Escape to Nature, and escaping the Escape to Nature

New Smyrna in a nutshell: do not kill the wildlife
with your four wheel drive.

After a city-locked summer, Nature was calling to this urban-dweller. Enough of city dangers. I fled Chicago this past weekend with my trusty peer Nicole, in the name of seeing our friend get married in Florida, but also to capture a Corona commercial beach moment. Atlantic coast, embrace our paleness!

[History nerd alert] As we passed a forest of scrub pines and palms on the drive to the shore, I admitted to Nicole that sometimes I try to imagine American places as the first explorers might have encountered them, centuries ago. When we literally pulled up to the ocean at New Smyrna Beach, Nicole quipped, "Well, if the explorers landed here they'd find a traditional highway."

New Smyrna Beach attracts a specific sort of beach-goer. Namely, one who doesn't want to leave his or her car. Smack next to the waves, opposite a worse-for-the-wear row of beachfront condos, is a two lane road. Neither Nicole nor I had ever seen or heard of such a thing, but man, was it eye-opening. We declined to drive our rented convertible on the sand, but took to the shore on foot to get a closer look at the spectacle.