April 30, 2016

Selah June and I spent the morning of my birthday on an adventure to the beach.  Jeremy went to Crestview to participate in delegate selection for the RPOF.  We were free to go and do whatever we wanted, and what I wanted was to spend my birthday at the beach.  Selah June wasn’t of the same mind.  She fussed most of the way out there.  “OUT! OUT! OUT!”  A little voice from the backseat reminded me several times over of what she wanted.  We stopped in a drive-thru so that I could get a drink to take out to the water, and then we cruised through the toll booth paying our $1 to drive onto Pensacola Beach.  SJ was a big fan of the Casino Beach beach ball water tower.  She kept squealing “ball! ball!”

I stopped at Casino Beach because she was so ready to get out of the car.  But she didn’t really want to make the trek out to the water’s edge.  She actually wanted to walk along the little ledge surrounding the amphitheater.  She wanted to run up and down the wheelchair access ramp.  She wanted to wave at people coming to the beach and people leaving the beach.  And she apparently needed to kick my drink over.

So eventually we left Casino Beach and went to the little sound-side beach behind Grand Marlin.  She was much more willing to walk the short distance to the water.  There were lots of kids to watch, and we found a good spot to sit down and have some snacks.       

At several points, she decided it was time to make friends with our neighbors.  The people would change, but the fun of the challenge remained the same.  Step 1: Say “hi!”  Step 2: Invade their space.  Step 3: Try to take their stuff.  The best encounter was when she encroached upon the territory of some ladies and, before they could even get situated, stole their beach chair and rifled through their bags finding an unopened Gatorade.

All in all, it was a good adventure.  I can’t say that it was my dream birthday trip to the beach.  But I can say that it was with Selah June, and that’s all that mattered.