Nice hiatus

An extra long weekend on a beach in South Carolina worked out nicely. We left cold pouring rain for sun, wind and delightful temperatures. We managed several forms of exercise, but mostly walked up and down the not very crowded beach, admiring the squadrons of pelicans over head, the osprey fishing, and searched in vain for dolphins. A five year old member of the family was enthusiastic over shells and other treasures, and played hard every time she went out. Fine time had by all, it would seem. We also paid a visit to Sassy the bar bird, the big red parrot, in the raw bar in Georgetown; she was still there, in all her glory.
On the day we returned to cold pouring rain, we drove out onto Hilton Head to see what we could see, which was pretty much high rent strip malls and not much public access to the water that we could find. We did find an Audubon preserve, a little bitty patch of woods with some ponds and a dried up bog area. Standing by the pond looking out, we noticed several turtles swimming over towards us; soon we had quite a crowd, all craning their little faces up to us, expectantly, we thought. Giving up the notion that we had drawn them to us on acount of our vibes, we decided they were probably used to being fed. Swirls of fish joined them, making for a wonderful sight.