A Non-Walk at the Beach! 8/8/2011

Well this morning as I was awaken from sleep by a large clap of thunder, I lay in bed wondering if I am going to get my walk in at the beach this morning.  Should I get up and go or just roll over and sleep in?

Yesterday Maria and I were out shopping at the Tanger Outlets.  This shopping center is about a 2 minute drive from the apartment.  As we shopped there were dark clouds and the gentle rumble of thunder.  We hurried up our shopping trip because we didn't want to get rained on.  It is an outside mall.

When we headed home, halfway there we noticed that it had rained very hard.  How could this be?  One minute away from there, it had not rained at all.  With that experience fresh in my mind, I got up and went to the beach hoping it wasn't raining there.

When I left home it had stopped raining.  I thought great, I might get my walk in.

As I arrive at the beach, I am greeted by a rainbow.  It is just beautiful!  I take a picture as soon as I get out of the car.

 Good thing, by the time I got up on the pier, it was already fading.

While approaching the pier, I notice that there is a strong breeze.  Also, there are some really black clouds hanging out over the Gulf.  It is not raining right now.

I think the turtle and the welcome sign is so cute!  A nice addition to the pier.

As I am taking these pictures, I now see lighting and hear thunder out where the dark clouds are.  I head over to the snack shop and ask the man working if he knows if the storm out there is coming or going.  He checks his radar and says that it is moving around and I should be ok to go for a walk.

When you look down the other side of the beach, where I usually walk it is clear and the sun is shining.  So I make my pit stop and head on down to the beach.  As I am walking along in the soft sand heading to the water's edge, it starts to drizzle.  Instead of turning around I go under the pier.  I will try to wait a few minutes and see if it stops.

So of course while under the pier, what do I do, yup, I take a bunch of pictures!  It's a new view.  I don't normally go under the pier.  Here ya go!

While I am under here, I see my friend Stretch.  So I take a few pics of him today.

I have been under here now for about 10 minutes.  It doesn't look like it is raining so I head on out to take my walk.  As I move out from underneath the pier, huge raindrops start dropping on me and fast.  They have gotten my camera wet and I panic that it may be ruined.  I quickly wipe it off and head on back up to the pier.

I'm not ready to go home and I really want to try to get a walk in, so I buy a cup of coffee and sit on the pier to wait and see if the weather will clear up.

As I am walking around on the covered part of the pier, I notice that they have added more signs like they have on the rails on the walkway up to here.  These signs are about the shifting sands again and the history of the pier.

While I am reading "A Peek at the Pier", a woman shouts "Oh, watch this one!"  I turn around to look and there is a pelican flying very close to us.  I turn around and snap his picture.

Then we watch as he dive bombs into the gulf to get a fish.  Seeing it up close was really funny.  As I look out I notice suddenly there are a lot of birds around.  Pelicans and seagulls all swirling around near the pier where I am and down the beach a bit where I normally walk.

Now I start watching the birds and I catch a pelican dive bombing for his breakfast!

This was just really funny to watch the pelicans and the seagulls dive bombing.  I watched them for quite a while.  The storm was still brewing off the coast and it seemed to be getting closer.

While watching the pelicans and seagulls, I happen to notice Stretch.  RN and Leggs are now with him.

They are looking for breakfast too!

One of them gets lucky and  finally finds something!

Then a little seagull finds something too!

A man peering over the rail down into the surf, says "Look at that!"  So I walk over to see what they are looking at.  There is a school of orange fish swimming below.  

This was interesting to watch from above.  I watched them unitl they swam away.   Now there seem to be more pelicans flying around now.

As I look down the beach, I notice that there are a bunch of pelicans sitting in the water by the shore line.  As I watch for a few minutes, all I can think about is the good pictures I am missing out on.  I quickly look around and the storm doesn't look so bad and it is not raining, so I decide to go down to where they are to take pictures of them.

I make a pit stop first because I have drank a large cup of coffee.  When I come out of the rest room and start heading down the pier I look out to the water.  Guess what?  All the pelicans that had been sitting in the water for the last 20 minutes are now gone!

I head on down to the beach and I go about 100 yards.  The pelicans are flying around but they are not sitting in the water.  There are now a lot of seagulls on the beach.

I start to video the birds.  I am panning the view when I suddenly see how dark it has gotten behind me.

The sky has turned really dark.

I'm thinking where did this come from.  It came up very quickly.  I decide not to go down where the pelicans are since they are not sitting in the water.  I head off the beach back to the car.

There was lots to see and watch at the pier.  I had done this another morning so I knew it wouldn't be boring waiting the storm out.  It never did really storm on me.  I probably could have done my walk with just a little drizzle.  I worry about my phone and my camera getting wet.

I am a little paranoid about that ever since Matthew got caught in a storm on the beach and had his phone with him.  It ruined his phone and he had to get a new one.

Since no walk today, I'm hoping I get a good walk in for tomorrow!