Best thing about Florida beaches?  They make awesome non-conventional offices!

We spent about a week day-hopping from beach to beach and laying low in random parking lots by night and in RV parks in Pensacola.  It was a somewhat harried existence (you never know when someone’s going to knock on your door in the middle of the night and ask you to move on), but all in all well worth the effort.  On two occasions we parked on causeways; Florida seems big on these little bridges… I started out making fun of them, since the islands they connect to are often hardly bigger than the road itself, but then it turned out we actually really enjoyed them.  Anyway, they’re basically just flat lanes standing barely above the waterline, usually with enough room for parking along the edges as the road slopes down into the water.

We made our home on two of these cement beaches during the week, with water views out both sides of Mayhem and the Gulf of Mexico lapping against the shore just a few steps from our door.  I’d look up periodically and see fish jumping and herons taking off in pursuit… much better than a drab office any day!

At Honeymoon Island State Park, which is a little north of Tampa, we came across our first shell beach.  The day was a bit stormy, but there were dozens of people walking the beach, foraging for shells and laughing at the little birds scurrying through the surf.

The sunsets have been routinely gorgeous; when we notice the light starting to fade we dash outside with the camera and clamber up on top of guardrails or benches or anything else we can find (there’s not a lot of high ground around here) to get the best view.  I swear on some days it looks like the clouds are burning from within, and we just sit and stare with the camera all but forgotten.

All in all, Florida seems to have much to recommend it… at least outside of hurricane season.  It may be irrational, but I’m glad we can take our home with us when we leave!  🙂