Beach Paths

I've been thinking about beach paths, lately.  On a recent visit to the shore, to meet up with our structural engineer, my husband and dog stumbled upon this path.

 Ahhh, wonderful, level, wide path.  Our neighbors can 

pleasantly meander their way down to the water....

This is our neighbor's path. They just live two houses over, but we had never noticed the path -- even from our upstairs windows -- as the tall dune grass does such a great job of hiding things.

We can't even see our neighbor's path!

Now, our own path is very overgrown.  It's about nine inches wide (at most), and has some gopher holes and branches lying across, that are all nicely camouflaged by the dune grass.

 No pleasant meandering here!  One must be ever 

watchful, lest a piece of driftwood or gopher hole reach 

out and grab you, and lay you low...

So, walking the two hundred feet from our back door to the beach can be just a little tricky -- and has resulted in more than a few face-plants.  The dune grass does a good job of breaking your fall, so that you only end up with a twisted ankle and a bruised ego, but still....  I suggested to my husband that we mow a path, and fill any holes, and remove any debris.  He was skeptical.  After all, the two hundred foot wide strip of dunes between our house and the beach is technically owned by the city....

Then he found our neighbor's path.

And he found this along their path!

Since this is just an accumulation of items that wash up 

on the beach, it's not technically littering, or vandalism, 

right?  It's simply re-arranging.  A few days ago, I took 

a friend who was visiting from Colorado out to this spot.  

We had a front row seat for a spectacular sunset, and she 

was able to get some great pictures to take home to her family.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this from my own 

little sitting area on my own little (improved) beach path!

And because every path looks the same from the beach.....

... we've noticed some property owners do this...

source unknown (if this is your picture, please 

let me know, so I can give you proper credit)

...to mark where their own path begins.  Which leads me down a more philosophical road, thinking about all those landmark events in our lives that mark the beginnings of new directions....  Do you have a few of those?