The tiny little coquina clam shells we were finding at the beach where we swam and played yesterday just weren't cutting it for me. Of course Kate thought they were perfect, and I'll admit that although tiny they're cute and quite colorful, but I wanted her to have some real shells, some bigger than my fingertips. I remembered this great spot we found years ago in Port Aransas that netted a pretty good shell haul back when I visited there with my dear friends James and Angy, so we headed over to Port A yesterday evening for some beach combing and then dinner.
I studied my Google map and was able to locate where I thought the "secret shell place" was and was quite happy when we pulled up and I had remembered correctly. Of course if I had just recalled that it was right next to where the ferries come across that would have been much easier, but I had actually forgotten that part. When we arrived there were a couple of people standing in the water fishing, but otherwise we had the whole small section of beach to ourselves. I wasn't wrong about shells - there were millions for us to choose from and we came away with a whole bucket full.
After beach combing for a while, we headed over to find a place to eat dinner. We decided this would be our splurge meal and spent $60+ on some delicious seafood at Virginia's On the Bay. It literally sits right next to the marina where fabulous and expensive yachts are docked. I picked out a sleek black one as my favorite.
After dinner Kate said she wanted to go to the park, and I just happened to recall one on the other side of the marina so we headed over there so she could play for a while. Wouldn't you know it, the playground had sand instead of mulch? For most kids that would be no big deal, but for Kate that meant every time she got sand in her shoe Daddy had to take it off and clean it. We didn't play long and walked out onto a fishing pier to watch the ferries cross a few times and even saw some dolphins playing in the bay.
We headed back to the hotel so that Kate and Daddy could swim in the pool for a while and I cleaned the shells we collected that evening. As I was pouring shells out of the bucket and into the sink of water I realized that a couple of the conches we picked up were in fact still inhabited. We had brought home two crabs. Oops. So that meant I had to make a quick trip to a small fishing area really close to our hotel so I could release the poor guys back into the wild. I just hope they like their new home because I was not driving them back to Port Aransas.
I have yet to find a whole sand dollar, although I've found several parts to them. But the coolest thing we've found so far on the beach is this barb which I'm pretty sure belonged to a stingray at some point. It's 3 or so inches long.
No comments:
Post a Comment