This year was a good year. We made it out to Fort Pickens for the first time in several years, the shelling was good, and we even had a good day of water with calm water in the morning/early afternoon and somewhat less calm but very clear water in the afternoon. Granted, today was the only particularly good day of water and it stormed in the morning (before I got up), but it was still nice.
The fort seems to have fully survived hurricane Ivan (I think that was the one) that cut off access for a few years, which isn’t particularly surprising since it’s been there for most of 200 years (besides the portion of it that was destroyed in 1899 when a fire reached the gunpowder storage). The roads, fishing pier, and modern buildings didn’t do so well. Most of the road from Navarre Beach to the fort (on the other end of the island) was recently paved and there were vast quantities of black pebbles (asphalt) and road chunks in the sand on either side of the road, even where the speed limit was reduced due to shore bird nesting areas. There’s an entire new fishing pier, and though there’s a picture outside the museum building of what the building looks like with a significant portion washed off it’s foundation and no longer attached that was rebuilt.
I’ll have to take pictures of my shells at some point, but the rare shells I found include a Cabrits’ Murex and a small (not fully grown) Queen Helmet. I also found a Scotch Bonnet (listed as rare, but we usually find a few) and a tulip shell. The biggest I found is a lightning whelk, but it’s not nearly as big as the one my dad found.
Today I finally managed to get lightly sunburnt and find a jelly fish (or something that left an interesting pattern of itchy spots across my foot). Not too big a deal since we’re leaving tomorrow for home so I don’t have to deal with either while on the beach. On the other hand, someone found a nice mask and snorkel in the water and since my dad and I are the only ones that do much snorkeling they gave the new mask/snorkel to me. Very much appreciated since I’ve just been using an old (and too small) mask and didn’t find a snorkel for it this year (not too big a problem since there’s more air here than in Colorado and I can hold my breath for noticeably longer than I’m used to).
I stopped counting how many books I’ve read, but I’ve just about run out of books. Rather, I’ve got a book and a half left, but neither are books I particularly want to read. I’ve also got a couple technical books I was thinking I’d read, but those aren’t exactly great entertainment. Hopefully I’ll come up with something to get on my nook on the way home.
