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“Sure Bird”
It was January when my husband and I moved into our new home in Fort Myers, Florida. We were freshly married—two people starting a life together in a place that was brand new to both of us.
After years of long distance—a common plight for early-career wildlife biologists—it was strange finally being in the same place again. We knew we were two pieces that fit together perfectly. We were just trying to find the rhythm of daily life together again.
So one afternoon, on a whim, we went to the one place we both had always shared a deep connection with—the outdoors.
A short drive from our house was Bunche Beach, a little wilder and less touristy than most of the beaches nearby. The sun was shining and the water was warm and wadable. Both of us grew up on Florida’s east coast, where “warm and wadable” are not common descriptions of the ocean—and honestly, they’re a little suspicious.
This wasn’t a beach day we had planned. We’d stopped on the way home from running errands, both of us still in plain clothes—me in shorts and a t-shirt, Christian in jeans, both of us in sneakers….