The Final HNT: How we spent our Christmas Eve

Dec. 29th - Final HNT - This one is sort of self-explanatory.  This will be your last official shot at doing HNT.  Make it memorable.  That doesn't imply stripping bare and letting it all hang out.  Just make this one a good send off.

The weather has been unseasonably pleasant in the Bay Area lately.  This time of year usually sees gray skies and rain, but other than some early-morning fog and moderate winds, we've had gorgeous blue skies and warm sunshine.  

Jack's parents came into town on Christmas Eve, and as soon as they arrived we decided to leave the baby in their care and take advantage of the weather with a trip to Baker Beach, a well-known clothing-optional location in San Francisco. 

Baker Beach is a popular destination not only for sun-worshippers but also for photographers and others seeking a beautiful, rarely-obstructed view of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Before we got married, our wedding photographer brought us to Baker Beach to take our engagement photos, and until Christmas Eve this was our only trip to a clothing-optional setting.

Although the idea of visiting a clothing-optional beach had long appealed to us, for many reasons from my own body image issues to the possibility of citation or arrest we had yet to actually go.  I think that it was the resumption of our blog this past summer that made it clear that, like attending a sex club, visiting a clothing-optional beach was something we just had to do.

Although we hoped that the fact that it was Christmas Eve might keep people away from the beach, the number of cars in the parking lot when we arrived made it clear that there was little chance that the beach was empty.  We should have expected as much, as the sky was clear, and the sunshine plentiful.

As we parked, we hoped that the likely crowds of people on the beach meant that we wouldn't be the only ones without clothing, since a portion of the beach is not clothing-optional, and we were worried about being naked in an area in which clothing is required.  Hopeful that the boundary would be clearly marked by naked flesh, we got our towels out of the trunk of our car, and hiked down the sandy path to the beach.

We walked on the sand where we found fishermen, surfers, families with children, and couples running with their dogs.  No one was naked.  Why would they be?  The winds were strong, and we could tell that the water was frigid without even getting close to it.  As we walked to the end of the beach closest to the Golden Gate Bridge, where we knew clothing was not required, we considered the possibility that we wouldn't be able to pull this off.

At the end of the beach was a group of surfers in wetsuits.  Not far away, a lone man in an army coat walked near the surf.  I stopped Jack.

"Here," I said.  He turned, and looked to me for clarification.  "Here.  Let's just put the towels down here."  Jack looked behind him.  The closest group was a young couple playing with their dog about a hundred yards away.  On the opposite side, the man in the army coat was about to pass us, while the surfers stood obliviously at the edge of the water.

Jack was already unrolling our towels on the sand as Army Coat Guy passed us and kept walking up the beach.  "You're sure about this," he said.  It wasn't a question, but it wasn't exactly a statement, either.  "It's kind of cold."  I could tell that he wasn't trying to back out. Instead, he was giving me the opportunity to change my mind gracefully and without losing face in his eyes.

I had no intention of changing my mind.

This entry marks the final installment of Half-Nekkid Thursday, or HNT.  The meme has existed for more than five and a half years, long before Jack and I began blogging.  Depending on the general consensus within the sex blogosphere, we may or may not continue it in some form, or we may move on to a different meme such as Wanton Wednesday or Sinful Sunday.

As it currently stands, we have submitted a total of 87 weeks worth of pictures to OHNT: Twelve in 2009, fifty-two in 2010, and twenty-three in 2011.  We've also posted eighteen HNT posts here at our own blog, all since August 2011.  Among the many locations in which our HNT pictures were taken are seven different residences, three of which we lived in at the time.  (We tend to move frequently.)

Additionally, we documented my pregnancy and new parenthood at OHNT.  A photo of me breastfeeding our newborn daughter received a record (for us, anyway) fourteen comments in April 2010.  HNT has enabled me to feel more comfortable with my body.  Had Jack asked me five years ago to potentially share myself with the entire world, I would never have agreed to it.  But the last few years I have enjoyed it, and in fact I've found myself looking forward to each week.  I am going to miss it.

We would like to thank Osbasso for giving all of us a safe place to post anonymously.  We have enjoyed submitting our pictures to him for inclusion in OHNT, even though it's usually pretty easy to tell which picture is ours each week.  If you have enjoyed the regular cornucopia of sexiness that is HNT, please head over to his blog and thank him.  While you're there, see who else participated in the final week of the meme.

You should also check out OHNT, where you can usually find an alternate shot of me.  But this week, rather than submitting an alternate, we decided to use the same picture for both blogs.  I hope that you find it as suitable a final HNT as we do.

-Jill