After Erik took Step 2 of his Boards, we traveled to South Carolina to visit his grandparents who live on Seabrook Island. It is one of the most beautiful, peaceful places I've ever been. This was Abigail's first trip there, and we had a lot of fun.
The sand dunes on the beach are just gorgeous. I wish I'd taken a better picture of them; this one doesn't really do them justice, but it's the only one I took.
If you walk along the beach during the summer, you can see that the dunes are dotted with little orange flags. They mark spots where loggerhead turtles have lain their eggs. The turtles nest during the night, so the island has a group of volunteers who form the "turtle patrol," and during the turtles' nesting season they take turns walking along the beach early in the morning looking for marks in the sand that the turtles leave as they drag themselves up the beach into the dunes to lay their eggs. When the people find the nests, they mark them with a flag and section them off with orange tape since the loggerhead is a threatened species. Erik and I think that would be a fun job. So one day when he retires from being a rich and famous doctor, maybe we'll move to Seabrook and join the Turtle Patrol...
The sand dunes on the beach are just gorgeous. I wish I'd taken a better picture of them; this one doesn't really do them justice, but it's the only one I took.If you walk along the beach during the summer, you can see that the dunes are dotted with little orange flags. They mark spots where loggerhead turtles have lain their eggs. The turtles nest during the night, so the island has a group of volunteers who form the "turtle patrol," and during the turtles' nesting season they take turns walking along the beach early in the morning looking for marks in the sand that the turtles leave as they drag themselves up the beach into the dunes to lay their eggs. When the people find the nests, they mark them with a flag and section them off with orange tape since the loggerhead is a threatened species. Erik and I think that would be a fun job. So one day when he retires from being a rich and famous doctor, maybe we'll move to Seabrook and join the Turtle Patrol...
Grandma playing with Abigail.
Grandpa and Abigail
We took Abigail on an early-morning walk along the beach our last day there, and we were the only people out that morning. We watched the sunrise, which never gets old to me, and we also got to see some dolphins! They are definitely one of the highlights of our Seabrook trips. If you go out early in the morning, you can often watch them catch their breakfast, which is fascinating. Several dolphins work together to corral fish toward the shore, and when they've got them close enough, the dolphins jump out onto the sand, forcing the fish onto the beach. Then the dolphins flop around until they manage to catch a fish in their mouth. It's a lot of fun to watch. On this particular morning, we saw them do it several times and were close enough that we could've touched them. We took a couple video clips with the camera, one of which I've included at the end.
Abigail loved the water.
Abby was pretty worn out by the time we headed back!
This was taken on the back porch of Grandpa and Grandma's house. You can't tell from the picture, but it overlooks a beautiful marsh.
Here's one of the clips we took of the dolphins. I don't think they actually catch any fish in this one.
