Gorgeous day today. It started off cloudy (my dad and I were going to go fishing but since it was cloudy, they decided to let me sleep in instead haha), but it was still fairly warm, and then the sun worked its way out and it became quite warm. We went and did a few errands while it was still a bit overcast, and my mom and I played some tennis. The sun came out during our 15 minutes (we’re both still coughing up a storm), so my mom decided it was too hot out for her and walked to the library to reserve the new Sue Grafton book. (She later told me she was 123rd on the reserve list….. I’m not even kidding.) So I went and hit against the wall…… man, it was relentless. (joke courtesy of Mitch Hedberg 😉 ) I love hitting against the wall though. I can serve and not have to go pick up balls for every minute of serving, if I make a mistake it still comes back to me….. it’s just a good practice tool. I did that for a bit, then we went back to the condo for lunch. I went for a long walk along the Pass, well, many trips back and forth anyway. Then I visited Julio at his crêperie and chatted a bit with him. He’s still the one making the crêpes….. I don’t know how he’s managed all year, unless there is someone else trained and they just weren’t working. I have a feeling the guy with him helping him prepare the stuff may have been there last year too. I’d normally wonder if they were related but by the pale (in comparison) looks of him, maybe not! The crêpe — strawberries and Nutella — was wonderful. I wandered the Pass eating it, and saw many eyes drawn to it — one hispanic lady asked me what it was and where to find one….. after I’d passed I heard her say, “I want one of those!” So Julio, there you go, some more business for ya! Last year it was the same story — we’d walk around eating them, and would usually get stopped at some point with inquiries….. especially if my parents were also having one, because they’d usually have one with whipped cream which of course makes it look even more sumptuous. I even got to hear Julio singing a little as he prepared it….. quite the lungs, and not a bad singer either! Elvis, of course 😉 After he’d finished making the crêpe, he thanked me for coming back and wished me a good trip if he didn’t see me before then, at one point calling me “princess” — which, from anyone else, might’ve been seen as strange or even sarcastic, but you just know he’s sincere. He’s just the type of person who always makes you smile. 🙂
After finishing my treat, I walked the beach for a bit, through the water one way, then on the water’s edge the way back. Here’s my daily list:
- Maddy! and friend(?)
- fishermen
- fisherboys(?) with a net of little fishies they’d just caught, intending to use them as bait
- 2 whistling construction workers 😎
- again, not too many shells of interest (there haven’t been high winds lately, so that makes a difference)
- a few butterfly shells appearing to be occupied (thrown back)
- several sand fleas (dead)
- 1 large crab — live! He was in my path, scuttling around….. man was he cute. I walked cautiously closer, and I guess frightened him because he lifted one of his front claws a bit above his head, threateningly….. it was hilarious and adorable at the same time. I love crabs. Anyway, I didn’t want to scare him too much but at the same time I didn’t want him to wash ashore and die (he appeared to be old….. I am aware they can come out the water normally haha), or stay in the shallow water to attack/get attacked by little kids, so I tried to usher him back towards the deeper water, even though the waves made me lose sight of him and I had to avoid getting pinched, myself! He was definitely the highlight of my beachwalk.
- 2 kids trying to bodyboard (again, waves <1 foot high…..)….. quite funny actually.
- seagulls, herons, egrets, pelicans, skimmers, the little tiny birds that run around the shore…..
- dolphins (well, that was when I was on the Pass — they were quite active today, almost jumping right out the water, splashing around playfully)….. actually I saw a few schools of them….. and moronic seadoers trying to get close and in the process frightening them away…… Seriously, let this be my one and only message to boaters: if you want to get close to dolphins or any sea creature for that matter, PLEASE turn off your engines! If they want you around, they’ll swim TO you, you don’t have to be 5 feet away at all times. Enjoy the scene, but don’t ruin it by scaring them or, Heaven forbid, hurting them. Sure, you may have seen them following boats, but that’s up to them! You certainly are not going to tempt them by having 5 boats speeding toward them every time they surface. The people on the Pass enjoy seeing them too, so have a little respect for the other viewers, as well as the creatures themselves. There. I’m done. 😛
- not many jellyfish today, maybe 2 little guys washed up
- generally not much debris washed up either, actually….. good thing once in a while!
- 1 gorgeous sun 🙂
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