Turtle Spotting

A couple nights ago, Mary, Chris, Niki, the girls and I took a walk on the beach. It was such a spectacular night....breezy, no no-see-ums, stars as bright as I've ever seen them. A little ways down the beach, Chris spotted some turtle tracks in the sand with his flashlight. We quietly followed them to see if there really was a Loggerhead nesting and sure enough, we saw her. She was huge, sitting there quietly in her nest. We quickly moved away so as to not disturb her egg laying. We walked down the beach a ways and when we returned, we saw her tracks indicating that she had returned to the sea. Unfortunately, the next day, the nest was not roped off by the turtle spotters. It is likely that our presence disturbed her and she fled. What a rare sight they are to see though. We are still hoping that perhaps there are eggs under the mound but it is unlikely.

Todd left Tuesday. He was sad, I was more sad. He called last night and said he might just fly back down this weekend. No word on that yet.

Today there were two major events-the annual fishing trip and the annual pasta dinner. A few peeps came back happy after the fishing trip. Michael was lucky enough-or skilled enough-to have caught the biggest fish, winning him the pot of money. Meghan had a nice catch. But a few came back feeling dejected with a zero count for them. Better luck next time. Mary, Jodi, Gracie, and I went to breakfast. The mimosas were wonderful.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the pasta and meatballs tonight. After dinner we spent a little time on the beach but it got pretty still out there. We did find lots of live lightening whelks. The kids were thrilled to see those and anxious to throw the live guys back to live. Mary is such a great teacher when it comes to shelling. The kids are learning the names of lots of the shells from her. They follow her on the beach like she is the Pied Piper of shelling.

Sharon is coming to visit tomorrow and bringing Sparkle. We'll show her around the island a bit and maybe she can come back with her RV sometime on her own. I think she'll like it a lot.