BP: Bye, Pensacola
Goodbye, Pensacola Beach. I have to hand it to you: we’ve been coming here every summer since 1989 and during that time you’ve faced Erin (’95), Opal (’95), Ivan (’05), Dennis (’05), Katrina (’05), and now BP (’10) — but you keep coming back. Your resilience and beauty are remarkable.
So here’s the report by the numbers:
Miles ridden: 105 (on a mountain bike)
Raw oysters slurped: 9 dozen (that’s Mike, 108 oysters; Diane, 0 oysters)
Seafood bought, cooked, and eaten: crab, amberjack, grouper, shrimp
Main source of vitamin C: fresh lime juice
Minutes I spent on the beach: 0 (my 15-mile bike loop has beach to the left [Gulf] and right [Pens Bay] but the beach per se isn’t my thing — I love being AT the beach, just not going TO the beach)
Hours Diane has spent on the beach: 35
Children here with us: 0 (which explains the 0 Minutes above)
BP clean-up workers seen: hundreds
Anti-BP bumper stickers seen: too many to count (e.g.: “Plug the hole with BP executives”)
- – - -
By the way, here’s my first blog post from seven years ago (isn’t that an eternity in blog time), which was also about Pensacola Beach.
Fresh lime juice, eh? Sounds healthy.
We went a little further down Hwy. 98 to Destin/ Santa Rosa Beach. No trace of oil. My husband wasn’t too much into the beach, either, but it was most wonderful — and yes, plenty of oil workers, but we didn’t see a trace of oil. That is some of God’s amazing handiwork. And Diane and I are about neck and neck in the oyster eating… yick…
Sarah –
You’re right: not much evidence of the oil. However, I hear that the shells have little bits of oil in them; and there are apparently small tar balls here and there on the beach. (Again, I haven’t actually been to the beach.)
On the other hand, the local merchants have been devastated from the cancellations. They’re about equally torn between anger toward BP and anger toward the media.
Hope you had (or are having) a restful time at Destin.
We did miss you on Saturday, though!
Missed going to the beach this year, but having the most wonderful time in the mountains of Colorado! Cool, crisp air, windows open day & night, sunshine, an occasional mighty thunderstorm, then sunshine again. Oh, and the flowers! In windowboxes, lining fences, in mountain meadows, hanging baskets, on every table at cafes & restaurants. And, no bugs or mosquitoes! It’s going to be so hard to go back to the exhausting, melting heat that Arkansas is right now….
I love and miss Pensacola. Just got back from Saint Simons Island, GA, though, and like you, I avoided the beach but embraced the island life! Not as many tar balls on the Atlantic coast, though, since they have to truck them over on I-10, you know.