Today is my youngest sister’s birthday! Katherine turns 19 today, though she’s mentally a strong 30. Katherine is one of those people that just radiates ~cool~. I recently cut off about 8″ of hair and when I was in our salon all of the stylists couldn’t stop raving about how unequivocally interesting she was. Katherine and I are very dissimilar, but that makes for one very awesome sister tag-team combo.

Anyway, yesterday Katherine went to take surf lessons at Cocoa Beach and while I didn’t get to stay for the lessons, I did arrive at the beach with my mother around 6:30AM to take a few pictures and grab some FitBit steps.

The lighting was absolutely gorgeous. One of my favorite parts about growing up in Florida has been the opportunity to watch so many sunsets and sunrises on the Beach. Whether it’s welcoming the sun on the East Coast, or saying goodbye on the Gulf, no one can deny that it is very relaxing.

We drove around for about 15 minutes trying to find the “best” parking area. When choosing a beach parking spot, you want to make sure that you’re not going to walk into a super crowded/tourist heavy part of the beach and that your car will be safe. We ended up spending around $4 for two hours.

Shore birds are a common sight at any Florida beach, but these little ‘sea pigeons’ are some of my favorites. (Please note that is not their real species name, but rather a fun, unoriginal name that I’ve coined for them).

Just look how regal this guy is.

He’s definitely ready to leave a life of scavenging behind and pursue a career in modeling.

Tough luck for him, the competition is pretty fierce.

All humor aside, I was really disappointed with HOW MUCH trash there was along the beach. I spent half of my morning zig-zagging to the WM receptacles to discard plastic bags, beer bottles, and more. As a decidedly Gulf-Girl, the Atlantic bums me out sometimes.

We only stayed on the beach for around an hour and a half, but that was enough time for me! When we left, a storm was about to roll in and the beach was just starting to receive more visitors.

Cannot deny my utter love for the ocean. Hopefully there will be more beach trips to come before I jet-set back to Macon in June.

“The Sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land” Psalm 95:5