A Visual Joke and a Truth, Both at Once

The wallpaper image on my iPad is this view of Rialto Beach, taken in October 2010.

Rialto Beach, Olympic National Park (Click for larger image.)

Then there's Florida's Gulf coast, the west side of the state, where the nieces, and nephew-in-law, and great-niece live. Over and over since I came home, I have pulled out the iPad, woken it up from the view above, and showed people the quintessence of my family visit to Florida: the famous white sand beach of Siesta Key. According to Stephen Leatherman, self-named Dr. Beach, it was the best beach in America in 2011. On March 31, it looked like this:

Siesta Key, Sarasota, Florida, March 31, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

The March 28 post below showed the Atlantic coast of Florida, on the east side of the state. The sand there is yellow, and there can be surf. My family, none of the three generations, get to the water from one end of a decade to the other. I made it happen this time, it seemed ridiculous to visit my ma four times a year and never to get near the ocean or the Gulf; but I won't fuss them about it ever again. It is what it is.