By the Sea, By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea

Well, I finally made it to the beach. I had intended to visit the North Carolina Outer Banks soon after I bought the motorhome, but gas was going for $4.00+ per gallon and campground fees in that area were around $40-$60 per night, so I stayed closer to Asheville while waiting for my daughter's October 25 wedding.

I've been in Florida since Thanksgiving week but had had no more than a glimpse of "big" water (Tampa Bay) when I decided it was time to take advantage of a friend's offer to stay in her condo at Satellite Beach, between Cocoa Beach and Melbourne Beach on the Atlantic coast. I took my friend Annette, in whose back yard I've been staying since the first week in December, and it was a quick two-hour drive from her home north of Orlando to the beach.

"On the Atlantic coast" is an understatement. We arrived in late afternoon as the high tide was just turning. As we sat in our second floor living room and looked out across the small balcony, there was no beach to be seen, just rough sea. Waves lapped at the stairway leading down to the beach, and sand completely covered the bottom step. I've never stayed in a place so close to the water. With the angry December surf and gray skies I felt rather uneasy, or was it the memory of the lifeguard's sign at that public beach--"rough surf, rip tides, man o' war, water temp. 66"--that was making me feel fearful and exhilirated at the same time?

It was a great three days. The surf calmed down a bit, the sun came out, and the bird watching was incredible, the highlight being the glorious sight of an osprey swooping into a wave and climbing back into the sky with a flashing silver fish wriggling in its talons. Of course there were the scooty-legged sandpipers in several varieties, the ubiquitous gulls, and squadrons of pelicans

doing aerial maneuvers up and down the beach. I became a cloud watcher, too. The surfers were out in their wet suits, which I didn't expect to see since the east coast waves are relatively benign, but I guess if you're a surfer who lives on the Atlantic you take what you can get. Me, I never got in the water and I was happy as a clam.