January 7, 2023 – Midlife Creative

After being on the gulf coast of Naples for 10 days, we decided to check out Miami and experience the wild and untamed Ocean side of Florida.
As we walked across the wide runway of sand, I was amazed by the enormity of the waves. You couldn’t get much further than knee deep before being knocked over.
The powerful, crashing waves filled me with wonder. Tabby jumped in with no hesitation. Malia followed with a little prompting. Ivy stayed back with Mom and Dad.

After about 30 minutes in the water, I heard a scream of panic as Tabby and Malia came running out of the water.
“Mom, Mom, come quick!” I knew whatever had happened was bad. I could hear the pain in Malia’s voice as she frantically pointed to her arm. A bystander came over and said, “must be a jellyfish sting, should I call a lifeguard?”

The first person who came by to help told me to go down by the water and rub wet sand on Malia’s arm. I didn’t know any better and followed instructions. I later learned this was not helpful and might have made it worse. The trained lifeguard showed up and sprayed the arm with vinegar. He said she should take a walk and the pain would gradually lessen over time.
We took a walk, but Malia was so worked up that she couldn’t calm herself down. Tabby took her back to the lifeguard and pleaded for more help. Tabby, Malia, and I hopped on a golf cart and were whizzed across the beach to an outbuilding with a faucet where we could get some warm water. After Malia put her arms in the 5 gallon bucket of warm water, she calmed down and started to breathe more normally. We learned through our talk with the lifeguard that looking for the warning flags when visiting the ocean can help you know whether it is safe to enter the water. That day, the flags were red and purple which meant strong currents and dangerous marine life.

It took about 3 hours for Malia to start feeling back to normal, although her arm hurt for the rest of the evening. We didn’t want to turn around and leave Miami quite yet. We had tacos, and then Tabby and Ivy explored a little longer while Mark, Malia, and I went back to our car to rest.

Someday, I hope to return to the ocean side of Florida to experience the wild and wonderful waves. Next time I’ll have a little more experience and hopefully no more jellyfish.

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