Luckiest fishing village

Destin is known as the "luckiest fishing village in the world."  Of course it isn't a quaint village anymore, but a large tourist resort city on the Florida panhandle.

Despite the BP oil spill disaster in 2010, the city still has one of the largest fishing fleets in Florida.  The 100 Fathom curve is a quirk of underwater topography, and it draws closer to Destin than any other spot in Florida, giving fishermen speedy deep-water access. The relatively shallow shore along the Gulf of Mexico coastline drops off dramatically here in Destin.  

We have a great view of the Gulf from the balcony of our condo. However, it tends to make a person lazy. A school of dolphins swam by early this morning.  Depending on the time of day, we drink coffee or wine and watch the beach action and the free show of lovely tropical clouds that are constantly changing.  I decided our shades of grey Seattle clouds are pretty boring.

I haven't been in the water yet, but plan to this morning.  I'll try not to fall off the 100 Fathom Curve. Actually, the beach is very safe here in calm weather, and I see little kids playing in the waves and folks wading far out.

The unique sand of the Destin beaches is among the whitest and softest in the world. I've never seen sand like it.  It comes from the Appalachian Mountains (really) and consists of small quartz particles. 20,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age when the world temperatures began warming, large volumes of water were carried by the rivers to the world’s oceans. The Apalachicola River carried water to the Gulf of Mexico and continues today.

It is so fluffy and soft, it reminds me of the "silly sand" I bought for Nova and Maya.

We went to an exciting party last night (everyone dressed in white) and the looking forward to the beach wedding this afternoon.  The weather is lovely.  Now I can't imagine why I worried so much about it before we left.  And the hurricane is not headed our direction.