During our winters stay in Northeastern Florida my wife and I often took our snowbird breakfast on the small porch of our condo that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. Even with the temperatures in the 50s you can do that if youre in Florida, and the morning sun is brightly beaming, warming the chilly air.
We set the little glass-topped café table in the usual fashion. Cereal bowls, juice glasses, coffee mugs and the usual utensils, spoons and binoculars fulfilled our needs.
The beachfront setting offered a menu much greater than our simple fare of cereal and granola. Rolling waves, gliding dolphins, a multitude of shorebirds and the oceans salty bouquet organically stimulated all of our senses.
The configuration of the porch itself enabled our outdoor dining. The condo is built like a bunker with walls of cement. You can hear but not see your neighbors because the walls protrude beyond the edge of the portico. The effect is one of being tucked into a cave entrance where only the sun welcomes you and the wind simply whistles on by.
The boxy porch with concrete walls and floor and a glass sliding door behind served as an oven of sorts. The suns rays warmed us perfectly, compromising the cooler morning air. The little whiffs of steam rising from our coffee mugs proved the science of this hands-on experiment.
The glass-topped café table that bore our breakfast gave testament to our seaside setting. A thin coating of fine sand and sea salt covered the tiny cafe tabletop.
Earlier the sun had made its usual predawn show of things, glowing orange the length of where the sea met the sky. A jagged but unbroken line of dark clouds, like a poorly constructed picket fence, identified the Gulf Streams boundary.
As dawn neared, the sky washed away the hardy orange in favor of pale pastels. The sun peeked above the watery horizon right on schedule. Seconds later a blazing orange ball balanced on the ocean, then slowly rose and brightened.
Black skimmers and brown pelicans flew in formations inches above the oceans surface. The skimmers modeled their name as their levered lower bill scooped small fish as the birds zoomed along. The pelicans flew in a single-file line for aerodynamics. Beyond them a small pod of bottle-nosed dolphins foraged south to north, the sun glistening off their wetted backs and dorsal fins as they appeared and disappeared in purposeful rhythm.
A few early birds walked their dogs, jogged or searched for seashells while a few fishermen drove their plastic pole stands into the soft, moist sand. Tiny sanderlings scampered out around them and then returned to where the low tide lapped at the shore. The little birds probed their pointy black bills into the sand like sewing machine needles as they sought their breakfasts too.
The ocean was unusually calm. A million ripples played where waves usually rolled. Expectant young surfers bobbed on their boards, waiting and watching for a wave to ride.
The sun, of course, continued on its expected ascent higher into the morning sky. Its rays transformed the mother-of-pearl sea into a field of dancing diamonds. The show was so dazzling, so luminous, that you could hardly look at it for hurting your eyes. And yet you could hardly turn away. The performance was so beautiful, so enthralling.
We basked in our cozy breakfast cubical. The cereal bowls and glasses were all empty. Our spirits, however, overflowed with wonder and joy.
To read more The Rural View, visit Bruce Stambaugh at www.holmesbargainhunter.com.
