A Day at the Beach...

After 24 hours of weather that I will simply describe as "exciting" (extreme thunder-and-lightning storms, high winds, and tornadoes reported just North of where we are), we awoke this morning to discover that island life has returned to normal!! The locals here were hardly phased by yesterday's rather turbulent "blip", having survived and rebuilt after a catastrophic hurricane a few years back... I watched the storms from our back deck, and was in awe of the size of the waves, and the trees nearly bent double from the force of the winds. Today, however, it felt as though it had all just been a nasty dream!!

The girlies were eager to hit the beach, to see what treasures the sea had tossed up onto the shore for them to collect... We found dozens of varieties of different shells, as well as starfish and anemone, which we threw back into the water after gently examining them.

The birds were all out in full force, looking for their next meal! As well as pelicans, egrets and sand pipers, we caught sight of enormous flocks of Royal Terns, and Black Skimmers...

No doubt, many of them were after these exquisite creatures: beautiful little cockles and scallops that had washed up on shore with the tide. When we approached to examine them, they quickly snapped shut, to avoid being "discovered". Several of them chattered their shells noisily, much to the girlies' delight-- and one even SQUIRTED several long streams of water in our direction! It was the stuff that cartoons are made of, and it made us all giggle madly...

Once we had enjoyed a good swim, we waded and collected shells for decorating the day's sand castle. Clearly, Wee Three takes her job as Foreman of the Construction Team very seriously...

One last leap through the waves...

And a sisterly stroll along the shore...

Then, it was time to dry off, and head back up the beach for home.


All to be repeated again, tomorrow. It's heaven, I tell you...