The weather today was sunny and warmish (still the low 70s), so this was beach weather for us. Not swimming weather, but walking on the beach weather, so our trip to the beach was the big event of the day.
Starting our walk out of the park where the Mikes live, we were struck, once again, by how different the flora and fauna are here compared to where we live. There are almost no overlaps. We passed agaves, seagrapes, palms, palmettos, bougainvillae, and these weird pines, none of which grow outside in Schenectady.
The beach was breezy, too breezy, but we walked down to just before the point where erosion has removed the beach. Sandpipers and terns jostled for our attention.
We took pictures, many pictures, but present only a few of them here today.
I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to write in the sand quickly enough so that I could capture what I wrote before the oscillating waves wiped my words away.
After we left the beach, I suggested that we walk down under the Manasota Beach Bridge to look around. On the way there, we walked along this tiny boardwalk, among the mangroves. The posts holding up the boardwalk were covered with barnacles, and a crab was scuttling over one large set of these, so I set out to take a look and test the strength of the crustaceans' hold on the post. (Firm.)
After leaving the boardwalk, I spied a tortoise (or tortuga), and we ran to see it. We took his picture and taped him walking sluggishly uphill, which seemed a strange direction for him to go. So I followed him, and at a point near the top of the hill he sped up significantly and disappeared down a large hole into his den.
Right under the bridge the place is strewn with glass and graffiti, but we still stayed there a while investigating.
This was also the one place where I could draw in the sand without waves immediately erasing my work, so I produced one punning sandglyph.
Then we walked up the hill ourselves, onto the bridge, over the water, and back home. Eventually, we realized that the sun was hotter than we had thought and that we were all a little sunburned. Tim's neck was the worst, but my pate is stinging slightly. Maybe I should find a hat to wear on our all-day excursion to the Dry Tortugas.
Later, we tried to help Aunt Joan pack, but she was out of boxes. Nancy took a little nap, and at least I also realized how being out in the sun can sap your energy. For dinner, we made salmon, asparagus, a salad, and my rendition of my mother's chicken rice. There were seven of us, with Joan.
After dinner, the Mikes headed out for a two-and-a-half-hour Easter vigil service, while we went out to buy a few supplies: toiletries, habanero tortilla chips, spare rechargeable batteries for our digital cameras, and a memory stick for the camera Erin has that doesn't have one. (The last we bought outrageously on sale, and it is huge and can store over a thousand photographs taken at the highest setting on the camera.)
Tomorrow is Easter.
volveremos a las tortugas
1 comment:
Saturday's posting, second to the last full paragraph... did you mean, "... help Aunt Joan Pack..."?
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