Summer in South Florida is hot.  I mean really hot.  Sticky, humid, sweaty kind of hot.  Fortunately I grew up with that kind of weather in Durban, South Africa.  We are beach people.  We love the ocean.  We love to be able to do things that involve water.  I love the smell of coconut oil and to be able to rest and read.

Every September we take a weeks vacation to the beach. This summer we chose to go back to Flagler Beach in Florida, USA.  We typically wait until after the school holidays have finished, when the campsites are empty and the beach hardly has anyone on it.  I love it.  I have this whole beach to myself.  Well sort of.  This year we had a lot of fishermen sitting directly in my spot.  Not cool guys to stagger yourselves wide enough apart not to allow anyone to get inbetween.  That said, I was happy to walk along the beach to get a new spot each day.

This trip was going to be different.  Amy was joining us.  This was her second last week with us and so she spent the weekend with her boyfriend and friends, and came through on the Monday to join us and stay for her birthday on the Friday morning.  Friday afternoon she headed back to say her last goodbye to her boyfriend.

My 30 minutes comes from Amy and my first walk down onto the beach.  We did a little bit of “beach” photography as opposed to “street” photography.

Perhaps the most busy day at the beach

We literally walked 100 paces to the board walk from our campsite.  From the top of the boardwalk we spotted these two little girls playing at the waters edge.  They were so sweet.

As Amy and I headed down, I tried to attempt to capture those last fun moments to hold onto while she is away.

These two little girls played oblivious of who else was on the beach, laughing and running to and from the waves.  While it may look like they are alone on the beach, the grandmother was very close by.  This was innocence at its very best.

I could not help but take a few more shots of Amy.  She is part of my heart and I know I am going to miss her so much.

My photojournalist and English major, ready to head out into the big wide world.

A lady and her pooch soon joined us on the beach, and these little guys had a blast running all over the sand.

The parade of the feathered variety looks promising for the week ahead.  Hopefully, I will be able to get the parade of Pelicans as they pass over.

Incoming Pelican

A Sandpiper scrambling for food.

A Hawk cruising and looking for food.

I also managed to find an interesting looking bug.  Apparently, this is a Cicada.  According to a comment on my photo the cicadas live in the ground as pupae. They emerge after 17 yrs to grow into what you see in the photo.

A bug we found on the railing of the boardwalk

And a different perspective of it which I really like, but some may find a little creepy.

Last two of these little girls playing in the ocean.

I hope we get to see them again later in the week.  And one last pic of Amy before I close off.

Amy at the beach

This time with Amy has been a real blessing.  I cannot believe we are down to the wire and counting the days.  At this point in time we have 11 days and counting.  Ugh a mother heart.

Since this week, Amy has left and after 24 hours traveling, orientation, more traveling, texting me at 4am to let me know she was in Austria, she finally arrived in Macedonia.  She has spent 1 week with 50 other Peace Corp volunteers being oriented to the way of life in the Peace Corp and in Macedonia.  As of today she will travel in a smaller group of about 10 to one of the largest cities in Macedonia, where she will stay with a host family for 3 months while she is in training.  At the end of 3 months she will be posted to her area for the next 2 years.

While this is not part of my 30 minutes, this was my plan for the week.

Thank you for joining me for this month’s 30 minutes.    This is a circle blog.  Please take time to visit my friend, Stacey Markel Photography | Maryland Family & Child Photographer and see what she has for you this month. Keep following the circle to see what the other photographers have shared this month.

If you want to know more about 30 Minutes in the Life head over to their facebook page, or to the blog page.  There is new and exciting happenings going on at 30 minutes that you are sure to want to check it out.

Click here, for Day 2 of our vacation.

If you are interested in seeing more of my photography take a look at my Facebook page or my Flickr Page.