Joel woke up at some ungodly hour this morning. Somewhere around 5:00 am. So we were up quite early. We walked around in the very dim light of the morning checking out the beach and the property and looking for shells. It wasn't long after we plopped ourselves down that the sun started to rise. It rises over the land and we couldn't see the sun itself from the house, but the colors in the sky were gorgeous. One palm leaned out over the water of the bay and as its backdrop was a beautiful pink sky. It was quite striking. After a while we decided we had to get a picture, but by the time Joel got back it had faded.
I was hungry so I started making pancakes. We had the kids set the table then afterwards they washed the dishes. This has become standard. The kids resist it a little but they will do the cleaning for the rest of the trip.
C-- wandered out sometime in the middle of breakfast. Scott had been up for a while. He said the smell of the pancakes drove him out of bed. C-- wouldn't eat, saying it was too early in the morning. She had coffee then went back to bed for her morning nap.
I felt antsy and wanted to do something, but it was still raining. Maybe go to the shelling beach, but Joel suggested a hike across the island to the Atlantic side. It took us (me, Joel and Beth) about 30 minutes at my slow pace before we ended up at Twin Beach.
Just before we got there was a house right on the beach called Twin Coves. I think I remember the name from looking at rental places on the internet. It looked lovely from the outside and you can't beat the location.
The beach itself was two beaches separated by a small neck sticking out into the ocean. Very pretty pink sand. The only mar was the beach trash at the high water line, washed up from the ocean.
We walked all the way to the southern tip and found crab holes in the sand. They were about one inch in diameter and there were quite a few of them. Also at high water point there were some pretty little shells, including my favorite, the sea urchin shell. We walked out on the old dead coral that jutted out into the water. (It was low tide). And we saw several different kinds of creatures in the tidal pools: sea urchins, limpets, chitons, some small fish and tons of snails. It was hard to walk because of all the snails. They blended into the rock very well and they were hard to see. After collecting some shells we wandered up the beach to the neck that sticks out between the two beaches. We found some interesting coral rocks to take back. It was hard to find just the right piece because most of the broken coral had been so eroded by the ocean waves that it didn't look much like coral any more. But we succeeded in finding a few pieces.
Joel ended up dragging me away. The walk back was tiring for me. When we got back to the main road Scott was driving down in his car to find us. He gave us a short lift back.
I was once again starving. C-- made hotdogs and plantains for lunch, an interesting combination. C-- also found my rum punch from last night, which did a good job of wiping me out.
After lunch was C--'s early afternoon nap. When she woke up we all went into town. It was still raining so it seemed like a good game plan. We stopped at the grocery store to buy snacks and get water. The water at the house is drinkable (comes from a desalination plant) but most people buy the bottled water anyway since it tastes better. The bottled water comes from Burrows, one of the grocery stores. For $4 and change you get a 5 gallon container, which lasts for a while.
Afterwards we went to the gift shop. My kids decided to buy two boxes decorated with shells to keep their little shells in. Ben had gone walking with C-- this morning and found a beach that had piles of small shells at the high water line. You just pick up handfuls all at once! Just walk from the house and go west and you will run across the beach. I'll have to take that hike later.
When we got back C-- started talking about taking a late afternoon nap, but we ended up playing Torres instead. We are avid game players so we brought lots of games. I won, but it was funny because for the first round I didn't understand the rules and was playing with the wrong assumptions (and a couple of glasses of rum punch).
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We decided to see if the Beach Bash was still on at South Palmetto Point. It might have been cancelled due to the rain and thunderstorms. So we trekked off to see. On the way we noticed a housewares store so we stopped in. Balara Manor is equipped with most everything but no pitchers to mix drinks in. We had been making rum punch in the glass coffee pot and the kids were making lemonade in individual glasses. We bought two plastic pitchers to donate to the house.
When we arrived no one was at the beach so we backtracked a bit and had dinner at Mate & Jennys. Before our dinner came we played a game of pool. It was quite pitiful. None of us were very good and it took us quite a while to finish. After the game we let the boys play. The food came right after we sat down. The conch pizza was good. I would not say it was great, but good food none the less. We also had the chicken wings. They were a bit dry, but we spiced them up with the hot sauces on the table and then they were much better.
On the way home we watched a beautiful sunset. We thought about stopping to watch, but Amos had to go to the bathroom so we just kept driving.
At home we played a game of Mamma Mia. C-- won. She wanted to start another game but it was 8:40pm. Joel and I were tired. C-- is a night person and we are morning people. It will be interesting to see how we mesh together like this.
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Text and images © Copyright 2000 Joel and Daphne Gould. If there are any problems or questions email Daphne Gould.
