As the dog days of summer kicked in this week in the greater Seattle area, today we are getting a break in the weather so rather than being down at my local beach cooling off, I thought I would do a blog post with just some random beach thoughts.

Last week I came across an article in The New York Times called The Lure of the Surfing Life that I wanted to share with folks.  Besides the lead story being incredibly inspirational, it's worth checking out the other six articles, especially the one on the history of surfing as Hawaii is most definitely at the center of this grand sport.

On an interesting website in Florida I came across an article on the history of how the bikini emerged in 1946 and evolved from there.  Pretty entertaining that the US government had a hand in this due to its WWII fabric rationing policies.  And now I have a new road trip I have to take which is cruising Scenic Highway 30A through the gulf coast of Florida.

Normally this time of year I am gearing up for my annual trip to the coast of Maine, I stay in Rockland and travel up and down the midcoast as for me this is the essence of summer, but this year I am taking a break as it's likely the last summer both of my daughters will be here in the greater Seattle area so we are heading down to the Oregon coast next month instead.  

The Oregon coast has been my stand in for Maine while I have lived on the west coast and this trip actually prefaces BeachNecessites.com and my move to Portland, OR at the end of August.  While several reasons exist for this move, the primary one is to get back to being within easy proximity, can get over and back in the same day, to the open ocean.  This way I will be able to visit my favorite Pacific Northwest beach towns of Pacific City, Oceanside and Manzanita anytime the mood hits.

Hope everyone is having a great summer at the beach!