I love the beach! I love being at the beach, especially with my family. I love the feel of sand between my toes. I love the smell of salt air. I love the sound of the waves. I love eating seafood. I love people watching. I love sitting under an umbrella with a good book. I love naps in the afternoon sun. I love bogie boarding. I love drinks with umbrellas in them. I love pelicans, seagulls, and sandpipers. Yes, I love everything about the beach … well maybe everything. I don’t enjoy trying to get all the sand out of my bathing suit, car, and beach bag but what a small price to pay for so much pleasure?

Since reading Andy Andrews The Noticer (you have read it, haven’t you?) I find myself consciously noticing more things than ever before. I find myself making mental lists of things I notice so it was only natural to record things I noticed at the beach last weekend. Perhaps it was because I wasn’t on my “home” beach of Gulf Shores. A native Floridian it was my first time on an Atlantic beach in quite a few years. Noticing differences seemed only natural; of course some things apply to any beach, anywhere.

· The water in the Atlantic is saltier than the water in the Gulf of Mexico.
· The Florida Atlantic beach sand is hot to walk on in August.
· A lot of people must buy bathing suits without trying them on where they have a mirror. They must put them on to go outside in a place where there isn’t a mirror either.
· There are only a few female surfers.
· The whiter, finer Gulf coast sand is harder to walk on.
· Young children have a love-hate relationship with the water.
· Wake boarding is much harder than it looks.
· Ron Jon Surf Shops have a huge advertising budget.
· Children are happy playing in and around the water with their parents.
· When you feed beach birds you understand the term “pecking order.”
· For women, body surfing is better enjoyed in a one-piece swim suit.
· The Gulf of Mexico water is bluer and clearer than the Florida Atlantic costal water.
· People seem to leave their inhibitions in their hotel rooms, condos, or vehicles (or lose them in the drinks with the little umbrellas).
· Hurricanes, even far off shore, create huge waves and a strong undertow.
· There are more shells washed ashore along the Gulf of Mexico than on the Florida Atlantic coast.
· When you swim in the Greater Gulf Shores area you can see fish in the water with you.
· Modern-day cruise ships are HUGE.
· I’ll take seaweed over jellyfish any day, but prefer neither of them.
· Dolphins are visible playing in the Gulf at least twice a day.
· It’s hard to beat a fresh seafood dinner when you’re sitting beach-side at sunset.
· When you really notice the changing of the tides, the variety of sea shells, the sky, and all the wonders the beach offers, how can you deny there is a creator God?