Next time you visit the beach in Pinellas County, Florida, you might notice the trash cans out on the beach now have a recycling option for plastic and aluminum. (Glass containers are not allowed on the beach). This recycling effort started in July 2011. According to the St. Pete Times: Pinellas County announced…that beachgoers should [...]

Myrtle Beach's Brand New Boardwalk

I’ve been to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina only once – during New Year’s 2009/2010. It was fun, but cold, and we could tell that the area would be entertaining to come back and visit come summertime. (We’d probably spend a lot of time playing miniature golf – we saw about twelve awesome looking courses!)

Of course, I’d also love to go back and visit the actual beach in Myrtle Beach, which was just lovely in December, as cold as it was. And now, there’s a fantastic, 1.2 mile long boardwalk to enjoy as well! The boardwalk was opened on Saturday, May 15, 2010 (as I was getting married in Key West, Florida), and it looks fabulous. The boardwalk is at times wooden and at times concrete, and it curves along the coastline like a giant sea snake. No longer do pedestrians have to trudge through the sand or risk walking along Ocean Boulevard – they can view beautiful Myrtle Beach from the safe vantage point of a lovely boardwalk.

Boardwalks have always evoked feelings of nostalgia for me, and I find this interesting because I never grew up actually on the beach. I lived close to the beach in San Diego, but not close enough so that my parents would walk me down to a boardwalk or a pier on the weekends. I don’t know what it is. Perhaps it’s the people watching; everyone looks so happy at the beach, and it’s enough to just sit on a bench and watch happy kids and parents stroll by.  Boardwalks are what I think about when I hear someone say “Let’s go to the beach!” Sun, sand, ocean, boardwalks and sunsets – these are also the first images that pop into my head when I daydream about beach vacations.

As this article from Budget Travel points out, there’s a lot happening along the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk; the city is very lucky to have this attraction for locals and tourists who need a break from the sandy beach scene.

Just one more reason to plan a Myrtle Beach vacation in the near future!

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Photos: miss-britt , Curtis and Eric

Block Island escaped from Hurricane Irene unscathed

I hate to say it, but if you have not yet booked a hotel on the beach in Outer Banks or Atlantic City for Labor Day weekend, you could probably get a very good deal right now. Both these areas were hit pretty hard by Hurricane Irene, which couldn’t have come at a worse time: one week before one of the year’s busiest beach weekends. So, I decided to write this post – not to encourage “disaster tourism” per se, but to help out these areas which are facing a very grim situation monetarily. Hotel cancellations are flooding in faster than the floods brought by storm surges and high tides as  many tourists are deciding to cancel their “last hurrah” trip of the summer and stay home instead.

Yes, there is some significant damage. The beautiful Spring Lake Boardwalk on Jersey Shore was hit very hard – nearly 1.5 miles of it were destroyed. But, the beach areas that are open are fine, and restaurant and store owners are begging people to come visit. Ocean City, New Jersey emerged from Hurricane Irene pretty much unscathed – but most tourists don’t know that. And if you had planned a trip to Nags Head, North Carolina, don’t think about canceling! That entire area is completely fine. However, if you discovered that all of the hotel rooms in the areas were completely booked a couple of weeks ago, check again – some hotels are reporting that 30% of their reservations have been cancelled.

Block Island’s gorgeous beaches in Rhode Island were also completely untouched. The ferries are running, and there is no reason for concern.

Parts of the country were absolutely devastated by this storm, and this is beyond terrible. But, if you’re fortunate enough to have not been affected by the storm and would like one last weekend at the beach, simply call the hotel and ask — chances are the area is fine and you can enjoy one last weekend of summer beach bliss.

Spring Lake Boardwalk received heavy damage, but the beach areas are ok!

Photos: joyosity, johnrudolphmueller

A tropical weather system known as “Invest 93″in the Gulf of Mexico threatens to cast some clouds over Florida’s beaches for the upcoming Labor Day weekend. Numerous weather forecasters are wringing their hands over which way this thing is going to move. As of Thursday Sept 1 it looks like a slow northwest drift toward [...]

Wasaga Beach in Canada

Since 2008, Ontario’s formerly dog-friendly Wasaga Beach has been closed during the summers in order to protect some endangered birds. However, as of this summer, Beach #3 is now open to dogs, so bring your pooch to play in the water while the warm weather lasts! (Those of you living in Ontario know that the warm weather is definitely on its way out soon.) Wasaga Beach is on Georgian Bay and is part of Lake Huron. The beach is over 14 kilometers (8.6 miles), and it’s apparently the longest freshwater beach in the world. Wasagha is only about a thirty minute drive from Toronto, so it’s an easy day trip.

If you’re a dog-lover in Canada, you might be interested in this list of dog-friendly beaches and parks in Canada. Here’s a short list:

Sunset Beach – Vancouver

Rainbow Park – Whistler

Chelton Beach Provinvial Park – Prince Edward Island

Pinery Provincial Park – Ontario

Photo: Anutkak43

Imagine if this was the view you woke up to every morning...

Beach camping is the best. What could possibly better than sleeping right on the sand and having the ocean be the first thing you see every morning? Summer’s are a bit humid, of course, but as fall approaches, the weather cools off you can fall asleep listening to the waves in cooler air. Too rustic for you? Many campsites offer cabins, too. And most are pet-friendly, so bring the pooch for some fresh ocean air.

If all that wasn’t enough to convince you to try beach camping, just think about the cost – it’s very low! At all the sites listed below, you can camp for less than $40/night! Those rates are for the site, not for the person.

1. Grayton Beach State Park – Santa Rosa Beach

Book really early if you can – this is one of the most popular beach campsites in all of Florida. Gorgeous emerald waters, soft white sands and forests which go on and on. You can stay in cabins for about $110/night or in a tent/TV for about $30/night.

2. Fort De Soto County Park – Tierra Verde

You won’t have to rough it here. Washers and dryers are available as are showers, real restrooms and even play areas for the kids. The campsites at Fort de Soto have only recently been reopened after a period of rehabilitation. All the sites here are less than $40, even the waterfront ones. Can’t beat that!

Bahia Honda State Park

3. Bahia Honda State Park – Big Pine Key

I got married in Key West a little over a year ago, and we visited Bahia Honda on our last day – I wish we had gone sooner! What an absolutely gorgeous beach. The water is crystal clear and the sands are so soft. You can rough it in a tent or reserve one of the full-facility campsites or cabins. Sites are $36/night and cabins are $120-$160/night depending on the time of year. Key West is a 40 minute drive away if you get the touristy itch during your stay.

Photos: Mark A. Vargas, Lisa Sanderson

Not your ordinary sand castles.

If you were told that you could get paid $6,000 a WEEK to play in the sand, stay in fancy hotels, eat amazing meals and get lots of publicity, would you do it? Ok, ok, so maybe play in the sand isn’t the correct word – but it feels funny saying “work” when I’m talking about sand. In any case, it appears that some people actually do make $6,000 a week to build sand castles. And that’s just not fair.

Or maybe it is. Ok, it definitely is. These aren’t just people playing with buckets – they’re educated mechanical engineers and teachers who happen to be really good at building stuff in sand. And apparently, people are paying them to do so.

I’m not knocking this at all – I actually think it’s fantastic that some artists can make a great living doing what they love. I’m just surprised by the numbers, that’s all. But then again, anyone who has visited a sand castle building competition has an idea that the sculptures truly are works of art.

So, as summer winds down, perhaps you should think about taking some sand castle building classes. Then, come next summer, you can charge upwards of $75/hour to give other people classes – it’s a fun, pretty low-stress way to make a living. Kind of like the kayak rental guy I met in Seagrove Beach who charged $30/hour per kayak to rent them out. He had 10 kayaks to rent, and I watched him rent out all of them every hour for a good three hours. That was nearly $1,000 in one day, for three hours worth of sitting on the beach and chatting with beach goers. Amazing.

Here’s to skilled artists and entrepreneurs. They’re an inspiration to follow our hearts and do what we love in life – and the money will likely follow.

Photo: Jug Jones

A baby Loggerhead turtle starts to crawl out of the sand on Kiawah Island

A friend of mine visited Kiawah Island, South Carolina a couple of weeks ago, and she was extremely lucky to be able to witness some baby Loggerhead turtles hatching on the beach! These turtles usually hatch at night, so being able to witness the event during the day must have been amazing. There were dozens of them hatching at the same time, and the Turtle Patrol was there to make sure visitors didn’t handle the babies improperly and to ensure the babies made their way to the ocean safely. Turtle hatching season takes place on Florida beaches from early May to very late October, so if you haven’t had a chance to witness this miraculous event, there’s still time!

Sea Turtle Volunteers help out some baby turtles on Kiawah Island

Kiawah Island’s Turtle Watch website is called the Turtle Nest, and it reports that as of July 31, there were 246 nests on the beach! That’s incredible. This list shows all of the different nests and their hatch dates – it looks like less than 20 nests have hatched so far. Turtles begin laying their eggs at the end of May, and hatching begins in July and ends at the end of October. At this time, special conditions exist on the beach — there can be no bright lights at night and there will be plenty of volunteers walking around the beach keeping an eye on the nests.

Here are some rules to live by if you plan to be on Florida beaches:

• If you see turtles hatching on the beach and/or trying to get to the water, don’t touch them! Find a volunteer.
• Don’t scoop them out of their nests and put them directly in the water — they need to imprint the beach on their brains so that they know how to get back to the beach the following year
• It’s fine to shoo away birds or crabs to keep the baby turtles safe on their way to the water, but again – don’t touch them. Let a volutneer handle them with gloves.

Baby Loggerhead turtles start their journey to the ocean on Kiawah Island

Kiawah Island isn’t the only place you can go to see sea turtles lay their eggs and watch hatching scramble for the shoreline, but Florida beaches pretty much are – over 80% of US Loggerhead turtles make their nests on Florida beaches. You can try beaches in Fort Meyers, Key Biscayne Naples and Miami, for example. I think that this experience is just as cool as swimming with turtles in the ocean!

For more information about this remarkable time of year, please visit the following websites:

The Turtle Nest

Turtle Time

Sea Turtle Preservation Society

A baby Loggerhead turtle reaches the water, Kiawah Island

Photos: Thank you to Kristen Digman for the photos!!

Coastal Cleanup Day

Hopefully, your summer has been full of trips to some beautiful beaches. The weather is some parts of the country will be warm enough to swimin the ocean for at least another month, so there’s still time left to squeeze in one more trip! As summer winds down, though, it’s time to start thinking about how you can give back to a beach or coastline near you. Let’s clean up our beaches and oceans!

California Coastal Cleanup Day is taking place on Saturday, September 17. In 2010, over 82,000 volunteers removed 1.2 million pounds of trash and recyclables from California’s lakes, beaches and waterways – that’s an amazing effort! Let’s see if we can beat that record this year. California Coastal Cleanup Day is part of the larger International Coastal Cleanup Day that takes place ever year on the third Saturday in September. According to Ocean Conservancy, in 2010, 7.4 million pounds of trash were removed from our world’s waterways by volunteers. Incredible!

This goes to show you that yes, you can make a difference! Grab a group of friends and sign up for a cleanup in your area, or join one that’s already been organized.

Don’t worry if you don’t live near a big body of water, you can still help! You can pick up trash around small lakes and streams, or work inland — so much of our trash in inland areas makes its way into lakes and streams via gutters — clean up the trash at the source before it has a chance to reach our oceans. Or, get involved in an educational campaign. There are so many things you can do to help.

Some of the statistics from these cleanup efforts are really mind blowing, and hopefully they’ll inspire you to get involved. For example, last year, volunteers all over the worlds picked up over one million plastic bottles — in one day. Let’s get out there and clean up our waters!

New York Coastal Cleanup

California Coastal Cleanup

Florida Coastal Cleanup

Washington Coastal Cleanup

Mississippi Coastal Cleanup

Yucky Beach Trash

Photos: Mikebaird, mesaba

Here is a panoramic image of Hollywood Beach, Florida that I created with my iphone. It is a series of 5 or 6 photos that were combined into one. This is quite a large photo. Click on it to see it full size. You will need to use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom [...]

Jellyfish look a lot different in the water than they do when washed up on the beach. Their bodies don’t have a skeleton or shell for support, so they are totally reliant on the water. Air just isn’t a “thick”enough medium for them too look their best. Last week there were thousands of moon jellies [...]

I just spent some time last weekend on the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk (pictured above). The weather was beautiful when I was there, but Hurricane Irene is bringing rain, strong winds and big surf to the beaches of Florida’s Atlantic coast. The image above is from the web cam at the Sugar Reef Tropical Grill, right [...]

What: Climb the lighthouse! Anclote Key State Park is having an Open House and the lighthouse is open to visitors. This only happens twice each year! When: Saturday September 10, 2011. 9 a.m. ferry departure. Lighthouse open 9 a.m. til 2 p.m. Where: Sun Line Cruises out of Tarpon Springs provides ferry service to Anclote [...]

Here’s some Qik video from mBodySpirit of the effects from Irene as experienced currently in the Melbourne Beach area (south of Cocoa Beach, north of Sebastian Inlet).

Friday morning has revealed better conditions for surfing Irene’s swell on the Florida Atlantic coast. This photo from the Tw0 Palms cam in Cape Canaveral. For surf photos from Wednesday and Thursday on Gulfster. Expect better photos later today. And naturally, there have been some unfortunate storm surf injuries among those who underestimate the power [...]

A Day at the Beach from Buffer Boesch on Vimeo. This is the most awesome beach video EVER!!!!! Best watched full screen. From the creator: “Shot over a two-day period at Clearwater Beach Florida using a Nikon D7000. Pics were then edited in Photoshop and Final Cut Express.”  

Horses think horse surfing is hilarious.

It’s Friday, and if you’ve had a week like I did, you probably need a good laugh. So when I randomly came across this picture, I knew I had to write a post about it. It appears that it’s as simple as it looks – a horse traveling up to 35 miles per hour pulls a surfer through the waves behind him. Just a horse pulling a surfer. Horse surfing.

Not surprisingly, there aren’t any pictures of horse surfing on Flickr. So, I’ll provide you with a link to a site with some really nifty photos about horse surfing in England. Check them out — it’s pretty bizarre. Happy Friday!

The Independent Horse

Photo: katieblench

I will be the first to tell you that I am no photography expert – not by far! But, I do absolutely adore beaches, and I always take my camera with me, grains of sand be darned. When you take about 1,000 photos of beaches in one year, you’re bound to get a few that turn out well. I’ve learned a lot about how to frame shots and how to not fall into the trap of “cliche” beach shots, though I still do take plenty of those. But on the other hand, who cares? Cliche shots can be very pretty.

I thought it would be neat to share what I’ve learned from a couple of my own photos and then include a bunch of really fabulous, creative beach photos I’ve found on Flickr. Some people really have a good eye — it’s all about realizing that a beach is more than just sun, sand and water.

First up – My husband and I watched the sun set on Eagle Beach for a good hour, and took about 300 pictures. I took a break for a bit and watched my husband catch the remaining light. I loved this one because it capture him doing one of the things he loves to do most – take pictures.

Taking a Photo of my Husband Taking a Photo

I seriously wish I could remember the name of this beach in New Zealand. It started to hail about five minutes after this shot was taken. I was really struck by the vivid colors (I didn’t touch up this photo at all!) The blue of the ocean bled into the dark gray sand which was framed by the bright green hillsides and the ominous dark storm clouds loomed behind. I learned about perspective when I took this shot.

A beach in New Zealand

Now on to other peoples’ photos. I love this shot of palapas – there’s symmetry, nice color and it’s just a very visually pleasing photo. Not the most unique out there, but just — pretty. Reminds you of what the beach is for: relaxing. Symmetry is relaxing for most people, and that’s the feeling this photo creates.

Palapas

This next shot reminds me of the architecture on a beach — it’s not just all sand dunes. The Huntington Beach pier frames the shot like twenty different picture frames, and I wonder what’s through the peep hole at the end. The ray of light on the left draws your eye up diagonally through the photo.

A nice pier shot

A cute take on a classic – the surfer. It almost looks as though the hand is putting down the sand for the surfer to walk on.

Surfer

I love, love, love beach storms. They just seem so much moodier and interesting than they do over land. Can’t you just sense the lightning in these clouds? The water seems remarkably calm for the storm brewing above it.

A storm approaches

Photos: Jenny Bengen-Albert, footloosiety, bosdos, ~ipoxstudios~, Meta-Man

Siesta Beach's gorgeous water

Man, I really have to make it over to Siesta Beach in Sarasota, Florida. I’ve been wanting to go ever since I read fellow Uptake blogger Barbara Weibel’s post about it back in late 2008, but I’ve just never made the time. Friends have recently gone and told me how amazing it is; not only is the beach and water itself lovely, but there are apparently lots of things to do around the area for families such as museums and an aquarium, which sets it apart from the Rosemary Beach area, as much as I love it.

So what exactly makes Siesta Beach so lovely? According to Barbara Weibel, it’s the sand; made up of 99% quartz, it reflects most of the sunlight, keeping it cool on the hottest of days. The sand is wonderful for sand castle building as well. And, the beach is shallow, and there are lifeguards around at all times, making it very safe for everyone. Lifeguards are rarely present at the beaches I have visited recently.

The impossibly why sands on Siesta Beach in Sarasota, Florida

However, Dr. Beach pointed out something else about Siesta Beach which makes it highly attractive to me — it’s smokeless! This means no cigarette butts in the sand and no having to look at smokers on the beach — it always ruins the healthy beach vibe for me.

I was also proud to see that San Diego’s Coronado Beach made #2 this year, as it should! Such a gorgeous beach, it’s my favorite on the West Coast. Here are the details on the other beaches that made the list this year.

Putting Siesta Beach at the top of my list for beaches to visit in the very near future. Perhaps I can sneak a visit in this fall? I love the name – it means “nap” in Spanish, which pretty much sums up my favorite beach activity.

Photos: mylerdude, matthewingram

The Bradenton Herald has just published an editorial chastising the state for cuts in beach water quality monitoring. Public health stands to be compromised by the state’s shortsighted decision to slash spending on the testing of water quality at dozens of beaches around Florida…Three of Manatee County’s 10 sampling stations will close–at popular beaches too. [...]