Bird Watching

Sophia fits right in here. She crawled over, pulled up, and watched
the birds and squirrels at our back window. Babbling on her tip
toes...sweet!

Test Drive

Sophia loves to stand and turn the steering wheel as if she were
driving. Here she is after church with Grandpa & Grandma H in their
car. She honked the horn for the first time...of course it had to be
in church parking lot. Keep people on toes! Horn shocked her, but I'm
sure if she knew how it happened...
(Dress was hand smocked by Aunt Amy! Very cute. Thank you!)

Day Two Out on the Boat

We launched out of Indian Pass on Day Two.

The fish were safe!

Not much caught!

The pelican show was playing again for Soso.
I had a ball with the camera trying to catch
the big oafs in flight.
Sophia...snort look on boat.
She could almost be doing an ad for sunscreen.

Two dives, one shot.

(I enjoyed watching

the birds more than Sophia!)

Once again, Steve threw the cast net.
It wasn't as easy haul.
He only caught a few in the net
before he was just done...worn out throwing it.

Pretty fan out

Here's my bad angle of the landing

There were a TON of jellyfish that

came in with the net.

I will never make National Geographic...
here is my too excited to photograph
dolphin shot.

I know...
as spectacular as my Florida bear shot.

Bird Island...which legally maybe even federally

you can't walk on.
But it looks like a fun place to hang out.

Van and Karen looking to see whats out there.

This is the best part of the boat to me.

The 'observation deck' as I have named it...

it's easy to look over the side while seated.

Makes for fun aqua-safaris!

Birds going crazy is a sign of fish.
There were Spanish running under them.
Steve says the spoon he gave me had a hook
when I started throwing it...
I had a ton of bites and never landed one.
Hmmm, wonder why?
I never thought to check to make sure
there was a hook.
(He usually only pulls that on freshwater

during practice days...)

The storm.

There are usually storms in the afternoon.

We pulled into the boat ramp, dropped off
Van and Karen. They drove the truck from Indian Pass Ramp...

Steve, Sophia, and I rode around the peninsula to the bay.
The storm was behind us the entire way,
never even got a drop of rain!

Cape San Blas Light
from the water.

I ran out to cut off the water filling the tanks

for the trip home, when I looked up saw

the most amazing rainbow!

I didn't get a good photo...
the rainbow stretched
across the entire sky behind our bus.
Beautiful ending to the day.

Sunset on the beach from the roof,

it's the only way to see over the dunes.

View of the Whaler and bus
crammed into our little site.

Swimming in the Bay

We went out in the bay

to snorkel for scallops...

but it's late in the season.

Word at camp they could be found in deep water.

We checked out our usual milk run.

Steve got in the first spot-nada.

Sophia saw Steve snorkeling(swimming)

and I could tell that she wanted to get

in with him.

Steve kicked around on his back and let her
sit on his belly like an otter.
She got a kick out of it!

Hugging on the turns

He still had on his fins, so they were
moving pretty fast.

Day One on the Boat

Steve brought a 10 foot cast net...

HEAVY.

He flung that thing all over the ocean to catch bait.
Breaking a sweat doing it too.

Finally hitting bait!

Net full of menhaden...

and a bonus baby shark!

The shark added a few more holes to the net.

Here Steve holds it up for the camera...
I can hear myself saying it, (but not believing I did)
"Hold the tail where Soso can touch it!"
What?
You pay big bucks to pet one at the blah blah aquarium.

Sophia touching her first shark tail.
Feels like sandpaper.

(So, if we had kept it and I let it

wallow around on the entry floor...)

Sophia's show...
loved the front row seats for the
pelican dive competition.

Van releasing a sail cat...
a catfish with a really long fins.

Steve's "not a tarpon" Black tip Shark
Shark weighed more than 50 pounds,

but we didn't put it on a scale!

Van actually got the hook back out
of its mouth. Impressive.

Captain Steve
I think he likes the new boat.

I know Sophia and I do!

It has a great sofa like seat in front
of the center console...
perfect for napping.
(Thanks Van & Karen)

Triple tail
(UGLY, but apparently taste good?)
This was dinner!
Tradition: Dinner is catch of the day

Sophia sharing a laugh with Grandma Karen
while the guys fished.

OK...not fishing, but look at her top teeth
coming in!

Another triple tail...more dinner!

Back at the dock, waiting to take out.
Sophia fell asleep on the ride in...
fishing is hard work!

Last Beach Morning

A trip to the beach is never long enough it seems...

we did our last morning walk to get sand

in the toes.

Grandma Karen, Sophia, and I hit the beach.

Here is the walkway to the beach from our campsite
Beautiful stroll, then BAM! Ocean.
This is the look of "See Ya" that
Sophia gives right before she takes off!

I'm not kidding...she goes!
Right to the surf, lets it hit her and laughs!

She had these birds in her sights for awhile...
they let her crawl right up next to them too!

The gulls headed for safety and distance though!

Once the birds were gone...
she tried to remember who she was with...
Oh yeah, that lady back there!
This is the "hailing of the cab" .

My little thespian! She was saying something

in baby gibberish. I translate it as:

"Alas, poor Yorick!

I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest,

of most excellent fancy:

he hathborne me on his back a thousand times;

and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!"

(A few will get that caption...I hope, laugh.

The rest just move on)

She holds seashells by the seashore.
Soso talking to the ocean about the shell.

Buried Treasure

Sophia loves the beach...sand, surf, & birds. She squeals when we get
to the top of the boardwalk. Kicks to get down to crawl around in the
sand. She takes off crawling down the beach away from me, as if to
say, "see ya sucker. Thanks for the lift here!"
My little beach buddy!
Photos of her chasing birds to be posted!

Rainy day

In tradition of the breakfast club(howdy to all members-you know who
you are), we found Sharon's cafe in Mexico Beach, FL.
Excellent...perfect. Decorations include hats with sayings & American
patriot! Love it.