What’s Prettier Than a Beach Sunset?

Nothing. At least that’s what we think. But, since Anita and I walked and walked in a beautiful area all day yesterday, I think I’ll share some photos of other things we saw. But, first…

The Horror!

I set off on a long walk through a lovely area and didn’t bring my phone! What a horrible discovery. My panic was averted when Anita pointed out that she happened to have a phone with her, and that it also took photos with GPS coordinates on them. So, she became the official walk photographer.

While our walk along Pope Avenue was mostly populated by non-native plantings, the sides of the path had all the native stuff I was interested in. The mushrooms were really interesting, especially the one I’m glad to have turned over, because then I could see the yellow bumps it has instead of spores. That was a winner. It’s a Red-cracking bolete (Xerocomellus chrysenteron).

The way out didn’t win me any exercise points on The Watch, because we stopped constantly. We spent a long time trying to decide if an animal we saw in the duckweed was a turtle or a frog. Whatever it was, it was really fun to watch it bobbing around.

I’ll spare you photos of the grey squirrel, cute li’l anole that was all gray to match the wood it was on and great heron. Never mind, I put a gallery below with some more photos, even though I predict I’ll see more of many of these plants and animals. I took lots of plant photos too, so later I could identify the oaks as water oaks.

We stopped at a pharmacy so I could get some necessity I’d forgotten. On the way back, we decided there would be brisk walking that The Watch wants me to do for a half hour a day. NO stopping unless we saw a gator. And of course, my eagle eyes managed to spot a young alligator on the shores of the water beside the Catholic Church. Mary was watching it. We stopped.

Other Stuff

We didn’t spend all day walking. We ate at It’s Greek to Me, the place Lee and I liked so much last year (and I had scallops again). We went to the outlet mall to get me some shorts (sad mall), sat on our porch, and cooked ourselves in the hot tub. I just want to be clear that we are also getting lots of rest and relaxation!

Here are some more of the things I saw yesterday. I’m really proud of Anita for taking such a good picture of a squirrel.

Sunset Glory

Anita wants to walk on the beach for every sunset. It’s nice that we are on a part of the island where you can see the sunset from the beach, which you often can’t on the east coast of the US.

The sun really made up for the cloudy day by putting on a show with the waves and water. I was fascinated by the reflections and the way the waves affected them.

The colors simply don’t convey in photos, because they were so subtle. The pink foam on the waves just doesn’t look at pink in the pictures. But it was fun trying to capture it.

We even had a nice lady take a photo of us, because she said the light was so beautiful that we needed to capture it on our faces. Aww.

I got to go deeper in the water than yesterday, since I had on my swimsuit (eek, in public!), so it was a pretty glorious walk. I think this vacation is just what I need to fill up my soul with peace and beauty. The fact that we will be here a whole week lets me really relax, rather than trying to cram many activities into a couple of days.

I hope late October is good, wherever you are, readers and followers! I’m glad to have friends along the journey.