Last week Jeff Bezos lost $13.5 billion as Amazon share price plunges. I lost a few thousands of the meager amount of stocks and 401K Portfolio I hold. He travels to space for his vacation. Down to earth, I visit Florida beach designed for commoners.
It is always darkest before dawn. The crimson Sun peeked from the distance South-Eastern horizon showering strings of rays on the sea. Early morning is the best time to watch the beach where it is barely populated with beach goers. A tightly holding couple drove an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) close to the beach, scaring a sea gull who dove into the water to get its first morning catch. The waves were low and the floating green algae were clearly visible, bumping into each other.
In my "Jagannth's Own Country", in my home state back in India we are endowed with lot of natural beaches, less commercialized rolling waves and golden white sands. Once in a meeting of government officials, an Odia officer boasted before his counterparts from Goa, "Our beaches are better than your beaches. Your beaches are flat" - with our Odia bro pronouncing "Beach" as "B**ch" in his thick Odia accent. The Goa delegates were not amused.
We took an Airboat tour in a brackish marsh. What's the difference between a swamp and a marsh ? A swamp is stillwater. However in marsh the water is connected to tide and gets replenished. The captain of the boat craftly tore his way through the narrow marshy corridor of swallow water like a surgeon using scissors.
There were thin, elongated greenish saw grass and grayish needle grass all around, tiny crabs hanging on their roots. Crab is a common feature of brackish water - Chilka lake in Odisha being famous to harbor some of the tastiest varieties of crabs. However we failed to see any snakes and the much sought after alligators.
The sea was close enough to the hotel to pick its complimentary Wi-Fi. In the late afternoon it was pretty windy on the beach. You can fart loudly there without bothering about bothering anybody. Fart is meaningless in front of sea breeze, Gone with the wind. The fun of walking barefoot on the soft, white sand is incomparable. The beach was immaculately clean with the soothing warm sand felt like nature's foot massager. Missed the JHAAL MUDHI (Super spicy puffed rice) sold on the Puri sea beach.
Late into night we took another strol on the semi dark beach as rolling waves fell on our feet. A number of night owls inspecting the beach using their cell phone flashlights appeared like fireflies from a distance. The sea water was still felt warm late into the night, but the breeze cooler. More later....
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