Can't hurt a girl to try, right? So we loaded up Tuesday and went to one of my favorite places for summer relaxation, St. Andrews State Park, Florida. The water temperature there was perfect, the water itself was clear and beautiful, and because of the rock barrier there were minimal waves (which is great for children), and you always enjoy the added bonus of the beautiful view of Shell Island and the many boats.
We found wonderful creatures including this little guy...he was an unexpected find indeed. We also collected hermit crabs and watched them "race" back into the water. My son found a live sand dollar. We had to inspect him a little. I had no idea that those guys were hairy all over. That was a great science lesson. We also saw various types and sizes of jelly fish but we left those alone. For some reason there was no desire to pet them.
My children climbed up and down these sandy banks, so hubby and I felt it necessary to show them we could too. It was no easy task to get to the top and while getting down was much easier it was not at all graceful. Yeah, I'll leave it at that.
The greatest surprise of the day came as the sun was just going down. Now keep in mind that we have been watching Shark Week, it is a tradition at our house. So as the water changed hues and becomes light green instead of blue and the sun was going down, something inside me just knew it was time to get out of the water. No matter how safe the area, we are in salty water and fish had been swimming around us all day, right around our legs and feet. It had been beautiful, until... I turned to call in the children when just a few feet away I saw a dark shadow in the water. Man, my mind was reeling and the shadow was big. We began heading, quickly mind you, to the safety of "our" sandy beach when we turned around and could make out the shape of the shadow... it was a sting ray, probably, 3 feet across. It was beautiful and we were ready to go home.
VeryVerdant
