Aug 20: A Quiet Start

 
I went to the sea early on a very recent morning. The Fort Lauderdale beach wakes up slowly most days and this was no exception. It takes a while before the tourists rouse themselves and the shopkeepers unlock the doors and the breakfast-seekers find that first cup of coffee at one of the A1A cafes. This means the beach is relatively quiet for a time and I like that a lot. I enjoyed a nice brisk walk until a patch of sand near The Ritz-Carlton looked tempting. Then I sat by the edge of the water, just watching it all for maybe an hour. The clouds circled the sky, over the sea in front, over the land behind - great arcs of feathered wisps high overhead along with compressed small clumps just above the horizon. Columns of tall gray cloudbanks mushroomed upwards as I looked north.

The ocean was calm in three distinct currents of color, a pale spring green in the shallows, brightening to a rich jade a bit farther out until the Atlantic dropped into deeper waters of cobalt blue. A sandpiper landed nearby, running briefly along the beach before flying off.

Sometimes I'm amazed by how far away from everything I can feel in this place. Fort Lauderdale's beach is known internationally, crowded with many thousands of tourists and locals throughout the year. But early in the morning, I can find a sense of solitude. A few eager swimmers already were splashing about in the waves. Several beachwalkers plodded past in their bare feet. But not so many swimmers or walkers that they detracted from my time alone with the sea. The air was warm on my skin but pleasant, cooled by a persistent wind coming from the southeast, almost as if I were sitting in a comfortable bath with a fan blowing on me. That's how it felt. And when I finally left the ocean, I left reluctantly. Very reluctantly. On the way back, I stopped at a sidewalk café for cappuccino and thought about how the street was coming alive at last. The tourists had roused themselves and the shopkeepers were unlocking the doors and the breakfast-seekers had started to find that first cup of coffee. A1A was getting back to normal for the day, with its busy beach promising more fun for the sunscreened crowds of tourists and locals. But for a little while before all that began, the beach had been mine.