A beachy kind of weekend

Last weekend, the 16/17 of May turned out to be a true weekend on the Mediterranean.

Saturday
We were out doing our normal grocery shopping in the morning, when my friend phoned up and asked if we wanted to meet her for lunch on the beach in Juan Les Pins, which is the next town over from Antibes.

This is one of many so-called "private" beaches, where they have their little bit of sand, deck chairs with mattresses on them, and umbrellas. You pay a fee to "rent" the chair for a 1/2 or whole day, and you have a "beach boy" (ooh!) who adjusts the umbrella for you and brings you food and drinks.

We had not yet had lunch on the beach since we've been here, so we took the bus down and had a fantastic lunch of salad and rosé wine. It was a gorgeous day, warmish with a nice cool breeze.

The wine must have gone to my head, because after lunch, I got all spontaneous and decided to stay for the afternoon and veg. (Kev went home because he gets bored after half an hour of doing nothing.) So I went to the swimsuit shop across the street and bought a new bikini (no one-pieces here!) and went back and hung out with my friend for the afternoon. Bliss.

Sunday
The activities office at my work organized a 4-session Hobie Cat lesson, so Kev and I are doing it so we can finally learn how to sail. This was our 2nd lesson. Hobie cats are little two-person catamaran sailboats.

Last week, there were about 14 of us, so they put the beginners on a boat with someone who knows what they're doing. Thank goodness, because the wind was quite strong and the waves were pretty big.

So this week, Kev and I took a boat out by ourselves. There was almost no wind this week, and the water was pretty calm. Which was good, because we've literally had almost no instruction on how to sail the darn thing. Calling them lessons is a bit of a stretch. It's more like, here's the boat, now GO!

But, being the college-educated folks that we are, we managed to do OK. We had both picked up enough from the previous week to figure out how to turn and catch the wind. It's actually pretty fun once you get the hang of it, and it's so nice to be out on the water. Although we are going to do some research on our own for sailing information before the next session, so we both feel more comfortable.

I could get used to this... :-D