The Beach.

You know when you plan a weekend get-a-way and it lives up to all the expectations you had? That was this weekend. My sister, best friend and I loaded up the car and headed south in search of white sand on Florida's panhandle. 

We had one fabulously fun day on the beach. We also had a rainy day, which is only slightly unfortunate when there are only two days in the weekend. But the sunny day made up for it tenfold. 

Plus there was the small incident where I rode my bike into a large cluster of bushes and everyone was too busy laughing at me to help untangle me from the twigs. That definitely made up for the rain. I suspect we'll be laughing about that for a while. 

Before the rain hit we got a little too big for our britches and decided that an eight mile bike ride to nearby Seaside was manageable. None of us took the Florida humidity into consideration - or the fact that eight miles is a really long way - so we turned back around mile two. But we figured that a four mile ride had earned us a margarita or two, which is how we spent the rest of our rainy day. 

When the rain subsided on day two we hit the beach bright and early. Sun or no sun, we weren't about to miss out on another day. 

We set up shop quite nicely, red solo cups and all. As it should, our day morphed nicely from chatting to sipping margaritas, to playing games and diving through the waves.

Although I was raised going to the beach every summer, I've never been a huge fan of salt water. However, I've recently decided that seizing the day is the way to go. So into the ocean I went, salty water be damned.

While I was in there I remembered how my dad taught me to dive under waves as they were crashing. After jumping over a few I finally decided to seize the day and make the dive under. Let me tell you, it felt great. The waves, the bubbles, the sand - it was like being a kid again.

Mermaid is the name of the game. My goal was to dive under every wave that crashed and kick my feet up above the water just like a mermaid would. I haven't had so much fun in months. Sure, I hurt my shoulder in the process, but no worse than that time when I crashed my bike into the bushes. 

Basically, totally worth it. This is why they invented aspirin. 

The countdown is on - one more day on this side of the Mason Dixon line before I head back to Maine and then home to Canada. 

Time to have some last minute summer fun!