I’m on vacation with family and friends on Captiva Island in Florida, watching a Gulf of Mexico sunset, and it’s incredible!

As a younger version of myself, I’ve vacationed at Clearwater Beach in Florida, and even though it’s beautiful there too, now on Captiva Island, I’m watching the Gulf of Mexico sunset with a greater level of awareness and appreciation of the beauty of the event.  For a second, my mind drifts and I wonder if sailors and pirates of an ancient time also watched such sunsets with the same level of wonderment as my family and friends are currently doing.

The beach is tiered so that it look almost like two massively long sand bar steps to the ocean.  I sit on the layer that is only one step above the ocean by a few feet.  The beach texture is course because of all the flakes from partial seashells lying around everywhere.  It’s not the white pretty sands of Clearwater, but still pretty nice all the same.

I would like to say that it’s just my family and friends watching the sunset, but the beach has a fairly decent crowd all watching the same magical sunset.  In many ways it reminds me of the New Year’s ball falling at midnight to start the new year.  Surprisingly, the sun submerges below the horizon line in the far off distance quite quickly, much quicker than I anticipated.  The sunset spectators at the beach clap and cheer as if they were applauding after the Fourth of July grand finale fireworks display.

The most notable features of the sunset is the way the golden colors from the sunset rays dance on the tops of tiny waves in a line directly from me to the sun doing down.  I looks to the left and notice the dark tiny wave tops and think how cool the bright rays might looks as a contrast.  It’s quite striking!  The overall lighting is on the edge of twilight and I can now imagine how sailors could see manatees off in the distance and think that their silhouettes (especially young manatees) look like the outlining shapes of mermaids.

It’s funny how our minds drift while on vacation and we appreciate the simple events in life.  I guess this is what they mean by the saying “Stop to smell the roses”…

Having fun,

MR