Day 21 - Ra's Rays Know Little Mercy

On Monday morning, we woke up to a sunnier day than we were expecting. The light poured through our rectangular prison-like high window and we peaked out onto the roof to see the sun coming down on the pool to the left. We grabbed breakfast downstairs and then headed back upstairs to prepare for the beach. It was still quite overcast as we got to Neptune Beach, and the wind was up again as we banked left and headed down the sand. The hefty waves looked inviting, so after we lay our towels out, we went for a happy frolic.

The waves lived up to their billing - billowing towers of salty might, they mocked the fragility of our mortal frames with their swelling currents. Hiking through the water and ducking under the foam tired us out to no end, believe me! So we migrated back to the beach to soak up some rays. It was turning out to be a pretty beautiful day, to our genuine surprise. Weather forecasts, local residents all over Florida, and monstrous thunderstorms had convinced us we would be lucky to see the sun for an hour, let alone a morning. We realised something might need to be done lest we end up fried like crispy bacon. Jannick and I had both left our sun-cream at home, somehow thinking it a ridiculous notion to waste bag space with the stuff. Joe had brought his bottle so we gave our bodies a cursory lather, but by no means aiming for any comprehensive consistency.

We lay there for a while longer, popping back to the car for our lunch - leftover pizza reheated by the sun and an automobile oven. Jan and I went for a cool off at a local restaurant bar and enjoyed a raspberry ice tea, only noticing at this point (nearly 4pm) that we might have bitten off a little more ultraviolet than we could chew. Denial, as always, reared its head, as we sat there and told ourselves it was heat flush and that uncomfortable feeling was just sweat and sand. We picked up Joe, who was wilting in the heat, and headed back home for some damage assessment.

I'm not sure even Icarus got this burnt

The results were, suffice to say, catastrophic. Funny how five hours in the Florida sun will turn a person's skin to a charred crimson... The three of us had not experienced burns for years and so were naive enough to let our guards down, with unfortunate circumstances. The deceiving thing about sun burn is that it doesn't actually show up until hours after exposure, we were delighted to discover that evening, while liberally applying the after-sun in between weeps and winces. The pain was also starting to kick in too and my entirely pink torso began to sting with vengeful venom. That's what I get for taunting the sun with my hubris.

We hibernated at the motel for the rest of the afternoon and tried to remain as still as possible so as not to aggravate our stinging skin. After some time and a gallon of aloe vera later, we went out for dinner, making sure our solar adversary was well and truly on its way to bed. For dinner, we chose the restaurant that Jannick and I had called in on that afternoon. We all chose seafood; the boys had lobster and shrimp tacos and I had blacked mahi mahi, which was delicious and I enjoyed all to myself. Every last bite.

Beer to take away the pain

A quick trip and a drink at Pete's Bar, reportedly a favourite hang out of writer John Grisham, and we were ready to head home. We all went to bed much more respectful of the sun's awesome power than we were that morning. One last round of aloe vera and we all drifted off to sleep, ruing our idiocy in unified whimper.