Apr 6: Ten

This was ... well, unexpected. I had a real Fort Lauderdale moment the other day. Just an instant when the essence of this tropical place seemed captured briefly by something I saw. Or more accurately, someone. And it was someone I've never met, never seen before and likely will never see again. My experience wasn't about her beauty, though she was beautiful. It's only with tongue in cheek that I called this blog, "Ten," after the old Bo Derek movie. No, it was the woman and the sea and the sand and the sky and the flawless framing of it all, everything coming together wonderfully as if I was in just the right spot at just the right moment for a classic Fort Lauderdale photograph. Except I was in my car at that serendipitous second, motoring merrily north on A1A.

Here's what happened. This was a couple days ago, another beautiful sunlit afternoon with a freshening breeze rolling off the Atlantic. I was out for a drive, going nowhere special. I pulled up to the intersection at Sunrise Boulevard, glancing over at the vigorous green sea and the folks strolling past. That's when I noticed her.

She was tanned a pale amber, with full brown hair in a tumble over her shoulders and down her back. She almost bounced into view, a spring in her movements that seemed happy. She wore an attractive dark bathing suit, revealing but also tasteful and entirely appropriate for her athletic body. You might see in your mind's eye a 20-something girl but that wasn't the case. I'd suspect this woman was well into her 30s judging from the character lines apparent in her face. She was looking down, perhaps reaching for a ball or something. I'm not sure. Smiling, she stepped between two coconut palm trees as I sat waiting for the light to change. That was the photo opportunity. Click. An unusually lovely person, full of life, posed ideally while playing on one of the world's great beaches. And just then it occurred to me - this is Fort Lauderdale. The sunshine and the ocean and the gorgeous people. She could have been an equally appealing he, though the impact on me wouldn't have been quite the same of course. Still, this wasn't about her sex appeal really, as if she embodied some true life version of Bo Derek's onscreen perfection. No, this was about the appreciation of an almost surreal moment that flared suddenly, then very quickly flickered away. She turned and bounced off toward the ocean and then the traffic light switched to green and I watched her while I could. Just for another instant before I drove on. But I'll remember her for a long time.