While the big boys and Dan got set up to start fishing; Tristan, the girls, and I started wandering off to "see what we could see".
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| "doves" from inside a sand dollar...we found lots of these |
We didn't get very far at all before we came to another group of fishermen (and woman :) ). They had a fish on, so of course we stopped to see what was on the end of the line.
THAT is a bull shark. A big bull shark. Uh huh...want to go swimming, now ;)?
This group of fisherfolks were catching sharks and tagging them for NOAA. They were kind enough to fill us in on some details while we watched them reel in not one but two (!!!!) of the creatures. Did I mention that these were really big sharks? Yep, they were. Longer than I am tall...
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| the tag they put on one of the sharks before releasing it |
We talked for a while and they told us that they come out and catch sharks like this quite often. They measure, evaluate, tag, and release them then send the info to NOAA for their records/research.
***To the lady from Atlanta that tried to convince my kids to swim out to the second sandbar with her kids because "there's no sharks in these waters...". I have four words... I TOLD YOU SO! :P***
After gawking and gasping at the sharks, we continued on our shoreline exploration...
This place is called the Stump Hole because it is slam full of stumps. Hurricanes and storms have caused some significant erosion over the years and the coastline has been eaten away. Trees have been claimed by the gulf along with the sand and the result is lots and lots of stumps both in the water and on the shore.
Stumps, trees, driftwood type pieces that have broken off...they poke up from the sand, the water, just everywhere.
All of the downed trees create an obstacle course the farther down the beach you walk. Depending on the tides and wind, the path can sometimes be completely blocked. Other times the path is open and you can walk all the way to the end of that strip of beach with no problems.
On this particular day, the path was blocked by a tangle of trees and roots.
We had spotted the Cape San Blas Lighthouse in the distance and were hoping to see it from the beach, but it was not happening on this day.
So, we turned around and started making our way back to the boys to see if they had caught any fish...
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| palmetto roots...no WONDER these things are impossible to get rid of... |
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| a pelican fishing...these birds SLAM into the water every.single.time |
We got back just in time to snap this picture:
The boys had hooked into a school of Whiting and were landing them as fast as they could reel them in :)...
Being the good big brothers they are, they handed their poles over to let their sisters and little brother have a turn (even though we had been off exploring all the afternoon and they had been patiently fishing - so sweet of them)...
Do you see what I see in the sky???
SUNDOGS!!! <3 So pretty...
We had to throw back all the smaller fish, including a Pompano that Ash caught, but we still ended up taking home enough fish for a nice fish fry...which was awesome :).
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| my people <3 |
It was such a nice day that we stayed until it started getting dark...
Then we packed up and slowly made our way back home...
...stopping to admire the colors as they deepened...
...and changed...
...and faded away.
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