Every year, the weekend after school gets out, we take a trip to the beach to celebrate. I especially wanted to get there early this summer because I'm not sure what's going to happen in the Gulf over the next few months.

One simulation seems to keep the Tampa Bay area relatively safe from the effects of the spill...but those estimates are only taking currents into account, not the possibility of Tropical Storms or Hurricanes coming our direction from the west of the Gulf, which occasionally does happen when one slides past Cuba, into the Gulf and hovers there for a little while before deciding where it wants to go.

In other words....who knows what the heck is going to happen?

So far our favorite beach has remained pristine and we even saw a pod of 3 dolphins coming up for air.

We'll probably head to the beach as often as we can, trying to take advantage of what we have before it might be gone.