The Economy

I mentioned boot camp in Orlando in August. On the morning we did our swim test, the whole march over I was thinking “this is gonna suuuuuck” going off a platform with no chance to ease into it. When I hit the water, it was like a bath. I had to tread water for 10 minutes, and the whole time I was thinking “this is niiiiice.”

 

That does sound really icky...

 

Nothing on North Carolina's coast is cheap. But between the cost, beach erosion and storm seasons, hard pass.

 

But...Duck Donuts

 

Welcome to Southeast Asia. Three-plus years.

Just ... no. Unless it's in Okinawa. Best three days I spent there.

 

You can do something that rhymes with "Duck" on that one ...

 

Most of our Key West vacations have been either the last week of May or first week of June, because that's about the only time when it's remotely affordable; there is little threat of hurricanes; and the air isn't like putting on the deep sea pink liquid diving helmet from "The Abyss."
Still have had a couple of times where, after walking around for a couple of hours, it felt like I was on the brink of death. The last time we went, we hit a point in the late afternoon where I sat on some church steps for about 30 minutes before staggering back to the hotel to lay down for another hour.

Everybody asks, "What's the first thing you should do when you go?" and my answer is a very serious, "Go to CVS. Buy sunscreen. Put it on and don't be shy about it."

 

I wish I’d bought a place in Hochatown, Okla., when I started fishing there 20 years ago. Now the folks running REITs in Dallas have built more $1m houses than you’d believe. Decades ago, I could have gotten a couple of acres five minutes from the trout stream for $4,000.

 

We got in at a good time.
Heck, even after today's storms, I was down on the beach with a flashlight checking things out 10 minutes ago.
The cost and the risk is worth it to me. We're all summed up by two dates and a dash. I'm making the most of my dash.
I'm a seafaring man.

 

There's one opening down the road here in north Jersey.

 

One of my top ... ten, certainly, five perhaps ... parenting fails involved a brief trip to South Padre Island one summer when we barely had two nickels to rub together. If I recall correctly we had two days for "beach time" and were determined to wring every second out of them. Unfortunately, although we set up an awning and dutifully spread and spread and spread the sunscreen on our very-fair youngest child, at the end of the day she got burned pretty badly. She kinda looked like a blonde-haired raccoon. An awful, awful day.