SEARCH BLOG: TRAVEL
Last night, we got back from a very enjoyable and very hot week in Florida for my wife's family reunion. We were near Jacksonville on the ocean and had a large house rented for part of the family and hotel rooms and a condo for others. There were 40 or 50 of us all together. Surprisingly, everything went quite well, including an hour sail on a double-masted schooner out of St. Augustine.
I'm not one for hot, humid July in Florida. Anything one block from the beach is too far. So, when I took my wife's 87-year old uncle golfing for three days in a row, I pretty much had my fill of
steam bath golf. I preferred the breeze from the ocean blowing over me while I floated around in the pool.
With the temperatures in the mid-to-upper 90s and the humidity at 75% and the UV reading at 11 on a scale of 1 to 10, even the beach was too much during the day. But in the evening, everything took on a different perspective.
My fondest memory of the beach was the evening a group of us went for a cool walk at dusk. There was still a pretty good breeze and the temperature was down to around 80°. So off we tromped in our bare feet for about 1/3 mile. It wasn't until we returned that I noticed how my feet felt a little abraded. The "sand" was actual a beach made up of pulverized shells. If you stood in the water as the waves came in, the water action would excavate the shells from right out under your feet and you would start sinking. It was unique, but not as gentle on the skin as the fine, white sand you would normally find on a Florida beach.
Our return trip to Michigan was met with lower temperatures through Virginia, West Virginia and most of Ohio. Then we got near Michigan and the temperatures soared to the mid-90s. As we filled the car with gas back in our town, I noticed that the mid-90s at 45% humidity was a lot more bearable than at 75%. I'll have to keep that in mind the next time I'm inclined to complain about a hot spell here.
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