marine biologists

The ocean was extremely calm today. Knowing we were going to spend the afternoon indoors painting pottery, we went down to the beach early. We got there about 9 a.m. It's amazing how different the ocean is today! We've had medium sized waves most days of our vacation but it was completely FLAT today! We floated, almost motionless, for about an hour. Although I had fun riding the waves in the stormy sea yesterday, I also thoroughly enjoyed floating lazily this morning! Two totally different, but equally wonderful experiences!

After about an hour we returned to the beach and relaxed for a bit in the sand. I read while Colleen played with her phone and Kyra sunbathed on her float. Of course the girls are only 10 and have a short attention span, so thirty minutes later they were bored and I was getting tired of hearing every possible ringtone option for Colleen's phone. So, I suggested we go out into the ocean one more time before lunch.

The first time we were in the ocean the girls simply enjoyed seeing the fish. The second time we went out it begame an exploration. We spotted a crab in the ocean near the shore. We watched it for a while and noticed it wasn't moving other than with the slight motion of the ocean. Colleen, being the braver of the two girls, nudged it with her foot and it didn't do anything. She tried again and no reaction. So we decided it must be dead. She then picked it up and had fun playing with it. Kyra wouldn't go near it at first and I don't think she ever touched it, although it was definitely dead. Colleen had fun holding it and making it salute, etc. We looked at it's googly eyes, counted its joints, etc. We had fun with Mr. Dead Crab as long as the attention span lasted. Then it was on to another adventure. We saw these tiny fish in the sea as we were floating. Colleen caught two in her goggles. There were many more and the girls wanted a collection. So Kyra ran back up to the hotel pool and brought back two plastic water cups. These little fish tended to be found with seaweed. So they captured seaweed to store in the cup with the baby fish that they caught. I think by the end they had collected five of these fish. In the other cup, the placed the tiny pink jellyfish. We saw quite a few of these, but they only captured one. It was very pretty. I added to the collection by dropping in sand and a shell. Now we had our very own, free, salt-water aquarium. (Don't worry, we'll release them later.) The girls had originally wanted to go to the Pottery Bar as soon as it opened, but we had such a great time floating in the ocean and catching creatures that painting pottery slipped their mind. We had been out in the ocean for hours. When my stomach was growling loudly and my arms were starting to burn, I suggested we head in for a shower. They brought the "salt water aquariums" up to our room.

We showered and then went to Zaxby's for lunch and then went to the Pottery bar. There was a large group of young children in the back half for what I'm guessing was a party. I asked the assistant if they could mail our items to us since we are leaving tomorrow. After he said yes, we began exploring the shelves of options to paint. Kyra selected a dog figurine, Colleen selected a flip-flop trinket box, and I chose a fish shaped spoon holder. Kyra painted her dog to match Colleen's real puppy, Bruce, a rottweiler. It was CUTE! I picked my base color, a sparkle light blue, and painted 4 coats. While waiting on it to dry, I got a piece of paper to plan my design. I knew I wanted to paint dots, and fins, but knew it needed something more. Kyra suggested a chinese symbol in the middle. I went to the stencil box and found only a few. Kyra said I should use the symbol for Energy to help me run the marathon. GENIUS!!! So my fish spoon holder has a tattoo for Energy in the middle. AWESOME! (See July 27 blogposts for finished photos).

After we finished painting pottery, we decided to return to the beach. The girls went back into the ocean while I sat on the beach. I went back to the pool deck to get a drink and when I returned, they were in the calm water and I noticed a cup with an algae/seaweed blob in it by my towel. It's hard to tell from this photo, but the creature looked like a flying dinosaur. Weird! What an amazing day for sea exploration / marine biology! Kyra was fading and Colleen was still full of life. While Colleen was still in the ocean, Kyra laid on the beach. In hindsight, I'm pretty sure Kyra's problem was blood sugar crash. She laid down on the beach and said she felt bad. I was pretty sure she just needed to eat something.
Little did we know that this would be premonition. Kyra eventually got up and we were playing in the sand and talking about our evening plans. The next thing we know, two men from the hotel are talking to a woman who is lying face down in the sand a few yards away from us. We hadn't noticed her before. The one man from the hotel asked her a few questions, said someone had noticed her at the pool bar earlier, and they wanted to help her get back to her hotel room. They held her up and carried her stuff as she stumbled between them and talked with a slur. The girls said, "wow, she must be really drunk". I felt sorry for the woman and was grateful to be sober with these amazing girls.

The girls wanted to watch the Polynesian dancing again, although it was the exact same show they have seen before. So, we didn't have time to go out to eat. We decided to eat food that we had brought with us. While they were watching the show, I went upstairs and came back with turkey, fruit, chips and drinks. We enjoyed eating while watching the movie Ice Age. And here is yet again, another beautiful sunset at Panama City Beach!