Did you ever hear the phrase “ass over tea kettle”? Unless you are of my generation, you probably haven’t. It’s an old saying, which, according to the god of all knowledge AI (sorry, Google, you’ve been replaced), is an “expression used to describe someone falling, tumbling or getting knocked over in a somersault-like fashion.” Of course, the word “somersault” is another head scratcher. Somersault? So again. I turned to the internet wizards and learned that the word “somersault” “ comes from the Old French word “sombresault” meaning to  “jump over”. It is a combination of sober “over”, from Latin supra ) and said (“leap, from Latin saltus).

Just where am I going with this?  It had stormed earlier in the morning and the waves were much bigger than I’ve ever experienced, not that I have much experience. I don’t go out far at all. So either being overly confident in my abilities or underestimating the strength of the waves, “ass over tea kettle “ pretty much describes what happened when the wave hit me. I lost my sunglasses (silly me for not having them on a tether) and my visor, which, lucky for me, I was able to retrieve. But that ended my time in the water and not long after, my time on the beach. I don’t know how people who spend a lot of time at the beach deal with the sand. It was everywhere, and I do mean everywhere.

The rest of the afternoon was much calmer. I watched our KC Chiefs cream the Eagles 31-0 and then we all headed out for a dolphin cruise.

We went on one last year when we were in Panama City Beach but this one was by far the better of the two.  We saw lots of dolphins and were chased by flocks of seagulls.

The longer we were out on the water, the more seagulls we gathered flying and swooping down ever closer to us. It wasn’t until we had made our way pretty much back to the pier that our guide let us on the secret of why they were following us. Cheetos.

They feed the seagulls Cheetos. Our guide, who said he was a “certified Cheeto specialist”, let one take a Cheeto from his mouth. He did instruct us not to try this at home, lol. And,  by the way, Autocorrect, yes, indeed, I want the word “Cheeto” not “Cheryl.”