This post was pre-empted for my 'Thanks Dad' post.
These were the waves late in the day (Saturday 6/14). I was gettin' pretty beat up - including one major face plant on the hard sandy bottom. It had me worried at first bounce, I was expecting to find my ear centered on my forehead when I finally stood up. OUCH!
Here's where Deb & I started out Friday evening. It's called OC Whites & it's an awesome restaurant that sits across the street from the marina at the St Augustine waterfront. One of our favorites. We sat outside under the canopy of wysteria vines (see pic) while a dude played guitar & sang songs. He was very good. The food was excellent - crab covered Mahi on pasta, caribbean salad yadda yadda yadda. Can you tell we like to have late dinners on the weekend? We walked along the water for a bit & checked out a yacht positioned at the end of the main pier. It had to be 200 feet long. Deb wants one. Guess I'll have to ask for a raise.
This is what the ocean looked like when we first arrived. It was like a lake! The air temp today was 88 degrees with an 8 mph wind starting from the east & changing to a southeasterly. The water temp is already at 82 degrees. It'll probably be in the high 80's by the end of the month.
This is a ho hum way to show how the waves (& crowds) were picking up. The St Augustine Beach pier in the background is at the end of Anastasia Island - 8 miles from where we were hanging out. Pretty good visibility.
I lost my watch somehow the other day. It's driving me nuts. This is how we kept track of time today - without running to the truck to check (that's a red flair poked into the sand). According to the shadow off the pen in this pic - it's about 3:45 in the afternoon. This really works in a pinch (when it's reasonably sunny). Just make sure you know where north is. Easy to figure out when you're oceanside. The tracks are from an ATV driven by the 'Beer Cops' - Alcohol is not permitted, so they have cops playin' 'gotcha' with everybody. I'm told the fine is about 50 Bucks - unless you're under age - then you're screwed.
We were watching some kids getting dragged along by their kites. At the Matanzas Inlet they kite board behind the sand bars out on the water. They use these giant kites & small surfboardlike things that have footholds built into them like water skis have. They jump & flip & crash into the waves. I'd try it - I have life insurance.
These guys were using similar kites but rode an oversized skateboard or a 3 wheeler (steering with their feet & adjusting kite strings with a harness). Looked fun at first but, without the jumps, it didn't hold my interest for very long. Hard to get both parts in a picture so I'll include 2 of 'em.
Here's what the kite looked like.
So that was the first half of the weekend. I left out the part about me squishing a large mouse under the Durango tires as he ran into our garage while we were pulling in from dinner Friday night. Deb didn't want me to take a picture & post it here. I shoveled him up & tossed him into the jungle out back using my best left handed forehand shot from my lacrosse playing days. He's waaaaay back there baby! I guess his weekend was a little shorter than mine.
Added: Sunday (being a 'holiday' I'd rather ignore) was pretty quiet & low key. I was in a blah kind of mood. We had thunderstorms in the afternoon & I wasn't in a creative frame of mind - no writing. Sooooo... I took care of one my least favorite jobs - I mopped the floors. Our house is all tile - except for the bedrooms & sitting room - that leaves a fair amount of swabbin' to do. I messed around with MySpace for a bit, read 1/2 of Ted Bell's 'Nick of Time' (a YA adventure that's great), watched part of a NASCAR race, & drafted a couple of future blog posts. Well it's gonna be a busy week, so I may as well get ready for it.
