Our Trip to Florida Part I

Our family goes on a week long vacation once a year to Ft. Myers Beach, FL. Tuti has been going since she was a baby with her family and after we met I started going with her too. We have a timeshare the same week every year, and as the extended family has expanded, we now have 4 of fifteen units in the building. So, after forty years, and with around twenty family members present, it is safe to say that this is as much a tradition as it is a vacaton. We are sort of like the sea turtles that come back there every year around the same time to lay their eggs; it is innate, it is instinct, it must be done. However, this year we were faced with a predicament, one named Sol. Our restaurant. How could we leave our fledgling business unattended for over a week? COULD we leave it unattended, and WHAT would happen?

The answer was YES. Of course we could. We have an excellent staff, it is one of the keys to our success and what allows us to set ourselves apart as a dining establishment. Our staff is more than employees,they believe in and enjoy what they do and understand the goal we have in mind. The experience must be exceptional. The food, the environment, the service. More responsibility was doled out and when we came back, the restaurant remained. Thank you staff!

This year we were especially anxious to get to the beach, because a "renourishment" program was set in place last year to combat the erosion that has taken place over the years. How big would the beach be? How far would we have to go to drag or chairs and coolers and other necessities near the water's edge? The beach had eroded to only a few feet from the volleyball net. They were working on this project as we were there last year; a barge pumped sand from out on the distant horizon to the water line and an excavator worked the sand into place to form the new beach. Each day we could see the beach approach several noticeable feet closer to in front of our building. They were nearly to in front when we left. There is a picture hanging in Sol of the excavator at sunset. It was one of the most interesting things to see happen, and had the stunning backdrop of a perfect Gulf Coast sunset. I couldn't help but snap dozens of shots trying to capture the scene.

The reactions to the "new" beach were mixed. Of course when you change something you have been used to for years not everyone gets used to it right away. In the process of pumping the sand to the shoreline, many shells were pumped as well. While shelling has been almost nonexistent for many years at Ft Myers, there were now many beautiful shells to look for, albeit mostly smaller ones as the larger ones appeared to have been chewed up in the pumps and were the source of several punctures and cuts on our feet throughout the week. (Some of us figured to wear aqua socks earlier on in the week than others.) Also, the almost always present sting rays seemed to have shyed away this year, though we saw dolphins close by nearly every day.

Thinking back though every year as I do when we go, each has been different. Different animals make themselves seen, the beach is in a different place, we do different activities, the experiences are always slightly different. And yet we look forward to it, whatever it will be, because it is always the same, and it is always there, and we expect it to be that way for another forty years.

While I tried hard to overcome the psychological condition that never fails to inflict me at the end of the week of vacation - that one where I swear I was abducted by aliens and lost a week and then they dropped me back off, or where I fell into some sort of wormhole (both of these because how else to explain the instantaneous passage of a week's time?) I was though, also ready in some ways to come back. I thought about how the vacation was constantly changing, evolving into something different, and yet we always looked forward to it, and I thought about the restaurant and wanted to get back to it, because it too is a constantly changing thing. Evolving, providing new experiences, and the best little bit of this Tropical life I can have in Athens and that I can offer to others. So for it too, I was excited and ready to get to work, to see what had changed when I got back.

But first, I had to go to Miami...