Back in Carolina, on the beach!

Day before yesterday I came down to join my family at one of the beaches outside of Charleston. We have a little house right on the beach - nothing fancy, but it's air conditioning, a porch, and guaranteed parking! Yesterday, we saw quite the wildlife - there are more rocks here on this beach than the one we usually go to, so at low tide, there are lots of crabs! It's so much fun to find them in and among the rocks. Yesterday we probably saw a dozen, the largest one about the size of two fists together. Being people, we poked at it with a huge clam shell that we found. The crab, of course, needed to defend itself and pinched at the shell with its claw. Even though I was expecting it, it delighted me and scared me, the feeling and sound of claw on shell :). I keep poking at it and giggling and shrieking when it clawed the shell. We also saw a bunch of sea urchins, and some tubular creatures attached to a rock. I think they're related to polyps and sea anemones, but they're not quite those. They're soft and shrink back when you poke them ;). The other creatures we saw were: a gecko, a bunch of pelicans, a tiny tiny hermit crab, another very small white "ghost" crab (my description) that buried in the sand. When you nudge the sand near it, it scrambles underneath the sand to another spot! We also saw a dead jellyfish that looked a lot like the ghosts from Super Mario World.

Today we went farther down on the island, where the houses end, and looked for dolphins and crabs, and saw both! Even J, with her broken foot, got to see a bunch of crabs, and I still delighted in poking at them with a shell :). Some scurried away, some pinched at me. Dad and I went a little farther and found some tidal pools among the rocks, and we saw crabs, larger minnows and two live starfish, as well as sea urchins. I felt like a 5 year old, perched on a rock in the middle of the tidal pool, poking and shrieking and giggling at the crabs. Dad very sweetly said that he hoped I always had that 5 year old inside me.

While we were walking back, I saw a dolphin way out, tried to use cloud shapes to describe where they were, but it didn't work. When we were closer to the beach access, we saw at least 2 if not 3 or more dolphins much closer in, and everyone got to see them!

I've been re-reading a fun book that J brought, and I thoroughly enjoyed these two quotes.

"How many times have you told me that everybody gets lucky breaks in business but not everybody is ready for them? Well, it's true about love, too. I've been planning my marriage my whole life beach I'm smart enough to know that's the most important decision I'll ever make, and now Roger's here, and I'm ready to go. And you two are going to miss it when it comes for you because you don't want to believe because if it isn't true, you'll be disappointed."

(talking about love and relationships again)

"You have to be sensible. It's not silly love songs and sloppy kisses, it's dangerous. People die for it. People die from it. Wars are fought. Empires fall. It can ruin your life." (the italics were in the book)

The first one I thought was interesting, the second I found very funny.

Pilgrimage was amazing and difficult and wonderful and indescribable. I did find some phrases in one of my favorite Baha'i books that I felt described the experience well. Those will come when I get home. Now time for more beach!