Subject: Our Florida Mansion

We left Pikeville on Sunday afternoon as quickly as we could after church services, and spent the night in Columbia, South Carolina.  The next day we arrived at Daytona Beach about 1:30.  About 3, Pat and Darl arrived from Miami and had Dot in the car with them.  They had decided to go by and pick her up in Orlando because Jim had to go to Alabama to check on his sick and elderly mom.  So there were all were, ready for a fabulous vacation.

Everyone ooohed and ahhhed about the house we were staying in.  It was fabulous, huge, beautiful, and right on the beach.  It had a wonderful view from every room right out over the ocean.  And it had every amenity imaginable from a big screen TV to swimming pool.  We couldn't believe it was so wonderful.

We walked down to Carmichael's for dinner, the $6.95 all you can eat fish and chips special.  It was convenient and priced right, but not the greatest.

Then we went for a long walk on the beach, enjoying the firm sand, which is good for easy walking.  It is also good for driving which really seems strange to me.  On the west coast of Florida the sand is so soft that a car would bog down in a minute.  But here they have to put up signs to keep drivers off this part of the beach lest they disturb the sea turtle nests.  Later, when we drove down to Daytona Beach proper, we saw the cars parked side by side all up and down the beach.  Seems to me that all those cars parked on the beach just destroy the ambience.  But fortunately, ours is a quiet part of the beach without any cars (except the Beach Patrol and the Turtle Patrol) and not very many people on it.

We almost had a disaster right off the bat because of sailboat availability or the lack of it.  Shortly after arriving, I called every marina, boat rental place and every chamber of commerce listed in the phone book, and NOBODY knew of ANYBODY who rented sailboats!  With every phone call, I became more desperate and more depressed.  I had gone from the heights of ecstasy over the beautiful house to the depths of depression.  I told Sarah she was going to have one miserable week if I couldn't go sailing.  And I would blame the whole unhappy experience on her because she talked me out of hauling my own little sailboat to Florida.

While I was on the phone with one of the many places that do NOT have a sailboat for rent, Sarah looked out the window and observed, “Mickey, there is a sailboat right behind our house!”  Since the owners had said nothing to me about a sailboat, I assumed that it belonged to a neighbor or someone who lived nearby.  Maybe I could track down the owner and offer to rent it from him.

Some time later while we were unloading the car, we noticed a sail and boom lying on the floor of the garage!  It sure looked like the sails for that boat outside.  When Jeff Hurt, one of the owners, came to explain the ins and outs of the house, he said the boat belonged to a relative of one of the owners and that we could use it!  Eureka!  Back to the heights of ecstasy!  Suddenly Sarah’s vacation prospects picked up and so did mine.

One of the rules Jeff explained concerned the sensitive electronic equipment.  The electronics and salt air do not mix well, so they forbid sleeping with the doors or windows open to enjoy the sound of the surf.  For the rest of the week, every time a door opened Will sounded like Tattoo on Fantasy Island shouting, “The door!  The door!  The electronics!  The electronics!”  We all thought it was funny the way he said it.  But Will WAS the keeper of the electronics.  The cable TV and stereo system were so complicated that Will was the only one who could figure out how to change channels.

One night about 11 p.m., the TV in Pat and Darl’s room came on without warning.  We all puzzled over this strange phenomenon and finally concluded like that line in Shakespeare in Love, “It’s a mystery.”  But Will carefully examined the timing system and discovered that it was set to come on at that time.  Fortunately, Will knew how to turn the timer off.

Tuesday  7/18/2000

Subject: Crabby Joe’s

The first thing on the morning agenda was a nice long walk on the beach.  At 7:00, Sarah, Pat, and I took the two-mile hike down to the fishing pier under a cloudy sky.  An early morning walk on the beach is the perfect way to begin your day.  When we arrived at the pier, we enjoyed a very pleasant breakfast at Crabby Joe’s place perched halfway out on the pier.  Crabby Joe was not to be seen, but there were lots of colorful cartoon-like crabs and other images of marine life on the walls.  Pier fishermen were walking the long pier with poles and bait in hand preparing for a long day of fishing.  Sarah and Pat enjoyed grits with breakfast while I went with the hash browns.

By the time we headed back, the clouds had burnt off and a bright sun rose in the morning sky.  It was already getting hot by 8:30 when we arrived back at the house in a full sweat.  I was surprised to find that Will was already up and putting the finishing touches on the jigsaw puzzle the group started last night after I went to bed.  The puzzle was based on the old game Clue, so the picture was of Mr. Green in the bedroom with the candlestick, or some such.

After finishing the puzzle, and an after breakfast nap for me  (I learned that from my Daddy who says that retirement means taking a nap after every meal.), it was time for the vacation to begin in earnest with SAILING!  I carried the boom and mainsail from the garage and had no trouble figuring out how to prepare the boat for the day’s sailing.  But the boat was pulled up very close to the sea wall a good 50 to 75 yards from the ocean.  So Darl, Will and I pulled and tugged and dragged it across the sand to its natural home in the water.  Then Darl joined me on the boat for a lovely morning sail.

There are two problems with this kind of sailing.  The first is the long drag from beach to sea.  It really is a tough job getting the boat to and from the water, and exhausting.  By the time we reach the water’s edge, I am out of breath and ready to quit.  The other problem is getting through the surf.  The catamaran is not easy to turn over, like my little monohull is, but it is still a challenge to get through the breakers and out to easy sailing.

When the boat begins to float in six inches of water, everybody has to be ready to jump on board or else the boat may sail out from under you.  It would not be a happy sight to see the sailboat headed out to sea without the riders.  Depending on the wind, the boat begins to sail with a mind of its own.  With the wind from behind, the boat quickly charges into the waves.  With the wind from the front, the sails flap until the boat is turned at an angle when it begins to get power.  Either way, the boat usually crashes into my shins and scratches and bruises my legs before I manage to get everything under control.

Once on board, I need to get the rudders in the water so that I can steer the boat.  But I have to make sure the rudders are not lowered into place too soon because an unexpected crashing wave could send the boat backward breaking the rudders off on the sandy bottom.  So those first few moments of sailing are a time of scrambling terror as I get the boat underway without leaving me behind, without breaking the rudders, without being turned back by the waves and without running over any swimmers nearby.

A lot of things happen at once, but it all came together successfully and suddenly Darl and I were SAILING!  That, my friend, is the real meaning of life.  SAILING!  That, dear reader, is the meaning of VACATION!  What fun!

The wind was blowing a steady 10 knots, so we whizzed off toward the pier, two miles away.  Then we turned and headed back.  I thought Darl might be ready to quit because he said he didn't want to stay too long.  But no, he wanted to go to the lighthouse down at the other end of the island.  So we passed our place up and kept going.  I don’t think he really knew just how far the lighthouse was and that it would take us an hour to get there and an hour back.  The wind was a bit fickle dying down occasionally, then gusting up.  During the gusts we were scorching!  Catamarans are fast little boats, as long as there is wind.

Darl had failed to put sunscreen on his feet so he tried to keep them in the shade of the sail.  But it didn’t work, and his feet burned pretty badly.  So he wasn’t interested in joining me sailing for a few days.  I was very leery of a sunburn ruining my long-anticipated sailing, so I bathed in Coppertone 15 before every trip out and never burned.

Catamarans are fast boats, but they are pigs turning into the wind.  Every time we tried to tack, we managed to get stalled facing into the wind.  Since this boat is only 14 feet, it does not have a jib sail that would have helped to pull the boat on through the wind.  After two poor tacts, I decided that I would gibe from now on.  That means that I turn around downwind instead of turning around upwind.  With the wind no more than it is, gibing is not a problem.  Loses a little ground, but who's racing?  Later we learned that the best way to tack is for Darl to get the little paddle out and paddle us through the eye of the wind until the sails catch going the other way.

While we were sailing, the late morning sun was shadowed by the sail so we were mostly able to stay out of the direct sunlight.  The water temperature seemed cooler than the 83 degrees that the newspaper said.  It was great to drag our feet in the water while we zoomed along.  It seems a lot cooler out on the water than it does on shore.  The sand gets hot and reflects the sun.  But on the water (where I really belong) the cool breeze and the cool water combine to make life worthwhile.

Coming back from the lighthouse, the wind picked up some.  We tacked at a long angle slightly away from shore, winding up about a mile and a half out in the ocean right across from the house.  Then we turned once and caught a fresh breeze directly to the shore.  As we approached the shore, we were on a careful lookout for swimmers.  They don't like it much when you run over them with a 14 foot sailboat.  The wind died a little, and I was disappointed that we couldn't go faster than the waves and avoid the crashing waves altogether, but this little boat caught the surf perfectly, zipping down the face of the wave and before we knew it were we in 6 inches of water again.

We drug the boat up on the shore, tidied it up a bit and headed in for lunch.  When we got in the house, we found that everybody else has gone to the mall.  Well, that's the great thing about this vacation.  It has something for everyone and nobody has to entertain anybody.   Hey, while I'm out sailing, Sarah gets to visit with her sisters.  Then on a lark, the whole shebang of them decides to go to the mall.  No problem.  If you don't like sailing, then go shopping.  If you don't like swimming in the ocean, swim in the pool.  If you don't like walking in the surf, take a surfboard out.  If you don't like watching TV, listen to one of the 30 channels of digital music.  If you don't like jigsaw puzzles, read a good book.  Hey, we're here for a week ? do what you want to.

Tuesday July 18, 2000

Subject:  Dinner and a Lighthouse

Later in the afternoon, I took the sailboat out by myself.  I had a lovely hour and a half sail up Daytona Beach on a fast broad reach at about 15 miles an hour.  In only 25 minutes I had traveled about five miles.  Coming back close hauled was a good bit slower, but equally glorious.

I had promised to be back at four so I could clean up for dinner at Aunt Catfishes.  The wind was kind and I arrived about five minutes after four.  Darl and Will met me at the shoreline, and the three of us struggled to pull the boat the 75 yards to high ground.  We were wishing my sailing trips could conveniently end at high tide instead of low tide which would save us 50 of those yards.

Then it was time to clean up and head for dinner at Aunt Catfishes.  Yes, of course, they do serve catfish, but it is really a four-star seafood restaurant.  We arrived about 5:15 and had a 45-minute wait, but it was well worth it. During the wait, we listened to a street musician entertaining the crowd.  Darl, Will and I strolled out the boat dock and looked at the few small sailboats there.  We read the sign that warned about manatees and what to do if you accidentally hit one with a boat.

It was the perfect meal.  Cousin Kelly introduced herself and just treated us like... well, like kinfolks do.  The service was great and the meal was even better.  I had the Grilled Seafarers Special with tilapia, shark and BBQ shrimp.  Sarah had crab and Will had catfish.  I can’t remember what Darl, Pat and Dot had.  The salad bar was loaded with fresh delicacies and the hot bar featured stewed apples, baked beans and cornbread.  After a long day of sailing, Aunt Catfish’s was THE PLACE TO GO.

After dinner, we drove to Ponce De Leon Lighthouse at the end of the island.  The drive down took us past the ritzy section of town with fabulous mansions all along.  Yes, they were even more, in fact much more, fabulous than the one we are staying in.  We took a couple of pictures of the lighthouse and visited the gift shop that was filled with all lots of nautical novelties and the biggest lighthouse collection I ever saw.  But we were bothered with the no?see?ums, as Darl calls them, which were tiny biting flies, so we headed back home.

Back at the house, Sarah, Dot, and Darl went for a walk on the beach and Will rode a bike following them while I settled down to Darl's copy of Cruising World Magazine and picked out some big boats to dream about owning.  The walkers reported that the no-see-ums had made their way of the beach so they had cut their walk short.

Then we all settled down to our various reading with the Lite Classical music in the background.  The house provided an excellent library of reading materials, but we each had our own choices prepared.

Will has recently gotten interested in reading the Star Wars books.  There is a whole series that goes along with the movies and carries the themes before and after the movies.  Will’s father is really excited to see him reading - anything!

Sarah was reading one of Darl’s woodworking magazines and picking out various items she wants me to make for her.  But she also has along Maria by Eugenia Price and several magazines including a quilting magazine and Southern Living.

Dot brought a biography of Nelson Mandela and picked up My Story by Sarah Ferguson during the week at a garage sale.  She was also reading Mr. Pratt’s Patients, a book recommended by Carol for Sarah to read to us in the car.

Pat spent her free time with a counted cross-stitch Santa Claus.

And me.  I brought a truckload of books as usual.  I read all of Creekers, the biography of a lady who grew up near Pikeville, finished off Lila by Robert Persig, and read on Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brien (sailing book), Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Persig, Faith Seeking Understanding ( a theology book), and an ethics textbook I picked up at Lexington Theological Seminary.  Plus I read several of Darl’s magazines.

Darl came loaded with magazines.  He brought and read Woodshop News: For and about people who work with wood, Airline Pilot, Popular Mechanics, Woodworkers Supply, Rockler - woodworking and Hardware, Trendlines - tools and supplies for woodworking professionals and enthusiasts, Going Places - the magazine for today’s travers, and several issues of Aviation Week and Space Technology.  He was busy.

Pat hooked up her laptop to check the e-mail and found Mrs. Patterson on the AOL Instant Messenger.  So everybody took turns chatting with her back in Oklahoma.

It was a long, tiring day, so everybody turned in pretty early.

Wednesday  7/20/2000

Subject:  Turtle Patrol

Folks like us who vacation on the beach learn a lot, and I mean A LOT, about turtles.  Yup, sea turtles are big news around here.

On Wednesday, when we went for our early morning walk, we happened upon some strange tracks in the sand.  It was quickly obvious that they were sea turtle tracks.  They were about 2 feet wide so it was a good sized turtle, which we later learned was a loggerhead turtle.  The Turtle Patrol folks, (yes, they really do have such folks) said that the loggerhead is about the size of a dishwasher ? 300 lbs.  The tracks on the sand had some deep V shapes where the flippers dug in.  It had crawled all the way up to the top of the beach and laid eggs right in a walking path to the beach.  Well, that was just too bad for the people who planned to use that walking path.  The Turtle Patrol people stake off the nest and mark it with bright tape and a big sign that says, "$10,000 fine if you mess with this turtle nest!  So keep your cotton?picking human hands and feet to yourself and leave these poor, helpless, defenseless turtles alone."  Or something to that effect.

Around here turtles take precedence over people, which really aggravates Dot.  In fact, we learned that Dot was a strange mixture of turtle enthusiast and anti?turtle bureaucrat.  At lunch, she gave an eloquent tirade about how turtles were more important that PEOPLE around here.  Well, maybe she has a case.  Jeff, one of the owners of the house, said that they had to put extra?heavy?duty window tinting on the house so that the poor turtles would not get disoriented by the light coming from the house.  Apparently the turtle regulations are quite an aggravation for those who live by the beach.

And we have a turtle nest right at the foot of our dune walk (a wooden pathway that leads us over the also?more?important?than?humans dunes.  You did know that sea oats are endangered too, didn't you?)

So when the Turtle Patrol people came by yesterday (they drive by in a Jeep with big lettering on the side that says "Turtle Patrol."  Really, this is not just sermon talk, I'm telling the truth here!), Dot ran out on the dune walk and waved like crazy until they stopped.  Then she leaned over into their vehicle and got the whole scoop on all things turtle.

Turns out that we are very lucky because OUR turtle nest is a leatherback turtle nest, and there are only 2 of them out of the 70 nests on the beach.

"Do you know how big a leatherback turtle is?" Dot asked us upon returning from the Turtle Patrol.

"Big," we replied.

To which she knowingly pronounced, "They are the size of a Volkswagen!!!"  In fact, it turns out that they sometimes get 6 feet wide and weigh 1500 pounds.  Now that's a turtle that you don't want to meet up with in the middle of the night.

"And," continued the now turtle?expert Dot, "their eggs are the size of ping pong balls.  In fact, our nest is about ready to hatch.  If we see an indentation in the sand, that means that the young turtles are moving and during the night they will come out and crawl to the sea.  They go toward the sea because it is lighter than the land.  If somebody leaves lights on, the young turtles get disoriented and crawl the wrong way and die of dehydration or even get run over in the street."

So for the rest of the week, we carefully examined OUR leatherback turtle nest every time we passed it and got into arguments about whether there was an indentation or not.  If we had found an indentation, we planned to post sentries all through the night and wake up the whole clan to witness the return to the sea or the disaster on the asphalt, depending upon the disorientation of the babies.  Unfortunately, the turtles out waited us.

Well, Wednesday was rest day for me.  All that sailing on Tuesday wore me out, especially my back, which is sore now.  Hobbie Cats are built for speed, not for people.  You have to perch on that little webbing and guide the boat the best you can.  After six hours of crouching and squatting and leaning and pulling, this old 52-year-old body was protesting.  And after all that fun, you have to pull the sailboat up 75 yards across the sand to make sure the high tide doesn't claim it. It's all that Will, Darl and I can do to drag the boat to safety.  So I took a day off of sailing, which made everybody in the house suspicious that I was sick.  Dot kept asking, "Are you alright?  Do you have your liver disease?  Are you sticking to your diet?"  And stuff like that.  But the truth is I'm just terribly out of shape.  My normal workday consists of sitting in a well?padded chair.  All this exercise is a shock to my system.

We decided to go out for lunch instead of dinner.  The heat is oppressive from 11 to 3 so we would all just as soon stay indoors.  Plus the prices are cheaper at lunch.  So we went our separate ways for shopping before meeting at Sweetwater’s for lunch.  Darl and I checked out a West Marine store and a hobby shop, while the girls plus Will went to a quilt shop and a shopping center.  Service at Sweetwater’s was slow and the food so?so, except for Dot’s and Sarah's red snapper which was excellent.  Will's hamburger bun was burnt and the meat over?cooked.  But, hey, the view out the window over the Intercoastal Waterway was excellent.

In spite of Will’s many admonitions saying, “The door!  The door!  The electronics!  The electronics!” something got to Pat’s computer and scrambled her modem.  I don’t really think it was the salt air because, thanks to Will, we never left a door open for 10 seconds.  But her modem did quit working.  Since all of us were relying on her laptop and her local CompuServe number to keep in touch with the digital world out there, we were anxious about our one internet connection.

I took the situation in hand.  Upon discovering that Dot had her Macintosh laptop there, I quickly whisked her modem out and installed it in Pat’s computer.  Will insisted that it wouldn’t work because Pat’s laptop was a PC and Dot’s a Mac, but it did.  And for the rest of the week Dot moaned and groaned about her loss of her modem and predicted that it would never work again when and if I ever returned it to its proper home.  Later in the week, Darl and Pat went to Best Buy and purchased another and solved everybody’s modem problems.

During the afternoon, Will and I rode the waves on a surfboard.  Will mastered the challenge quickly, but I spent more time tumbling in the surf than riding victoriously on the top of the waves.

Thursday 7/21/2000

Subject: Perfect Sailing

Thursday, the sailing was PERFECT.  Just perfect.  I went out alone from 9 a.m. till 11.  First, I sailed to the horizon just like Truman did in the movie.  When I got out there, I touched that same wall he did, then returned.  I might have gone even further, but I realized I had forgotten my life jacket.  It was calm seas and all was well so I didn't worry much, but IF the boat had gone down, I would have had nothing to cling to.  So I headed back to shallower waters and whizzed back and forth up and down the beach going fast in a steady wind.  I tired of holding the tiller, which is a slick aluminum pole, so I rigged up a rope system so that I could sit on the front edge of the boat and drag my feet in the water.  If the boat needed to go a little different direction, I just tugged on the rope some.  It was SO GREAT!  Very pleasant wind, pleasant calm seas, and fast sailing with my feet dangling in the water like I was water-skiing.

During the afternoon while we were all in the swimming pool, the pelicans began soaring right over the pool.  They were catching the sea breeze bouncing up the dunes.  We must have seen a hundred or more gracefully and quietly gliding by just at housetop level.  Darl and I mounted the steps to the second floor balcony and got some great photos of the pelicans zooming by just 30 feet away.

All week, we enjoyed watching the pelicans fly around us.  They skim the water so closely that their wingtips occasionally touch the surf.  The one of them will race high up in the sky, spot an unwary fish and dive bomb it, crashing into the water at full speed.  Darl wondered how they keep from breaking their necks doing that.  Sometimes five or six of them will gracefully float along drafting one another in a straight line.  Dot was fascinated with the fact that the pelicans fly in a straight line instead of a V like geese do.  All week long she kept asking, “Why do they fly in a straight line?” but she never got a good answer.

For dinner, we returned to Aunt Catfish's place.  It was definitely the best we found.  Even at 4:45 there was a 35-minute wait.  So it had to be good if that many people waited that long.  I had exactly the same meal as before - grilled tilapia, grilled shark and 12 barbecue shrimp PLUS the all you can eat hot and cold salad bar.  They serve the MOST delicious cinnamon rolls with each meal.  Will always gets an extra from one aunt or the other.  He NEVER gets mine!  Dot bought an extra half-dozen to take home with us for breakfast the next day.

Friday, July 22, 2000

Subject: Daytona Flea Market

Early Friday morning, everybody but me hurried off to the Daytona Flea Market near the race track while I, lone venturer that I am, took the boat out for another nice long sail.  They returned long before I did and had a few purchases.  Will bought a model of an X-men figure, I believe, to put together.  He also bought a sack full of Star Wars books.  I am excited about his reading.

The ladies bought a bunch of fruit for supper.  I had one of the peaches for lunch.  Best peach I ever ate!

On my lone sailing venture, I took the sailboat down past the Ponce De Leon Lighthouse and through the inlet back to the Intercoastal Waterway.  I sailed close behind the multi?million dollar mansions with all their fancy docks and boats.  The wind blew pretty steady about 10 knots so it was pleasant sailing once again, but the ocean rollers were coming in big today.  So getting through the surf out to the ocean was an even bigger challenge.

Once while on the Intercoastal, I saw a big fish right near my boat cutting through the water with a four-inch fin sticking up.  He swirled around a bit and then disappeared.  Back on the ocean side, I saw a flying fish skim the water near the boat.

It was a lovely four?hour sailing trip from 8:30 till 12:30.  There's nothing better, but it is exhausting.  Especially pulling the boat back up on the beach.  It's just all two people can do to move it and by the time we get it far enough up the beach to avoid high tide, I am exhausted.

7/23/2000

Subject: Crabby Toes

Saturday started early with Darl and I going for another nice long sailing trip down to the Ponce De Leon Inlet.  The winds blew steady from the southeast, and we made the inlet in about an hour.  Then we sailed through the cut and down the Intercoastal the other way from where I went earlier in the week.  We saw 20 or 30 sailboats, pontoon boats, and lots of big fishing boats.  Coming back through the cut, Darl told me to avoid "that big rock over there."  When we looked closer we realized that it was a huge sea turtle with lots of barnacles on its back.  It must have been four feet across.  Big turtle.

While we were sailing, the ladies went to several garage sales around the island.  They came back with a Santa bowl, My Story by Sarah Ferguson and a papasan chair for Will.

Not long after I got back from sailing, Will challenged me to a surfing contest.  So, dutiful Father that I am, I trudged off to the beach where Will showed me how to do it.  I tumbled in the surf a lot.  But once, while waiting for a wave, a crab decided to feast on my toes!  After that I danced constantly in the water to avoid another crab bite.

For dinner we went to Down the Hatch at the end of the island near the lighthouse.  We enjoyed red snapper, grouper, and shrimp while watching the boats return from fishing.  Also a big four?decker casino boat returned unloading passengers.

Sunday, July 23, 2000

Subject: Drive-In Church

Sunday morning we went to the Drive?in Christian Church on the island.  Now that was an experience!  As we drove through the gates, the friendly attendants greeted us and gave us the old?time window speakers like they used in old drive?ins and six little cups for communion.  The communion cups had the crust of bread under the first lid and then the juice under a second one. Since we did not have a dog, we didn’t get the doggie biscuit.  I don’t know if that was to keep the dog quiet during the service for if it was intended to be part of communion.  Don’t know about the theology behind serving dogs at communion.

We went to the early service at 8:30, and there were about 150 cars there.  The bulletin showed that they usually have a few more cars at the early service than at the late service.  Darl says most folks probably come early to avoid the heat.  Dot decided it would be too hot in the car so she watched the service from Fellowship Hall, which was converted from the projection room for the old drive?in.  The front of the Fellowship Hall had lots of glass so Dot and the eleven others with her could watch from the air conditioning.  After the special music, the folks who wanted to say "Amen" or  applaud knew they couldn't be heard so they politely tapped their horns.  The horns echoed their version of "Amen, Hallelujah" and applause all over the drive?in church.  The ushers came by with golf carts to pick up the offering then carried them to the front.  At the end of the service, the minister, still in his robe, road a golf cart from the front through the crowd stopping to speak to folks and making his way to Fellowship Hall where they would have Sunday School.  Interesting experience.

We mostly took it easy for the rest of the day ? reading, napping, and watching TV.  Oh, except Will and me.  He challenged me to a game of Pirate Cove Putt Putt Golf, so we played a couple of rounds in the heat of the day.  But that was fun too.

Late in the evening we took one last long walk down the beach to the pier and back.  The late evening at low tide was a perfect time for walking barefoot in the surf.