming' at our own risk without a lifeguard to watch us when we try something new.  Do you think my students (high school English) would understand that?  (I doubt it.)

 Another sign that caught my eye while on vacation.  Nothing philosophical about this....it's just the name of one of my daughters.  I told her the ice cream was named after her, when I sent the pic to her. She'll take claim!

It really does seem like July went by extremely quickly.  I always have the philosophy that once the Fourth of July is over, summer is pretty much over (for teachers anyway). We can countdown the days till our return date, and in that time we must be thinking about what we will do different for the new school year, what we need to do for school, still get done from our 'to do' list at home, and get ourselves in gear.
Honestly, I seem to get more done during the school year than I do during the summer.  I know that I only have X amount of time during the school year and I use it more wisely.  During the summer I enjoy the lazy days and act as such!!
So without further ado, and before July completely leaves us, this is where I spent ten (glorious!!) days of July.
                                  
                                      Seaside, Florida

"All loose things seem to drift down to the sea, and so      did I."      ---Louis L'Amour

 

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."   ----Jacques Yves Cousteau

"When was the last time you spent a quiet moment just doing nothing - just sitting and looking at the sea, or watching the wind blowing the tree limbs, or waves rippling on a pond, a flickering candle or children playing in the park? ".... Ralph Marston

"A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea. " ....Honore de Balzac

"The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. " ... Thomas Jefferson  (one of my very favorite quotes)

"For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one. " ...Kahlil Gibran    ( This is a pic of the BP people that walked the beach thousands of times per day. I thought this was a good quote to go with that thought! We never did see any signs of tarballs.)

"There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul. " ....Victor Hugo

 

"A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us. " ....Franz Kafka (While we were in Seaside, there were red flag warnings for all but two days.  I loved it. The waves were wonderful, magical, and so much fun in which to swim.)

"Countless as the sands of the sea are human passions. " .....Nikolai Gogol

"We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came. "    John F. Kennedy

(I did not want to go inside on that last night. I just sat outside and enjoyed the sound of the sea.)
The exact same time we were in Seaside, so was Paige.
I never did see her (probably because I spent my entire days at the beach!). But check out her pictures. She takes wonderful pics of her beautiful family.