Life Ain't Bad


It’s the simple things in life that make it great, and sometimes I just have to stop moving, sit back, and remind myself where I live.  So often, I feel like on the weekends I need to get out of Guayama and go and see a new and fantastic part of the island.  But sometimes the best days are the ones spent right here on the beach 15 minutes from home. 

Because really, what do the famous resort beaches have that we don’t have right here?

Saturday, we met at the beach at about 1pm.  Robert had his hammock strung up between two palms, the car stereo playing us music, our chairs set up, cooler nestled in the shade of a tree, grill waiting for our hunger to kick in. 

We call this beach "Corona West."
(Locals call it Playa el Faro, Arroyo) 

The weather was perfect, the sand was soft, the water was clear enough to study the sand dollars on the bottom (which doesn’t happen often on this side of the island), the sun was out, and we had the beach more or less to ourselves. 

It was our own little slice of heaven. 



We spent the entire afternoon sitting in the sun, floating in the water, enjoying good conversation and great music, reclining and relaxing.  Scott and Robert tossed a football around for a bit, and Sonja kept us updated on celebrity news from Us Weekly.  When we got hungry, Robert found some small bits of wood (who needs to spend money on charcoal?) and we cooked hot dogs on the grill.  We ate them with cole slaw on top (a new thing for all of us, inspired by something Robert and Sonja saw on a Food Network show), along with all the other hot dog fixings.  Simple and so delicious.  (Seriously—go try putting some cole slaw on top of your hot dog next time). 

We watched the sunset.  And then, we watched the stars come out.  I wish I could capture in a photograph what it looks like to see the blue-black sky and thousands of stars framed with the black silhouettes of palm fronds.  I wish I could adequately describe the feeling of digging your toes into the sand, the sound of the waves gently rolling in to shore, the chill in the breeze as evening sets in. 

We stayed until 9pm. 
We were home by 9:15pm.

Marathon beach day, 15 minutes from home.
No, life ain’t bad.  


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