Swarming Turtles

Here's a rather stoic bird at the Port Orange Halifax Hospital there.  The pathway to the hospital from the visitor parking lot has a little wooden bridge along the way, and we stopped for a moment to see this friend here, who wasn't at all intimidated by us.  Furthermore, we saw at least fifteen turtles or maybe more swimming rapidly towards us from all the different portions of the lake there, and then it dawned on us that these fellows were interested in having a little snack, if we had anything to share.  Sadly, we did not, at least not yet.  Mommy and Nana went into the hospital to visit with Ba-Ba, and there were plenty of restrictions inside, which was okay.  Ultimately, they made their way in, and I decided to go to the cafeteria with Madison to see if they had any bread.  Yes, they did!  So off we went, back outside while Nana and Mommy were inside.  Madison and I spent a good bit of time throwing lots of bread out to there swarming turtles, the birds, and the humungous carp as well.  There was quite a representation there, even this little guy.

Ba-Ba will be in the hospital a little while longer.  He's weak, and there's trouble with his digestive system.  It's an infection and he's probably in the best place he can be while he recovers, with his systems being closely monitored, and it's only a few miles from the condo.  This brought Nana some relief, at least the location.  It was difficult to see Ba-Ba in such condition though. 

We went to the grocery store afterwards, and this picture was taken by Madison of some of her favorite flowers there, some carnations.  It is Labor Day weekend, and the trucks are here in force in Daytona.  That was the mess we got caught in yesterday, a traffic jam of trucks, some with monster truck wheels and others just all decorated and some even so insanely loud that they could be used for weapons.

Many were on the beach, parading by the condo as we looked over the ocean.  I've never been a big fan of cars on the beach there, unless there's some authorized race or something like that.  This was just a matter of people driving, revving engines, playing super loud music, and spinning tires and sand all over.

There were a lot of Presidential flags too, all leaning towards one candidate.  I know there were several boat parades this weekend for that candidate, and in this instance, there was not a single flag for the other candidate to be seen.  It seems as if the pro-truck delegation has made their selection!

We did some grocery shopping today, getting a good number of things for the coming days.  We also went for a nice walk on the beach after dinner, after the cars were gone and things were settled down a bit.  Mommy and Nana were there, along with Madison and myself.  

She brought her camera too, and was taking a few snaps.  But I was taking most of the pictures today.  The weather was nice and the sun was lower, and things were really fine outside, not so hot as to be overbearing.

Madison enjoyed walking along the shoreline, getting into the water some and taking lots of pictures of the scenery with her phone.  After our walk, we spent a good deal of time in the renovated pool inside, and we had it all to ourselves.  There are nice windows out there so you can watch as dusk comes, doing laps or in our case tossing a water pool toy back and forth.

We took a pretty good walk, despite the fact that we said we weren't going too far.  Nana and Mommy were doing a lot of talking, of course, while Madison and I were doing the usual things, going to the water, looking for shells, or anything unusual to take a photo of, like this:

The crab tracks back to this hole made a unique pattern.  It reminded me of that scene from "Finding Dory" where they place all the shells leading to their home so Dory can find it.  In this case, it's a lot of pitter-pattering crab tracks, leading to a nice little home down there.  There's probably a comfy crab sofa inside, with a crab television, and crab cable.

Madison enjoys walking along the beach, as do all of us.  It's relaxing, and almost therapeutic.  And of course, that's pretty much what Nana needs right now.  Mommy too.

Madison was posing for a few fashion shots here, already working as a part-time model.  The sun was setting on us, making for some great lighting.  

Mommy and Nana posed for a few shots together, and I really wanted to make sure I got some good ones. Nana is very worried lately, and things have been stressful.  But it's good for Mommy to be here and help out.  We'll miss her, but she's certainly doing the right thing.

Here's another shot of Madison, walking in the water.

And here's a shot of her taking a picture of herself kicking at the water:

Oh, and here she is below, doing a cartwheel on the beach.  She did a few of these, quite proud of herself for doing this outside of the studio for the first time.

We'll have to show that to Mr. and Mrs. Edge soon.  We'll call this "practice," although it's really just Madison having a good time.

And it was nice to be there.  You can see a few trucks still remnant behind, but by this time it was mostly quiet on the beach, and it was good for Nana to be out there with loved ones.

Soon we had to get back, of course.  I think Mommy may lead Nana out here as much as she can in the coming days.  She might as well, given the beach is right there.  It's just a great place to get your mind off of too many stressful things.

Here she is on the balcony - we were sitting and talking a bit.  She's got a lot on her mind, and we've been praying for her, and for Ba-Ba, of course.  We were looking at the variety of people here for Labor Day, and there was quite a few.

All the happy people on vacation, and here we are on a more serious mission.  It was helpful to walk the shoreline.  We prayed tonight, and went to bed rather early, as everyone was tired.  Tomorrow is another big day.