The Nude Life

Lo and behold the front page of The New York Times Web site today, where a 2-page color cover story in the Sunday Travel section highlighted the growing industry of nude travel and nude resorts.

The cover shot is of the main pool at Hidden Beach Resort and some guests playing nude water volleyball, one of the prime mid-afternoon activities at that lovely resort and one which I have enjoyed for many delightful hours. The accompanying photo gallery of shots from other resorts including the beautiful new Mira Vista Resort and Spa outside Tucson in Arizona are quite revealing, especially for a mainstream family newspaper.

Overall, a good article, ignoring the common mistake of labeling naturists as “naturalists” and the reference to Sea Mountain Inn as a legitimate nudist resort (it is not). This kind of ‘exposure’ can’t do anything but help bring the idea of taking a ‘nakation‘ to the minds of the several million Sunday Times readers this weekend — just ahead of a long, warm summer in the US. Millions more Web site readers will also be let in on the little secret we nudists have enjoyed for many years: once you take a nude vacation, no other kind of vacation measures up.

Big thanks to AANR for working with the Times reporters on this story for many months.

After being nudists for over a decade, and living the nude life at home and with friends in an active nudist club for all of those years, it seems that one’s perception of what is ‘normal’ takes a dramatic twist.

For example, how many times have you been greeted warmly by a smiling nude woman, with a sincere hug and “air kiss,” the moment after walking into her house? When is the last time you stood inches away from a half-dozen naked folks of all ages, shapes and sizes, yakking away while you yourself and all of them are just as naked as can be, and having a great time with no sense of self-consciousness or discomfort? How much time do you spend sitting among a group of nude folks in a bubbly hot tub, with steam and warm water invigorating a chilly winter night, with no thought at all that anything is the slightest bit out of the ordinary? Have you spent a night playing BINGO at a nudist resort in a room filled with 100 other folks who couldn’t care less what you are or aren’t wearing? Have you stood in front of 1,200 strangers on the stage of a cruise ship, nude, performing in the passenger talent show during a nude cruise — and had a standing ovation?

Each of those situations, and many, many more, are part and parcel of the nude life for us, and have been for a long time. All our best friends are folks we see most often when they have not a stitch on, and we’re just as comfortable and at ease with them and with ourselves when we’re all nude as any other group of good friends would be sitting at a TGI Friday’s fully dressed.

Is this ‘normal?’

Is it sensible / rational / acceptable for adults to accept others as friends / fellow humans in their natural state, without the contrivances and artificiality that textiles confer upon us when we’re dressed?

Those of us who live and love the nude life would argue strongly that it is — if not “normal” in the common sense of the word — that it is something that humans are very adaptable to, and in fact, are more suited toward.

Standing among a group of good friends and discussing matters great and small, nude, is something that is very intoxicating about the nude life. Relaxing in summer’s heat in Nature’s own couture among your fellow skinnydippers, or spending a cool evening in a warm a steamy hot tub with a group of other carefree nudist friends — all of these are experiences that have become second-nature to us after all these years and which we would not like to live without in the future.

I call your attention to the new page linked to at the top of The Nude Life blog starting today, Places. It’s a short summary of all the various places we’ve visited in the 15 years we’ve been nudists, along with a list of other nude trips and destinations where we’ve been able to go nude.

I’m sure we’ve left some off the list that we’ve forgotten about, and doesn’t include plans for nude trips yet to come, but it will serve as a bit of a history for us and our nude wanderings to date.

Feel free to post your own list of the nude destinations you’ve visited or want to visit, or ask about resorts or beaches you’re interested in, in The Nude Life Forum.

As the end of the year approaches, we look back with satisfaction at the amount of blissful nude time we have enjoyed throughout the year.Starting with last New Year’s Eve, we entered 2007 nude at the annual “Nude Year’s Eve” party our club hosts every year, and spent a glorious nine days on the nude cruise in February. Frequent parties through the year with our nudist club gave dozens more opportunities for nude fun from spring through fall, and we’re still looking forward to a nude Christmas Day and of course New Year’s Eve with our nudist friends.

Working from home affords the wonderful luxury of earning a living while nude, too, and we spend nearly every day from March through October nude at home “earning” a living. Indeed, for much of the year, it’s easier to count up the hours we spend clothed.

But with 2008 coming up, there are still several nude “goals” we’d like to meet in the new year. With any luck, each of these activities will be done nude at some time during 2008, if our current plans come through:

• Moving to a nudist resort to live full-time (mid-year)
• Washing the car nude — a long-sought wish
• Nude bowling — we’re trying to arrange that one now!
• Nude roller skating — missed a chance to do that in the past, but we won’t again in 2008

What kinds of unusual sports / activities / work have you been able to do in the buff? What’s still left on your nude ‘to-do’ list that you’d like to cross off in 2008? Check the list of what others have accomplished on their “nude to-do” lists — and add your own! — in The Nude Life Forum.

It’s been over two weeks since the last post here on The Nude Life. Readers are left to wonder if we have run out of things to write about.

Well, with the colder weather here in the North Texas region, things have slowed down a bit for us full-time nudists. We still spend most of every day and of course all of each night nude, but regrettably it is all done indoors because of the cooler weather. There hasn’t been any lack of nudist activities, though.

We have enjoyed several days of nude relaxation with nudist friends, at indoor nudist parties and at a Thanksgiving dinner with some good nudist friends who welcomed us over for the day and a nice traditional dinner. Clothing was optional at the Thanksgiving dinner, and everyone was perfectly comfortable regardless of what they chose to wear or not wear. The two nudist parties we’ve enjoyed since the last posting were likewise very enjoyable, and it is a great pleasure to be able to “unwrap” and unwind with good friends, free of clothing for a few hours despite the cold weather.

Also in the interim, we managed to sign up for a trip of a lifetime: the 15-day nude cruise to Hawaii and back slated for 2010. Bare Necessities is chartering a magnificent mega-cruiseliner for the idyllic tour of the Hawaiian islands for some 2,000 lucky nude cruisers. We’ll be among them, in some 840 more days, along with at least a handful of our nudist friends from here in North Texas who have already also signed up.

We’re looking ahead a week now to the big annual Holiday Party held by our home nudist club, which is always a lot of fun and is always well-attended. The following week provides two more dates for nude parties, including a nude Christmas get-together on December 25 and a very much anticipated “Nude Year’s Eve” party planned for December 31. It will be the 14th year in a row we have spent the New Year’s night nude, either with our nudist friends from home, or aboard a nude cruise ship as we did for the Millennium in 1999-2000.

What are your nude plans for the holidays? Are you staying home, visiting a local resort, or heading out to a resort or other nudist destination for some nudist relaxation during the holidays? Discuss your plans, or get tips and advice from other nudists from all around the world in The Nude Life Forums!