Myrtle 4

The history of January 4th continues. As we walked back down the beach and neared our place of stay, we came upon the freshwater stream that adjoins the condo. It is a fair sized stream that flows from the marsh into the ocean. A large number of gulls were again gathered near or in the water and many were splashing around, in spite of the temp, they were having a good ole time bathing together.

We were out a little over an hour, giving mostly equal time to walking, sauntering and meandering across the sand. Our speed might have been a little heavy on the meandering side because I have to pause and ponder many things along the way. At whatever speed, I’m sure the salt air didn’t hurt us. It was good exercise that was either invigorating or refreshing, and maybe both.

We went back inside and set about to do the difficult job of relaxing for the rest of the afternoon. That night a very unusual thing happened, I went to bed before midnight, in fact, it was shortly after ten – unheard of for me. Another unusual thing happened Saturday morning (Jan 5th), I saw the first sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean that I had seen in many years. Early is not my usual getting up time.

There were low bands of scattered clouds in the east and this made the entire horizon turn a bright pink. I had forgotten that one could actually see the sun’s movement as this brilliant ball of red rises – absolutely beautiful. I went out on the raised walkover to the beach to drink in the scenery – albeit briefly since it was 24F. There was a whole congregation of gulls back along the fresh water stream and at the edge of the ocean, just standing around socializing. The only sounds to be heard were the crashing of the waves and the squawking of gulls.

The gulls were multitudinous that day but the buoys were not to be seen – slight play on words there. There was a group of some type of seabird a short ways out that looked to be feeding all in one spot. My guess would be that they ended the existence of many small fish that day. The cold started creeping around the edges of my jacket so I went back inside to warm up.

This was our going home day so we ate a bite of b’fast and started gathering together our luggage and such. We loaded the van, checked out and went up to Tanger Outlet Mall to give the Spice another chance to look around some before we headed back home. My feet complain rather quickly when it comes to meandering on the hard concrete, so I stayed in the van and did crossword puzzles and she was to call me when she tired of this enterprise.

After a good while, I got the urgency to go see a man about a dog and checked in with the Spice on my way to the necessary room. After the little room we met up for a couple of shops and since she was nearing a winding down point, I headed back to the van to be at her beck and call. I picked her up and we went over to the Steak n’ Shake for a bite to eat before leaving. We had shakes with our meal, these were the shakes that were once beyond comparison but now have to play second fiddle to those of Chik-fil-A because they have them beat.

We came on home with a minimum of ado and just one pit stop for the van and us. Made it home in just less than 4 hours, got the van unloaded and finally sat down in my favorite chair – too much activity for this old codger. I felt blessed by the safe trip, the chance to get away with my favorite lady, the opportunity to see different parts of God’s creation and a home to come back to – God is good. ec