Thursday, July 30, 2015

Clutch Play

So, we were building a massive hole today.  This was a pool that Daddy wanted to build for Madison and her new friends.  It was deep, deep, deep, as there were four of us digging down into the sand.  We struck water, and the walls were so tall on this that it provided a little shade for those inside!

Anyway, Mommy has not seen a sea turtle all week, and the rest of us have.  And even some of Madison's friends saw one the other morning.  We got up earlier in an attempt to see one along the shoreline, just as the rest of us saw one earlier.  But to no avail.  It's just a bit of chance involved, and sadly, Mommy didn't get to see a sea turtle yet.  But we've been praying for that, because Mommy really wanted to see one.

So as we were out there digging, Mommy came down to the beach to bring us back up for some lunch and some more sunscreen.  And that's when a guy came running up to us to let us know something was happening not far down the beach from us!


It wasn't just one sea turtle - it was a breaching nest!  Their nest is actually called a clutch, and pouring out of it were about 15-20 baby sea turtles.  God was saving the best for last!


Madison and her friend Isabel escorted a few of them to the shoreline, giving each one names like Peaches, Princess Sandy, and King Seaweed.  The king didn't become king until he reaches the water though - until that point, he was just Prince Seaweed.

Madison found a group of seagulls nearby, and shouted her refrain:  "GET LOST!"  None of the birds were brave enough to stand up to her.  Nor were they willing to tangle with any of the other adults there, all of us shuffling along and escorting turtles to the sea.  It was quite a moment, something new for us to see.  And it all happened in broad daylight too, midday.  We were expecting this sort of thing to happen in the night.  But here it was at low tide, where the water was so far from the nest.

There may have been others coming out of the nest, but there were plenty of people there by that time.  We'd seen the majority of them, and were quite content.  Mommy had her sea turtle experience, just a whole lot more than we'd seen until then.  God was saving the best for last!

Mommy and Nana and Ba-Ba went to the grocery store after that, while Daddy and Madison visited the pool.  Madison's friend was there, so she had a great time swimming once again.  A storm came up upon us after about 45 minutes or so, and it was pretty much time for us to get out anyway.

The rain this week has been daily, but it's never interfered with our plans.  The neat thing about being there at the beach is that there is no precise timing involved.  You don't drive up and hope it isn't raining while you are there.  In this case, if it rains, you just go out afterwards.  Which is what we did.  Everything timed out perfectly, including the fact that there were times we needed to come in from all the sun anyway.

Dinner was glorious, with shrimp and salmon and too much food on the table, really.  And a little later, we fulfilled a promise to Madison by returning back to Friendly's for ice cream.  All of us went, and got  something a little different.  We had the same waiter that we did a few weeks ago, and he remembered Madison.  She was quite insistent that she got her coloring sheet and crayons!

Friendly's at Satellite Beach is sort of part of the package deal now.  It's not a trip to the beach unless you've marked Friendly's off your checklist.

When we got back, it was nearly time for bed.  There was bedtime reading, and for Mommy and Daddy an episode or two of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."  We're watching season two again, catching up on it before season three starts in a few weeks.  We all went to bed early tonight, because tomorrow we'll be up early - and ready to go back home.

It's been a great week though.  All the family has been quite happy together, and we'll be sad to have to hit the road tomorrow.  But it's been a memorable week at the beach.

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