A History Lesson - 08-14-2011

Let's just say today's walk was just not the most exciting walk that I have had at the beach.  In fact, it probably was the most boring of the whole summer.

When I arrived at the beach, there was no wind.  The gulf was again very calm & tranquil.  The sunrise was nice.

Stretch and his family were already out looking for breakfast!

As I look down the beach, there is no one, nothing, not even one jellyfish from yesterday!

The water is very clear today.  You can see very well into the water.  However there is nothing in there to look at except seaweed!

The dark spot is just a bunch of seaweed.  There is a line of it all the way up the coast.  

The only thing I come across so far is a small crab.  The water is clear and I get a good picture of him.  

Other than that, as I walk along, there is nothing.  No birds, no fish in the water.  There are a bunch of crabs, but this is not new and exciting anymore.  This is old stuff.  However, they are fun to watch.  Just nothing new and exciting.

As I walk along the beach today, I am doing a "live" blog for a particular reader who has been complaining that the blogs are not going out on time!  So since yesterday's blog was not up yet, in order to pacify him, I decide to give him an exclusive "live" blog hoping this will make him happy!  

While I am having fun blogging to him.  I really have nothing to blog about.  There just really is nothing exciting to blog about today.  I send him all the normal beach shots and he replies back that "haven't I seen this all already".  To which I reply "yes, but there is nothing new to blog about".

All the jellyfish from yesterday are gone.  I only see one.  And there are just a few crabs today.

I am totally amazed that I only see one jellyfish after all the ones that were there yesterday.

Stretch and his family have moved down the beach and they are now in the dunes.  So I snap a few pictures of them.

I only saw a few seagulls flying in the air.  There were none on the beach.  I finally found out where the morning meeting was.  It was again down by the pavilion.  Funny how there are no birds the whole way and then they are all here.

In the back of this picture, there is a large white tent set up.  As I was approaching there were a bunch of people under it.  But now they are all gone.  Must have been some kind of sunrise service.

At the pavilion is where the awesome sand sculptures were yesterday.  Well here is today's awesome sand sculpture from that area.

It made me laugh!

Well since there was nothing on the way down, it would be a good power walk on the way back.  As I walk back the only thing I find is this fish.

So my friend that I am "live" blogging with tells me that it is a "Finger Mullet" and he is bait for larger fish like a blue fish.  Somebody was enjoying him!

I tell him that he is a pretty blue and he writes back and says that this is the shine from the scales.  This mullet is very oily.  That is why it makes great bait.  Game fish can smell the oil at a distance.  He says that he is actually black and white.

After this there is nothing else,  I power walk back up to the pier.

So since this was a short and boring blog, I have decided to bore you more with a "history lesson".  I hated history so it is funny me teaching anything about history.  

Well today's history lesson is about the pier.  

The following information is taken from the plaques at the pier.

Originally built in 1968, the Gulf State Park Pier survived over 35 years of heavy weather and storms.  When faced with powerful Hurricane Ivan in 2004, however it's luck ran out.

At 825 feet long, the original pier attracted 250,000 visitors each year.

Hurricane Ivan left little behind.

Construction of the new pier began in December 2007.

The new pier was built 250 feet east of the old pier.

At 1,540 feet long, the new pier is the longest pier on the gulf.

The above pictures were from the Orange Beach Community Website.

Rather than continue to research the pier (this is taking a lot of time and Maria wants to go swimming), here is a video I found on youtube about the pier.  It was interesting.  It is long, about 10 minutes, but gives you a lot of information about the pier.  It also gives you information comparing the old pier dimensions to the new pier and shows you all around the pier.  It was taken on the opening day of the new pier.   

Well, today was the last of my morning sunrise walks until Saturday.  School starts tomorrow and the earliest I will be able to get to the beach will be about 8:15am.  I am worried that it may still be too hot to take a long walk at this time of the morning.  I may turn my morning walk into an evening walk during the week and do the morning walks on the weekend!

Hoping there is more excitement tomorrow at the beach than there was today!