Word Pictures

Tony and I decided to go to a new beach today, Oak Island.  It's about 40 minutes from our house and very nice.

 

We had chairs, a cooler, towels, phones, the umbrella, the umbrella stand, shoes and my bag with magazines and essentials, so when Tony said, "are you taking the camera?"  I was a bit reluctant to weigh us down with anything else.  "No," I said. "I feel like a pack mule when we go to the beach,"  "OK" he answered, "but when you see great potential pictures, don't complain to me."

 

Guess what?  He was right. 

 

He laughed at me as I did complain and said, "Get over it, dear."  I did, because we had a wonderful time, but I decided to record "word" pictures  share with you.

 

The temperature at the beach was at least 8 to 10 degrees lower than inland.  It was windy and sand crunched in my mouth as we set up our chairs.  It was an overcast day, the water was grey and very foamy.  The waves broke in three or four steps before reaching the sand.  By the time it got to the sand, it was slow and clear, but still strong enough to make puzzle like impressions as it ebbed and flowed back into the sea. 

 

We saw brown pelicans as we have so often.  Normally, I try to catch a picture of them diving into the water for fish, but they are too fast for me and leave me clicking empty sky as they fall from the clouds into the water with a mighty splash; catching their prey in victory. 

 

Today, they posed.  There were 10 of them in a line with exactly the same amount of space in between each one.   They faced the water in profile and seemed to know the drill very well.  They smiled at me as they flew directly over us before going to the water and posing again, screaming at me, "OK, take the picture, I'm hovering above the water for you before I make this glorious dive to catch a fish."   One by one, following the leader, each bird splashed into the water, with the splash coming at least 3 feet above the water line.  They stayed under water for just a moment, but flew up into the sky victorious.  They caught their fish.  I missed it.

 

Then, we saw sky divers.  Yep, sky divers. They shouldn't have been out in this weather, but there they were.   Their parachutes were green against a white and grey sky. They went in and out of clouds that had  dark bottoms and wispy tops.   The wind was whipping them head over heals and from side to side until it finally pushed them down to earth.  There were two of them who emerged out of the clouds....truly, out of no where, and found their way safely to earth. 

 

I missed so much with my lens, but I saw so much with my eyes and ears.  Tony looked wonderful.  He is tan and beautiful.  We talked about so many things--our vow renewal, our children, our grandchildren, my new job, the things we want to do before I start working, and how we love each other.  We talked about being happy and I couldn't capture that with a lens no matter how much I tried.  

 

It was a wonderful time.  I will post pictures of pelicans and sky divers on another blog.  I wouldn't have traded this time for anything.  I hope I gave you word pictures of our day.