Wild & Three Thursday!

They're here!

Plane ride went well and she was excited to see us. Mom and dad both reported that the wireless noise cancelling headphones were a hit. Their first trip to the Pacific Ocean was enjoyed by all. We are currently enjoying our cottage view at San Onofre where dolphins have been frolicking just off the coast. Lots of shell collecting, beach exploring, GoFish playing, Sprinkle cupcake eating, sand sweeping, crossword puzzle working, relaxing is happening. We even went bowling! Just a tidbit if you are military looking to stay at San O go ahead and book that airbnb you looked at because the beach cottages associated with Camp Pendleton are disappointing. The train tracks have traffic on them right in front of the cottages ALL NIGHT LONG and honestly we found that the public beaches are better maintained/groomed and the cottages are just not that great. I'm extremely sad to report this. As we are usually all in on utilizing our military base privileges, however, as of late we are finding out they are falling short.

Planning a trip to the San Diego Zoo on Saturday and the weather looks to be awesome for such an outing. Gonna be sad to see them go. I think everyone is having a good time. The night sky in Joshua Tree was AH-mazing...saw shooting stars, satellites, planes (lots of planes) and many, many stars. Loved our view.

Black Squirrels, Dolphins, Caracara's oh my!

We have been so blessed with what our eyes are able to see. Often times we do not have the real camera and our phones just can't quite capture it so it's just for our eyes only! It is a feast to see! Some of these amazing animals are just incredible and a real treat that you just cannot imagine nor often explain to others.

In the past few weeks we have seen the rare pink spoonbill (roseate spoonbill), the caracara and black squirrels. Really cool. Of course I always enjoy the dolphins and since we have been back near the coast we have seen them three times already. Seeing them on the Lower Colorado headwaters the other day they were the most active I've ever seen and the most in number it was awesome. The birds are neat to see as well but we are not really birders in the real since of the word. Usually we don't know what we saw til after we tell someone or someone tells us and we realize, oh we saw those or oh that's what we saw! Still, lots of fun seeing!

Wish I had pictures to share, but I do not...


#OWT

Gulf Coast Day

We had a day out yesterday!

Since the base had excellent ticket prices, ($6.00) we decided to go see Hope & Winter!! I think that one should keep in mind that if you do visit this facility it is NOT an entertainment venue. It's an aquatic animal rescue hospital that was catapulted into fame with the rescue of Winter. This baby dolphin eventually lost her tail and she was fitted with a prosthetic tail. We saw the movie some time back and it's a great family watch. There is now a Dolphin Tale 2. Anyway, having this famous dolphin sort of overshadows the rest of the facility. Not only do they rescue turtles and dolphins they also rehabilitate and return animals to their natural habitat when they can. Others stay in residence if they are unable to survive in the wild.

Rescue, rehab and release are the new mission focus words for the Clearwater Marine  Aquarium. Clearly, a good organization that is trying to find it's way after being thrown into the spotlight. I now want to see the second movie!

Love the sea turtles! The had several green no leatherbacks.

 

Visiting the aquarium was educational and we enjoyed our time there. It's definitely not a cheap place to visit, gate prices are high, the memorabilia is also pricey and they are definitely trying to make money on your visit. I guess why not but it's a bit overwhelming to see the capitalistic side of it. We also went to the other location that houses much of the movie paraphernalia. The facility is called Winter's Dolphin Tale Adventure. I recommend taking the trolley down and riding the ferry back or vice versa, just do them both as they are fun.

After our time with Winter & Hope and all the other cool animals we tootled on over to check out Clearwater Beach. It's definitely an awesomely beautiful beach, lots of gorgeous white sand, nice lapping little waves BUT we were sorely disappointed that it's totally PAY parking. BOO! I think there should always be free parking for the beach! So we motored on up the road back to Tarpon Springs. We enjoyed a late lunch at a little Greek restaurant, got a bakery treat and headed on over to Honeymoon Island to catch the sunset over we strolled through the sponge docks at Tarpon Springs.

Hella's had a HUGE bakery.

 

Tarpon Springs is known for sponges and we saw them in all shapes and sizes and prices. Neat town to take a walk through. There is pay parking or if you look hard enough there are free spots to be found. Since we knew we were eating we parked in the lot where the restaurant we were eating at would pay for our parking. Hella's was decent, Mr Souvlaki's was better! On our way home from Bushnell the other day we took the scenic route and ran across Mr Souvlaki's; it was well worth the stop! If we go again I will be getting the Greek chow Mein. However, the gyro's did not disappoint! MiRV was in heaven with his gyros and French fries.

Beautiful ending to a great day on the Gulf!

#Winter
#Hope
#DolphinTale
#GreekFood

FollyBeachSunrise

After the AC repair we were determined for a beach day so off to Folly Beach we went...at 5:42 a.m. Yes, that's early! We wanted to catch the sunrise at 6:22 a.m. It's a 45 minute drive. It was an early morning! But oh so gorgeous.

 Really, really neat looking through the pier!

 And myself on the pier!

That's MiRV paddling boarding with the dolphins!

After the gorgeous sunrise MiRV got some paddling in. We had clouds for a while and even thought there might be a shower but it cleared out nicely! The dolphins were out and playful this morning! There was a pod that was all around MiRV while he was out on the SUP. I could see them from the shore, it was incredible to watch. I even got the binoculars out to see even better, so cool! He said a little one was close enough to touch!

It was an enjoyable day at Folly Beach!