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Hernando Today

Pine Island Awash With Tourists

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By MICHAEL D. BATES

Hernando Today

Published: December 25, 2008

PINE ISLAND - Huguette Seguin was wearing a turquoise bikini as she lounged in the sand off Pine Island on Christmas Eve, reading a historical paperback and drinking in the sun and sounds of a tropical Hernando hot spot.

Her suntanned husband, Roger, was beside her and he was within reaching distance of the cooler filled with sandwiches and soda. His cap summed up his laid-back demeanor: "I may not be right, but I am right now."

The Seguins are a long way from Montreal, Canada, where they spend the summer months.

Both say they are happy to be in Hernando County where the temperature was nudging 80 and the living - at least for them - is easy.

"It's paradise," Roger said.

Asked if there is anything he was missing from Montreal, where the temperature Wednesday afternoon was 30 degrees with light snow, Roger stressed emphatically, "No way."

Huguette said she likes to contact family back home and tell them how hot it is in Hernando.

"Sometimes they call and they say they have 25 inches of snow (and) I say, 'That's OK. We have 81 degrees and two feet in the sand," she said.

Do they get mad?

"A little," she joked.

Farther along the beach Wednesday were Jack and Priscilla Bouman from Totowa, N.J.

Jack was wearing a Pink Floyd cap, shorts and that was it. He said he is not looking forward to leaving this tropical clime and flying back to Jersey on Monday.

Today, Jack said he will go to church in the morning and then he and his wife will hit the Gulf with their Waverunners.

Ray and Diana Lappe of Andover, Ohio said they will stay in Hernando County until April 1.

What does Diana love about Christmas in Hernando?

"The sun, the beach - this is the nicest beach I've been on," she beams.

Ray, who retired from the Heinz Company where he helped make ketchup, says he would rather be here than Andover for Christmas, where the temperature today was expected to be 33 with snow accumulating to an inch.

"It's a hard life," he joked, digging his toes further into the fluffy sand. "But somebody's got to do it."

Reporter Michael D. Bates can be reached at 352-544-5290 or mbates@hernandotoday.com.

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