Vacation Day 6

Today started off bright and early with our Eco Tour. We got on a hydro speed boat thing that Navy Seals use for rescue missions, except we didn’t go much faster than 25 mph. But it was still neat. It felt so good to be out on the water. We even got to whoop it up a couple times when we went over some swells and caught a little air. We saw a lot of rare birds and if we were into that, it would have been really awesome beyond our wildest expectations. As it was, we really wanted to see dolphins and only got a glimpse of them the last 15 minutes of our 1 ½ hr tour. But we did see the flipper of a sea turtle, a manatee sighting, a blue crab with eggs on her back, and as I already mentioned a lot of very rare bird sightings. A couple fish jumped out right next to our boat, and one of our favorite moments of the excursion happened even before we left the pier – watching an egret balance on a rope and snatch up tiny little mullet fish right out of the water and gobble them down. Mike got photos.

One thing that happened on our first day that I forgot to mention, and I had hoped to see again, but haven’t, is there was a WATERSPOUT out on the ocean right in front of us! Actually, we saw two. The first wasn’t as good as the second. That one had an awesome funnel and you could see the water kicking up below it. It lasted a good 15-20 minutes too. Nobody seemed to think much of it so I thought it happened all the time.

We went back to the beach – I know everyone is tired of reading that! The boogie boards went unused today. The waves were choppy and pretty much nothing to them, and nobody even seemed to want to get into the water. It turned out to be a good thing because there was a strong riptide and we saw two rescues right in front of us! People just kept getting sucked into it. The scariest was a family of 4. It happened right as Indy walked up to the surf cool off her feet. The dad got him and his younger daughter out of it by sheer strength. Indy saw the mother and older daughter just get swept along 20 yards fighting to stay up as they got thrashed by waves and couldn’t get in no matter how hard they tried. I was laying down and heard a shout. I looked up and saw Indy, heard another shout that was clearly alarming, and urgently asked Mike if we had all the kids. Then I went over to stand with Indy and watch the rescue. I got there as the lifeguard was hauling out to sea to reach them. The daughter was coughing, the mom was fine. It must have been shock, because I would have been sobbing, but she seemed very calm. Then the lifeguard rescue truck arrived. We had our second conversation of the day with lifeguards warning us of the currents, and we assured them we weren’t going in at all. It was hot too, but not worth it!

Gib chose the restaurant tonight. He went with the recommendation of the Eco Tour guide who lives near the condos. It’s a place right down the road, where the street dead ends to the beach, called Beachcombers. It was pretty good. After that, we drove to the pier and paid the .50 cents to walk on it. We saw someone else caught in a riptide, but they got themselves out of it, luckily they could stand after a wave pushed them forward. We enjoyed the fresh air but it was a little chilly. Mike got photos.

And Gib wants everyone to know that he is The Man. When we got home, he told Mike that he noticed a key hole in the sliding glass door by where we park. Usually Mike parks and runs all around the building and lets us in the back door of the condo. Gib told him to try the key. Sure enough. We all got in! Of course tomorrow is our last day and we won’t be using that door more than 2 or 3 times, but he is so proud of himself for figuring it out! Mike just loves being shown up by his son.

So ends day 6. We are sad that tomorrow is the last day. We sure hope the ocean will be better on our last day. I’m still the brownest. Oh yeah J As we were walking around downtown after the tour and comparing arms, Indy said it didn’t count because she gets more yellow than brown – she must have some Oriental or Mediterranean genes or something. Then Mariah looks over her shoulder and pipes in, “You DO have Aisian kind of hair Indy, only it’s brown” We laughed. She cracks us up. But, I’m still the brownest.