I realized something today. Maybe I want to live near the beach so badly because I love the summertime, and it seems like coastal living would be a kind of endless summer.
I have friends and family who live in coastal towns, and I'm sure they'd be the first to set me straight on this. But let me have my dream. My dream of days filled with sunshine and sand, flip-flops and lemonade, lazy mornings and late nights. Everything just seems easier, lighter, and more fun this time of year.
I was in Target today and they had set up their Back to School section already. I wanted to cry! I'm not ready to face the idea of fall yet. I want to pretend it's never coming.
Come on--let's run away. Just follow those little footprints in the sand. Looks like endless summer ahead!
{Photos top & bottom via Coastal Living. Center photo mine, of my daughter Lily on the beach in Siesta Key.}
I'm linking this up to the Hooked on Fridays party I'm hosting over at my other blog today because I'm hooked on summer. I'm also adding this to Melissa's Beautiful Life party. Go see what everyone else is talking about today! :-)
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I so know what you are talking about. I think I was born to live by the beach and yet I am land-locked. And I am sad too that summer is half over.
ReplyDeleteMy goal is to have a beach cottage someday. :)
I grew up in south Georgia and we went to the coast often as it was only a little over an hour away. So for me, going to the ocean still means excitement.
ReplyDeleteYou and I (and probably everybody else) are on the same beach wavelength. The beach is every great summer vacation I can remember from my childhood through my childrens'. If I lived there or had a cottage to maintain from long distance, I'm not sure the romance and sentiment would be as strong.
ReplyDelete(But I'm perfectly willing to give it a try when the lottery comes in.)
I totally agree!
ReplyDeleteOur Target had out some supplies last week and there was already a lady there with 2 kids and their list of school stuff! Doesn't she know to wait for the sales? :)
I'd sure like to try living by the beach in the South (US) *except* during hurricane season.
ReplyDeleteDo you realize that not only school supplies are out, by this time next month stores will start putting out Christmas stuff!!!!! Shall we cry?
Do it! Make a plan and move. We did, and we're not rich by any means.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a year since we've moved, and it is exactly as I expected. Daily beach walks, being able to absorb the cycles of the flora and fauna, meeting great people, and soaking in the sunshine.
Don't put it off; you never know what will happen in life, and it would suck to regret not doing what you really love.
It can be amazing....The daily beach walks, kids and flip flops and shorts (no winter clothes...heck, no SHOES!) But I really think EVERYWHERE is beautiful. Just like you miss the summer feel, I miss fall/winter.The grass may just truly be always greener on the other side!
ReplyDeleteI find I love rainy days because it reminds me of snowstorms (time to cuddle, permission to just read...Hot chocolate).
I guess we should embrace what we have...and be happy for tastes of the other side every now and then.
Oooh, I miss the beach!!! That blue chair in the first picture captured my attention. :) Visiting from Julia's party. :)
ReplyDeleteback to school sections are on here too..it's too early they fun so fast!! very beautiful pics!!
ReplyDeleteHey Julia, that's one of my all time favorite pics. I never get tired of looking at it.
ReplyDeleteLook at the bright side of the retail issue... they're marking down flip flops, swimsuits & all the wonderful summer goods. Silly merchants.
Hi from a beach(ish)cottage in Northern Ireland :) We don't have a sea view, but do if we walk just 50 yards!
ReplyDeleteWe spend as much time as we can here through all seasons. In fact I almost prefer it in winter - walking on the beach with huge crashing waves, then home to hot chocolate in front of the fire!
I'm right there with your daughter on the beach!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate what "anonymous" said about life being fleeting and perhaps having to regret what you didn't do. Following your dreams is so important. Got me thinking this morning...
Oh I'm right there with you!! I SOOOO wish we had beaches! - do you know neither of my girls have ever seen the ocean? - that's living in the Midwest for ya! - and we're not travel people!
ReplyDelete*I saw the BTS section at WalMart the other day too, my stomach sunk a little.
~TidyMom
Those pictures are lovely, and they certainly add more fuel to my burning desire for endless summer as well!
ReplyDeleteYes, I am in flip flops, and I love your blog. Lots of inspiration..
ReplyDeleteWe moved close enough to the beach and I LOVE IT!!!
ReplyDeleteShhhh....don't say the 's' word and maybe it won't find us this fall...I don't want to go back either. I don't think students realize that us teachers REALLY don't want school to start b/c that means more work for us! lol
Love your post! We're vacationing on Cape Cod this week, and I don't want to leave. It's been so much fun being lazy, going to the beach, out to eat for seafood, touring the town and staying up late. I think I want to continue this lifestyle when we get home.
ReplyDeleteJane
I always wanted to live near the beach then I made the move over 10 years ago. I love it here but...okay I won't say it! LOL. Although, following your dreams is a must! It's what keeps me going!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous post......love the colours in that first image.
ReplyDeleteI dream of living by the sea too....preferably in the south of France..... :)
What a lovely thought, never to see winter or school again. Why is this summer flying by so fast??
ReplyDeleteWe are right there with you. We live in a beach town, and it's not perfect, but it certainly helps! Hate school!!!!! LOL!
ReplyDeleteLike you I want a beach cottage -- in fact that is what i will buy with my winning of the lottery!
ReplyDelete*note to self* better start buying those lottery tickets!
TTFN~~Claudia ♥
Absolutely love that first photo! I believe it came from the home of Thom and Mary Ellen Vernon who started the Fresh Produce Clothing Company. The whole house is gorgeously beachy. And I am SO right there with you about not wanting to even THINK of school supplies! I am a teacher..lol! Summer vacation (not the heat) ends all too soon here in Georgia. We need to enjoy every minute while we can.
ReplyDeleteThe thought of Fall just makes me want to scream...how I envy Californians their gorgeous weather and endless days of Summer...why my parents came to Toronto, I'll never really understand, but if I could, I'd pack up my family and plop myself on a beautiful ocean front front home and just live.
ReplyDeleteI love your pics.
Well, if you were in horridly hot Texas, you might change your mind. Here we can't wait for fall! But I certainly see what you mean. Let's do follow those little footprints in the sand to a land where school never starts and the sea is the only view on the horizon.
ReplyDeleteBrenda
i am a beach fan too but love the small changes of hearing the bus come down the road on a crisp summer day, and the first snowflake of the season.
ReplyDeletei always say i want to be on the beach all the time but I really think i would miss all the great season I get here smack dab in the middle of the US
I hear you about Target and back to school- I wanted to scream...Hey, wait, it's still summer!
ReplyDeleteLove the Beach too.
OK, Julia ... we who do have seaside houses will let you keep your illusions, haha. I'm not going to be the one to enlighten you on the downsides! (Although, the upsides far outweigh them.)
ReplyDeleteI hate when back to school stuff hits the stores, even though my kids are out of school (I don't count grad school --not buying pencils anymore!)
It makes summer seem even shorter!
Cass
Although we're only a few hundred feet from the beach and I walk on it daily I'm plotting to get my home on the beach one day (already picked the perfect one)
ReplyDeleteOh, those are precious pictures. I would so love to live on the beach!
ReplyDeleteI lived on the shores of Lake Michigan. My car had a parking space on the beach road all winter....no endless summer in Chicago in January. That wind off the lake first thing in the morning was definitely a wake up call. We can dream though, can't we?
ReplyDeleteI am a native Floridian now living in South Carolina. Even though I did not live on the beach, I was there often. Recently, we went back for a family visit, and I spent about 6 out of the 12 days there literally ON THE BEACH!! I really miss it!
ReplyDeletemy only thought is if you lived there everyday it would not be as special like it is when you get to visit
ReplyDeleteJulia,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, Lily is precious! That picture is fabulous. I love vacations on the ocean. I actually love little beachy towns that no one really goes to. We have a year round home on a lake. In the summer, the living is easy and laid back. But the other seasons all have their special qualities. Bonfires and burning leaves in the fall, ice skating and hot chocolate in front of the fireplace in the winter and in spring, brisk walks looking at all the budding trees and the ducks and geese coming back from their winter get~aways.
But I agree, summer is really about relaxing. And we all need that!! :-)
xoxo
Jane
These photos are so beautiful. It's the middle of winter in Sydney and although we don't experience the deep winter that parts of the States do, it's still pretty cold and miserable at times. Every summer we holiday at a place called Avoca on the Central Coast in NSW and this post made me yearn for those long, lazy days. Maybe if you visited Australia, you could have that endless summer? Meredith xo.
ReplyDeleteThe beach truly does say Summer! And I have those same dreams about beach life being so relaxing---
ReplyDeleteI can hardly believe how summer has flown by, we will have to start thinking of school clothes soon. But not Yet!
I live in place where the weather is like summer year round. We only have a few months of cool weather.
ReplyDeleteMy girls would probably love living at the beach.
Enjoy the rest of the summer Julie there is somethig about sunshine & sand that lifts you hey!! Happy weekend :)
ReplyDeleteand michaels already has HALLOWEEN set up!
ReplyDeletei love the idea of living near the beach but alas, i know i would have 365 bad hair days!
xo
Julia,
ReplyDeleteI also love the beach, adore beach cottages and the wonderfully unexpected things and people that you often run into during a visit to a fun little seaside town.
I enjoy spending my extra time along the shore and am so happy that much of my actual work takes place right on the sand...however, I am always happy to go home and live my cottage dreams 7 miles inland in suburbia! :)
Your blogs are so much fun...as much as I like Hooked on Houses I ADORE Beach Cottage Love!
I know just what you mean. :) I'm a huge lover of Fall and Winter, as well, but I'm shocked they're already pushing back to school stuff already. Jeez. Let everyone relax a bit first, eh?
ReplyDeleteGreat blog!
Love, love, love the first photo! I live in Minnesota where there is definitely NOT an endless summer! :-) Would love to live somewhere where there is... If only.
ReplyDeleteI just found your blog (actually both of them) I am having so much fun reading past posts...great blogs, I'll be back right now I am headed to the beach!!
ReplyDeleteSnow feels SO far away! I'm doing my best to deny its existence. I cannot get enough of Summer!
ReplyDeleteBack to school stuff already?! Gosh, it seems like they get things out earlier and earlier every year. Summer break just started people! Geesh. :) I loved the pics of your daughter on the beach. There's nothing like little childrens' feet prints in the sand. Enjoy your summer!
ReplyDeleteThe beach year round is perfect with me! Coastal towns have such charm!! They are such fun & busy in the summer. I really love going home & walking down to the beach in the winter when it's nice & quiet and the light is different & the waves crash differently. It's even nice when the shops are closed and the summer people have gone. I'm with you, beach-beach-beach! Let's not let anyone squash our dream!
ReplyDeletethanks for this blog Julia ... I just love it - when I want something fresh and beautiful I come here - no family dramas, no relationship woes, no whining or wingeing ... just summer loving :) thanks ever so much - le
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog! I'm so glad that you liked my Beach Guest Room. My guests always feel at home and never want to leave! LOL! Please keep checking in for new updates and future projects. (I have a garage full of projects waiting for their great reveal!)
ReplyDeleteBACK TO SCHOOL?! Bu-bu-but...it just stopped raining here finally...
ReplyDeleteI was born and raised on the beach in Naples, Florida. Sure, I had to go to school like any normal kid... but I also got to go boating on weekends, sit on the beach and star-gaze every night, and enjoy lovely tropical weather. It was and still is heaven. Move to the beach!
ReplyDelete