In their trips to the beach each summer, my children first learned about the largeness of the world, a place big enough to hold their dreams. Wide blue waves stretched to the horizon, inviting them to look toward distant places.

My daughter and son live far away these days, each one near a different shore at opposite ends of the country. Parenthood no longer asks me to be a beach dad, and there have been some summers when my swim shoes and ice chest stay on the shelf.

But this year, I felt a need to enlarge my sense of the world, too. My daily routines, normally a comfort, were making me wonder what might lie beyond my quietly ordered life. When my sister-in-law invited us to the Gulf Coast for a few days, I quickly agreed.

I always reward myself after the long drive to Florida by dippi

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