Beach Day

Today we took a driving tour along the coast. We stopped to take a walk on a beach that allowed dogs.

As soon as we got down to the beach the dogs wanted to chase a ball. But we had forgotten to bring one - silly us! Since there are no trees anywhere near the beach there were no sticks to play with either.

The only thing we could find were little shells - about the size of a quarter. The girls weren't impressed at all but little Slugger isn't too particular it turns out. I'm not sure this picture will be big enough on here for you to see but he is carrying that tiny shell with his front teeth.



Even though we didn't have much for them to chase they did enjoy their time on the beach. Mostly the played "chase and beat up Slugger." Normally he'll run as fast as he possibly can until the girls catch him. Then they knock him down, he rolls over, and gets up running again.

They did this again on this trip too but at one point they caught him and knocked him down. He tried to roll over so he could hop back up but the sand was just the wrong consistancy and he just slid on his back for probably 12 - 15 feet. It seemed as though he was never going to stop sliding. I think all three dogs were a little mystified. Needless to say, I didn't catch that one with my camera.

After they got tired beating Slugger up they decided to play a little more nicely.



Once we wouldn't let Wazzu chase Slugger anymore she didn't have much interest in playing. But the two youngsters had a good time playing keep away with the tiny little shell.





As we were walking back down the beach, Wazzu found a Margined Seastar. It was upside down in the sand and was mostly hidden. Good find, Wazzu!



We turned it over and it was beautiful.



Hoping that maybe it would live we took it down and put it in the water. After we got home we read that these starfish are very common in the deep waters off the coast of Florida waters but that they often wash up on the shore in the thousands. We didn't see thousands but did end up seeing a number of them.

After getting the dogs tuckered, we drove down the coast some more to see more of the sights. It's so interesting how beaches differ from place to place.

Debbie
2/1/07