One of the striking things about arriving back in Eastern U.S. in the summer is that we’re having to deal with lots of heat and humidity.  Bolzano, Italy, as you might recall, was also hot in summer. Hot, hot, hot, actually. While that led to my Gelato Diet (the actual eating of it, plus the book! and the tote bags! ;-)), it was uncomfortably hot there.  So it was a bit of relief when we were in Tübingen to be in a somewhat more temperate climate. It never got quite as hot and humid in Tübingen during the 3 summers we lived there as it had in the 4 summers before that we spent in Bolzano.

Which was nice at the time. But it means we lost an acclimatization to the heat that we’d developed during those years in Bolzano. So East Coast heat and humidity – which both Chris and I actually grew up with — is taking a lot of getting used to again.

Of course, we started up in CT in June and July, two of the hottest months there. That was bad enough – but then came down to Florida in August. As one Melbourne, FL native said to me yesterday, “Our weather is great here! We have 4 months of Hell, followed by 8 months of Heaven. ”  Cute – I mean, that sounds good when you put it that way, right?

Except he went on to say that Heaven doesn’t open its gate until October. And it’s only September 2nd.

Make a note the next time you’re planning a trip to Florida.

Anyway, it’s clear the hot-as-Hades weather isn’t going to break anytime soon. So we won’t get in many walks on the beach on this trip during the day, as it feels like 110 on the beach and there is no shade.

But we did manage a moment for a quick walk on the beach in the early evening the other day. It was only a mere hot+, then, and I paused to snap this photo:

Melbourne beach, late in the day

Of course I also tried a sweep panorama. In the resulting photo, it looks to me like the daily heat has warped the shape of the beach. Odd.  See what you think:

Panorama, Melbourne Beach, August 28, 2015

BTW, as usual with the panoramas, remember to click on it once to open it in a new window, and then also click on it at least once more in the new window to enlarge it completely. At the full size there are many details to see, particularly the splashing waves in the water, which are very sharp considering the light wasn’t great and it was taken with my cell phone in motion to get that sweep.