Sandestin

February 22, 2025

Broken Record

My brother’s like a broken record. He tells me about how we used to bike around the neighborhood pretending we were race car drivers, and how we’d gained multiple knee scrapes from turning the curb too fast. He’ll tell me this story twice, thrice, or even four times in a row, and laugh about the good ol’ days. I laugh with him, because though he doesn’t remember that he’s already told me this story for the fourth time in a row, he does remember the fun we had. My brother’s like a broken record, but I don’t mind one bit.

My family and I had gone to Sandestin to go to the beach. While we were in Sandestin, we had started to feel a bit weird, as I believe we were coughing and our throats felt somewhat dry or itchy, and our eyes watered a little. My mom had asked a lady at the desk of the hotel we were staying in what was happening and she said that it was red tide, which is a “higher-than-normal concentration of a microscopic alga” (Florida Red Tide FAQs). When we went to the beach, we found some dead fish washed up on the shore. After doing some research, I found out that these fish may have died from the red tide. This is because the red tide can produce toxins that can affect the central nervous system of fish, which can cause them to die (Florida Red Tide FAQs). Though the red tide caused us some irritation, our time at the beach was still enjoyable overall, as it was fun to be at the beach. I also managed to get some beautiful shots of the ocean waves, which was one thing I really enjoyed at the beach.

Sources

“Florida Red Tide FAQs” MOTE Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, https://mote.org/news/florida-red-tide. Accessed 1 June 2020.