I actually have fresh new beach pictures for Beach Wednesday. Hooray! I am in the Ft. Lauderdale area this week with my daughter, one of her BFFs, and the BFF’s mom, who is one of my BFFs. That’s a complicated way to say that we are enjoying a mother-daughter trip. Today we met up with another mother-daughter group from back home, for a total of three teenage girls and three moms. Here are a few pictures I’ve captured over the last couple of days.

Spring break in Florida

Those who live near the Florida beaches year round (ahem: @negativer and @morodiene) will perhaps not find these images remarkable. But for us Minnesota folks, the sun and sand and seagulls are mind-blowing. It is still frigid in Minnesota, and evidently it snowed again up there in the last few days. We are officially scheming about how to avoid going back.

We started out the day today with a 6:30 a.m. breakfast before making a dash for Hallandale Beach to meet up with our friends and watch the sun come up. We had almost decided to abandon our plan to catch the sunrise, because the weather report said it was going to be cool, cloudy, and windy.

But in fact it was the partial cloud cover that made the sunrise so breath-taking. The early sun on the water was amazing. Nothing makes you feel alive like that!

The girls had a wonderful time watching the sun rise above the ocean and taking pictures.

As you can see, there was a ton of seaweed on the beach. The ocean was really choppy, and the seaweed had piled up in a line along the shore for as far as the eye could see. A little later, huge tractors were grooming the beach and cleaning up the seaweed.

It was amazing to see the color of the water change over the course of the day. By early afternoon, the clouds had dissipated, the sky was blue, the sand was lovely and hot, and out to sea the water had turned a translucent turquoise. Our bathing beauties had a lovely time playing games on the beach and posing for pictures. Unfortunately, in spite of sunscreen, my daughter (the one on the right) got a little more “color” than she bargained for, and had to take some time out of the sun in the afternoon. Thank goodness for aloe!

I love the beach. All my life, with the exception of about 13 years in Minnesota, I have lived within a fairly short driving distance from the ocean. I feel at home on sand, looking out at rolling waves and tasting the salt air. I realized this week that my husband and I may have to look at condos and become snowbirds at some point.

For now, hooray for spring break!