Mentally, I still feel like a 24 year old, but apparently I’ve actually been aging since then. A couple recent vacation experiences have confirmed that.
I love the ocean. I’m a Southern Californian by birth, and lived in a couple great SoCal beach cities, Long Beach and Santa Barbara. My first airline pilot gig was flying the 66 passenger ATR turboprop around the Caribbean back in 2001 – appropriately at age 24. While I’ve lived many places since then, my soul is a permanent resident of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. I’ve gone there whenever I could. Sometimes flying a jet in for work; sometimes to vacation at a resort; sometimes on a cruise ship; sometimes making the 12 hour drive with the kids to the Florida panhandle. Nothing refreshes me like the warmth of the sun, the smell of the salt air, and the feeling of the beach sand between my toes. I’ve told my wife that if I ever unexpectedly pass away, she has to find a nice secluded beach on St. John in the Virgin Islands and sprinkle my ashes into the water there. Makes sense to leave my remains where my soul lives…
One of my all time favorite quotes is from President Kennedy during the 1962 America’s Cup:
” I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came.”
But enough of the serious stuff, back to feeling old…
If you’ve been to a beach resort in a foreign country, you know the beach always has locals roaming around selling just about any vacation experience a person might be looking for. They used to try and sell me weed. While I never bought any, I appreciated being perceived as the fun guy who might want a smoke. Now they try and sell me dolphin swimming experiences and glass bottom boat rides…
#Facepalm
When the hell did I become the dolphin experience guy?!? Seriously. I’m never buying weed or a dolphin experience, especially from a random dude on the beach. But it hurts a little to know that I’m no longer perceived by these beachfront entrepreneurs as the young fun guy. To them I’ve become the boring old dude who wants to putz around in a glass bottom boat or take cheesy pictures with Flipper. At this point I guess I might as well walk around the beach in white New Balance sneakers with my socks pulled all the way up.
I’m currently sitting in a hole in the frozen midwestern ground (my basement), thinking about planning my next trip to recharge at the beach. Where is your favorite beach? Share in the comments section…
