Wonderful observations! Glad you're enjoying your escape.

Oh, you have great people watching skills! The v-suit sounds quite, uhm, interesting.

I think it takes a lot to get us Minnesotans in swim suits at this time of year, given our winter flab and paleness (speaking for myself at least). And I think we are often overly conscious about how we look versus people who are used to wearing swim wear all the time. I remember a beach in France where everyone looked generally terrible (semi-nude) and no one cared in the least.

Now, here's an uncomfortable V-suit--but the price is right!

https://www.amazon.com/Smiffys-Mens-Borat-Mankini/dp/B005HMHNX8

I have not had enough coffee for that mankini visual. Thanks Emory!

I live in an area that is very popular in the summer with our wonderful neighbors from Canada and we have met many interesting and lovely folks while walking on the beach where many of them stay. We have observed over the years that generally they are much less self-conscious about what they wear on the beach than the locals are. When I was younger I was more "judgey" about what I was seeing. Now I am just plain envious of people who grew up not worried about how they look. I blame the Puritans.

Glad you are having fun. One of my colleagues did a blog about "where did your beach body go" basically as way of talking about aging and associated weight gain, and I wrote back to him that no one should avoid the beach because they feel they don't have a beach body! Unfortunately, too many people will avoid the beach, which is so unfortunate.

Emory - you nailed it! Maybe she was wearing her man’s mankini.

Where are you? Nice to be among people you are comfortable with.

We vacation in Costa Rica in the winter. We travel, usually to five towns during our stay. I have observed the same as you, but it also involves shorts.

When I turned 50, I felt my shorter type shorts days were over. I switched to Bermuda length. Then, I started seeing much older, less in shape women wearing non-Bermuda shorts. Nothing skimpy, but way above the knee.

Why not me? Now I have a variety.

In one town that we visited, it is a very young crowd. Most women wore two-piece, bikini type bathing suits. Again, some although young were not as in shape as I am. Not sure if I at almost 64 will venture to a two-piece, but maybe if the right one came along........

Lesson learned: we need to be more accepting of ourselves as others in the overall public seem to be.

I'm glad you're able to see and appreciate the diversity of the human body out there and realize that yours fares no "worse" than many others. I say that as someone who struggled with debilitating body image issues. My problem was that when I did venture out to a pool or beach, I never noticed the diversity of bodies. I only saw the ones who were in better shape than mine (and that really seemed to be all of them) and thought that meant mine wasn't fit to be seen in public. What a twisted way to live in this world.

(As for bathing suit ride-up, there's a glue out there for that: Butt glue. I've never used it and have no clue how good it is in the water but beauty pageant and fitness competitors have been using this stuff for years.)

Hope you continue to enjoy your warm weather break, 3katz! :)

Suzmt. Interesting. I once took an overweight friend to my pool club. I live in a youth-orientated fit town.

When I looked around, I saw all those "perfect bodies" and really this was the majority. But my friend's take away was that she didn't see many people that didn't look the way she did!

I remember your saying you were going somewhere, but I don't remember where either.

We had a tropical vacation last month, but there were no other American (or Canadian) tourists where we went, and the beaches were empty, which was sort of nice. Here's one place we went snorkeling:

I hope you took photos that you can share with us, and maybe include some people on your beach! My beach was lonely.

We went to Sandals in Negril - kind of your typical all inclusive resort. I looked at many and chose this one because I wanted the room with the swim up pool overlooking the beach. The room/pool was nice, we met some interesting people, lovely views of sunset over the Caribbean. Sat on the beach a bit but I prefer a pool over the salt and sand. It was the best of both worlds. We are not much for beach vacations so only there four days which was plenty - along with a travel day on each end of the trip. We just wanted to go away to some where warm and relax for a few days. Enjoyed the trip but won't be doing another one like this, maybe ever. Just not much into the contrived vacation environment. Our last tropical vacation was a sailing charter in the BVI and I'd be more likely to do that again next time I'm in the mood for a spring break type get away.

My sister is a bigger girl (and honestly, I weigh more than I should too), and she can totally rock a bikini. She is completely untroubled by such things and really has a devil-may-care attitude, she always jokes 'if you don't like the way I look in a bikini then don't look!'. She's always totally put together with a hat and big glasses and a cute cover-up, and her swimsuits always fit (I notice that on the beach... spillage out of swimsuits that don't fit). She pulls it off well. I wish I had her confidence.

3katz4me - I can totally relate to your desire for a warm beach vacation right now.... our forecast for tomorrow is 35F and freezing rain.

Room with swim-up pool sounds awfully good right now! :)

We had one week of way above temperatures mid-Feb, but it has been cold and rainy ever since.

Ya we came back to cold and rain - at least it wasn’t snow. There was enough snowfall at our lake cabin to warrant plowing however. Not sure that will melt much before we go there in a couple weeks with single digit lows in the forecast.

My goodness - almost April and not a “warm” day yet and none in sight.

I consider people watching to be a fun part of any vacation and last month's trip to the Caribbean did not disappoint! While sitting by the pool on the cruise ship I noticed a few women my age (60+) wearing bikini's, who IMO did not look good. On our excursions I noticed the same thing. Let me add that I do check out the men too! I dislike a pot belly hanging out of a swim suit on a man just as much as I do on a woman. However, I do realize that when we are away anything goes and it's ME who has "hardening of the attitude."

We belong to a pool and tennis club that is ultra conservative, where no woman would dare don a bikini. That is the other extreme. I think it has to do with cultural norms.

I really envy those women who can "let it all hang out" and not be self-conscious about their choice, while I hide behind my conservative one piece bathing suit.

I'm heading to the great barrier reef next week, hopefully the weather will be better than this week. I care not a hoot these days about how I look in my cossies. As long as they are modest and hide the not to good parts these days. Cairns had great swimsuit shops so no doubt I'll add one to the collection.

Cairns sounds like a nice trip, but isn't it still cyclone season? We went to Fiji during this cyclone season and got lucky with the weather, but it looks like it's supposed to rain most of next week in Cairns. Maybe that will change.

I had to look up "cossie". Is that an Australian word?

Lars - did you already share where you stayed in Fiji? Your photo is very similar to the view we had on Aitutaki!

Yes Lars, cossie is for swim suit. We leave home Wednesday after Easter, and it looks like we will be lucky with just some morning drizzle.

I haven't worn a bikini since I was a teenager, and I disliked them then. I'm back down to my target weight after a year of careful eating (yeah!) and was actually thinking about buying a swim suit again. It has been many years. To be honest what looks best are some of those tankinis at places like Lands End. Any other suggestions for a modest but not stuffy swim "dress"?

Living and boating in South Florida I think it's great when women especially wear what they want and the hell with what people think ;). I prefer a one piece suit, haven't worn a bikini since I was in college. Not only aesthetically but for utilitarian reasons a one piece is easier--putting on and off scuba/snorkeling gear, jumping in and out of a boat or canoe or paddle board etc. Just less hassle not to have to worry about things slipping and sliding LOL. However although I've always been slender I've always also had quite the belly so I wouldn't feel comfortable with it quite literally hanging out over my swimsuit!

1929Spanish-GW, we were on Mana Island (one of the Mamanuca Islands) in Fiji, which is about the same lattitude as where you were, and I agree that some of the beaches do look very similar. You were in a much more remote location, however!

I have a group of girlfriends that spend a couple of weekends every year at the beach. Of the 12 of us Florida girls, one will not put on a bathing suit or wear shorts/bermudas. Her reasoning is all about her own negative body image. She is attractive and not terribly overweight. Sad. (She also has a beautiful swimming pool and she has never gone swimming in it. Not even with her young grandchildren.)

I'm not on vacation but this is my beach photo of the day. My husband and I did the bike path on Palm Beach Island with a swing up to the beach toward the end.

Mostly the beaches around here just have regular beach attire. There was an exception last week when I was at the dog beach further north. This cute little dog ran up to where I was sitting. A women around my age came to get the dog, she had a little black bathing skirt on and a black coverup she had around her neck and shoulders like a scarf. She was friendly and appeared perfectly normal. Until...she turned and walked off and her whole a$$ was showing. There may have been a thong stuck in there but I couldn't see it. I still can't figure out what happened to the skirt thing I saw on the frontal. My friend and I nearly blew an eardrum trying to suppress our laughter.