South Florida 2025 - A State Park , the Beach and Fully Retiring on an Oceanfront Balcony

 At the condo complex where we stayed bikes can be borrowed, although ridable they are old, rickety and poorly maintained. Despite this we took off one morning to explore a nearby state park. It sits along a riverbank which is somehow connected to the ocean but I have no idea how. The system of channels and inlets was a mystery to me the entire trip no matter how often my patient condo mate attempted to explain it to me. It was a tranquil oasis. Birds sang and lizards scuttled among the rocks letting the sun warm their cold blood. A bright green one rested on a stone, it's brilliant hue on full display. We chatted with a leanly built fisherman casting his line along a shoreline of protected coral reef. Cityscapes loomed in the distance over the emerald foliage which grew in profusion. As we left two large green lizards, black stripes wrapped around their verdant tails, raced across the bike path. 

We stopped by the condo before riding to meet the other 3 members of our group at the beach where I experienced my second dip in the blue waters of the Atlantic. We rode on the sidewalks, a personal taboo of mine. There are designated bike lanes but motorists pay them no heed. 

Later that evening we met up with the other 3 at the beachfront condo they had rented. On an upper floor the ocean was visible through the plexiglass balcony wall that stretched the length of the unit. Cooling ocean breezes flowed through the room. We ate and drank wine and cocktails as we shared personal histories and opinions. 

At one point I received a text from the job I had. My husband and I had discussed the possibility of me leaving it. I stepped out on the balcony, phoned my husband to make sure we were still on the same page regarding me fully retiring and sent a resignation text in reply. I got the job just as the world was reopening after covid and had been working, part time, since then. I had been furloughed 3 months earlier and realized, after 40 plus years in retail, my heart was no longer in it. A balcony overlooking the Atlantic seemed the perfect place to turn over a new personal page.

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