Sunset off Naples

In August 2018 I had the opportunity to take a work trip to Naples, Florida.  While there we went to the beach one evening and I was able to experience a wonderful sunset.

I grew up in California, so to me it seems quite natural to see a sunset over water.  For my wife however it is profoundly strange, since she grew up in Virginia and she and my in-laws are accustomed to the concept of a sunset over the ocean (once we got up really early and drove out to Virginia Beach to see such a sunrise).  Thankfully Naples is on the western coast of Florida and thus is next to the Gulf of Mexico, so locals and visitors can enjoy ocean sunsets instead of strange ocean sunrises, ;-).

The trip was a short one, but we did have one night free with gorgeous weather and several of us decided to head for the beach to see if we could enjoy the sunset.  We arrived and parked and since we didn't have sandals several of us just removed our shoes and went barefoot.

We were just a group of adults, but it was nice to see that life jackets were provided for kids.

I enjoyed the feeling of the sand on my bare feet.

The sun was just starting to set when we arrived.

If you looked down the beach it still looked pretty light.

I walked up and down the beach collecting shells as I watched the sun sink towards the horizon.

Eventually I stopped for a while just to appreciate the colors--trust me, these pictures as bright as they are don't do the view justice

I did however take a high resolution video as the sunset and find it relaxing to watch it again while hearing the waves crash on the shore.

The colors kept changing and I kept taking more pictures.

We even saw some dolphins just off shore.

Finally blue started to predominate over the orange glow previously seen.

Then not too long after that most of the light was gone.

I ended up with a good collection of shells to take home to my daughters--especially ones with holes as one daughter wanted to make sure she could string them into a necklace.

You can view a few more pictures from the evening if you check out the complete album.

~Matt