A couple of times each day last week, I’d walk down to the beach where Barb’s clan was gathered. The kids were playing in the surf and the adults relaxed with cold drinks. They’d get in the water to cool off from time to time, but it wasn’t uncommon for them to spend the entire day, just chilling on the beach, catching up on family news. I could do maybe an hour of this at a time. Tops. Then I’d go off and do something on my own.

I’ve spent the last couple of days hanging out at my local coffee shop. I can do this for four or five hours at a shot. I suspect I could do this for days. Until I dropped dead from dehydration like one of those Korean teenagers who die at their gaming consoles.

Alright. Please take out your Blue Books and write 1,000 words comparing and contrasting A Day At The Beach and A Day At The Coffee Shop. Begin.

Barb hired a professional sand castle artist Mark Flynn to give the family a lesson. Not too bad for a first try. And lots of fun. Here’s the flickr set and slide show.

I’ve been thinking a good bit about the nature of reality. Specifically, the notion that we create our reality through consciousness. I was thus occupied when I noticed the sky above the beach here in Destin seemed just a little too perfect.

[Larger photo]

Here is the obligatory yes-I-went-down-to-the-beach photo.

Nice story in the Northwest Florida Daily News about The Destin Florida Podcast. The "voice" of the DFP –25-year-old Harley Van Hyning– is a waiter at Pompano Joe’s, a Destin native (I knew it!) and a recent graduate of the University of West Florida, where he got a degree in public relations and communications.

Harley and his buddy Ted Newkirk expect to eventually build an audience 80 percent out-of-towners and 20 percent locals with the twice-a-month podcast. Sounds like the right mix to me.

Barb always gets better pix than I and brought back some nice ones from her recent trip to Destin. This is my favorite.

Somewhere out on the web there’s a photo of Barb taking this picture of the man taking the photo of the family on the beach. [larger]

If you’re still looking for a place to vacation this summer, she has some new pix of Amberjack Landing.

I finally got around to converting AmberjackLanding.com to a Typepad blog. Getting the domain switched will take a few days.

The experience reminded me (again) of just how much the tools have improved since I created (with FrontPage) the original site. There was no Flickr, no Google Maps, no Typepad. And best of all, Barb will be able to post, add pix, play with the layout and such. Much more fun for her.

But we gotta keep the thing fresh, so if you spot something about Destin, send it our way.

I didn’t take a lot of pix on recent trip to Destin because Barb’s brother Chris is a damned fine photographer and snapped about 500 images. I added 20 or 30 to my flickr set.

Someone hired a professional beach photographer to get some family shots. For some reason, all beach photogs have a thing for khaki pants and white shirts. There’s a proof page here (very lo rez) but not for long. I like Chris’s images better.

“Addiction” is such a strong word. I prefer “passion.” Sunday monring here in beautiful Destin and we’re coming to you from the local Barnes & Noble ($2/hr). Mac Update: I’m unable to access any of the open wifi hotspots with the Mac Book but brother-in-law Chris is getting on with his ancient Dell. I had to put the Mac Book away to the hoots and jeers of a room full of PC users. Chris let me use his laptop but it was just too humiliating, so I slunk (slank?) away and came to B&N. I gotta go now. Mom says I have to go down to the beach and play with the other kids.

Oh, almost forgot. No HBO either. I think I’m Tivo’ing Deadwood and Entourage but will somebody please record these, just in case?

We saddle up and head for Destin tomorrow for a week in the sun with friends and family. (Thanks to Vince and Mike with the JCPD SWAT Team for sitting with the dogs.) Not sure what the wifi situation will be at Amberjack Landing but it won’t hurt me (much) to be off the grid for a few days. I plan to spend some of the time dancing the with Mac Book.