Alphabet Challenge – I is for Island

Since my run-ins with skin cancer started last year, I don’t get to go out in the sun and play much anymore. Even with heavy sunscreen, I’m a little gunshy – or should I say “sunshy” – so it was an unusual treat this past summer to get out and splash in the water in a bikini.
We had such fun with this one. It was my idea to find an “island” – aka a sandbar – to claim as my own, the Isle of Jade, and then get tied to the sign proclaiming the island as mine.  It took quite a bit of planning, though.  Ad thought he knew of one by Castlewood Park, one of my favorite hiking spots, so we went there, and spent a whole day hiking up and down the river and the surrounding area to try to find a sandbar that was both accessible (without having to swim to it) and also secluded enough that we could do the tie without attracting too much attention.  We found the one we ended up using right away, but weren’t sure about it at first. It turns out that St. Louis has a for-real beach, right there in Castlewood, and it’s a very popular spot for families and teenagers hanging out with their friends.
Our sandbar was not more than 50 yards from it.
So we kept looking, and in the process had the opportunity to do several other Alphabet Challenge pictures, as well as the Graffiti Scavenger Hunt. We had a great time in general, even if we thought we hadn’t found what we were looking for.
But we couldn’t find anything else that looked viable, either there or by searching Google Earth. So I did the unthinkable: the next day I talked W into getting up “early” so that we could (hopefully) get there before the rush of kids and their parents. I use quotes because early meant we got out there around 10am. There were already a couple of people, fishermen and a teenager or two, up the beach a-ways, but we were there, dammit, and I was determined to get our shot.
So we did. Ad tried to shield me from the direct line-of-sight from the beach, and W hammed up being a photographer, which always seems to put people at ease, no matter what screwball hijinks you are up to, and which seemed to work. Look like you belong there and that it’s something official, and people tend to look the other way.



To learn more about the Meramec Greenway, which encompasses 28,000 acres and follows the 108 miles of the Meramec River, and about how you can help preserve it, click here.

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