There are two main dangers when it comes to our trips to Shell Beach: jellyfish and sunburn. Dad and I don’t need excuses not to go out into the hot gulf coast heat, but what excuse we don’t need, these things provide. Unfortunately, the two things tend to alternate. The jellyfish are most prevalent when the sun isn’t out.
I had actually planned to use this trip in order to even out my suntan. Right now, when I’m not wearing a shirt, it looks like I am wearing a white shirt. So I decided to go out sans sun screen lotion for limited periods of time each day rather than wait for the sun to fall below the condos. The end result is that when I got home, it looked like I was wearing a white shirt with red shoulderpads. I went out at noon, so my shoulders bore the brunt of it.
The last day was by far the most pleasant. The clouds were out and there was a breeze. So I went out earlier than usual and swam. Clancy joined me before too long. She noticed the seaweed first. Seaweed is where jellyfish like to hide (and they often come as a combo). Clancy started getting worried. I saw one, but shrugged it off. Then another. At that point, the goal was to simply move away from the seaweed. The fourth I found was resting on my wrist. We decided it was time to call it a day. We got out the meat tenderizer and hung out on shore for a while.
We go on this trip with the Charles family. The Charles’ have a load of grandkids, who find jellyfish some combination of fascinating and horrifying. They didn’t want to go out swimming, but did want to go out with their nets and capture the j-fish. They didn’t know what to do with them. Their parents suggested that they bury them on the beach.
Great idea, that way we don’t even have to go in the water in order to get stung. We decided to go in.
In other news, a stingray did a belly flop less than ten feet from me. That was kind of cool, until I remembered what they were called and why.
This is why the Flying Spaghetti Monster invented pools. Do you have access to one there? Some people don’t believe in them.
Comment by Mike Hunt — August 16, 2011 @ 9:45 pm
They had a pool, but it was very warm. Even though I know it’s warm because it’s 100 degrees out, there is something incredibly disconcerting about being in a warm pool. It makes you think of certain things you would rather not think of.
Comment by trumwill — August 16, 2011 @ 9:50 pm