At some point in the pre-dawn hours I woke up to the sound of rain and thought, "Oh well the front came early and the it will be a crappy day". I rolled over and went back to sleep. Woke up around 7:45 or so. Originally we had planned to go paddling in the morning, however, it was overcast and looked like rain. On top of that the closest place to launch the SUP was at least a 1/4 mile walk from the camp site. Even though our site backed up on the Intercoastal Waterway there were no holes in the bushes big enough to get down to the water. I check every site on the river side. Also, aside from high 50s and drizzle, what I could see through the bushes was pretty marshy and full of mud and tall plants.
Lucy had read the ranger activity list for the month and there was a 10AM talk about bees at the pavillion so we decided to opt for that. I had also been in contact with a co-worker from the mid-90s that now lived only 15 minutes from the park. He left FL in the late '90s for Silicon Valley and we haven't seen each other since (although we re-connected on FB a few years ago). He said that he and his wife would be by in the early afternoon.
The bee talk was good, we learned a few things about honey bees which was good info as our flowers and passion fruit vines at home attract a good many bees. By the time the talk was over the clouds were breaking up and it looked like a good afternoon ahead.
We took a walk past the boat ramp where the shore was accessible and explored a bit as the tide was low inside.
View looking west across the ICW toward an undeveloped wetland just north of the Bulow Plantation. Still alot of high overcast but it was burning off. A long stretch of undeveloped land in this area.
We both found live Welks on the shore line that were stranded by the tide. We helped them out and tossed them a little further out to help their odds against the shorebirds.
As we had a couple of hours before our guests arrived, we pedaled over to check out the surf. Cleaner that the day before (west wind) but also smaller. Not very rideable. I saw a surfer out to the north about 3 or 400 yards so we pedaled up to the snack shack and watched him catch a few marginal knee high dirbblers. We then did a little tour of the neighborhood as I have been looking at properties in this area for a decade (Wish I had the $$$ 10 years ago!)
Saw a house I lhad seen on Zillow and was surprised how much smaller it was in real life! Watching the clock we then pedaled back to the park to await our guests. You can see it cleared up and we had a wonderful sunny afternoon around 70 degrees.
Spending a few hours with my previous supervisor from my software development days was great fun. Catching up and hearing of each others adventures over the past 25+ years I realize we have quite a bit in common (no wonder why he was a great boss, we understood each other!). Detlef had told me back in the early '90s when I worked for him, "I work to live, not live to work!" We worked hard at the company, but time off was exatctly that. Get away from it all and enjoy life. I have embraced that mantra and will continue to do so with this trip as a perfect example.
Saturday's Dinner was Chili Lime Chicken skewers with couscous and salad, followed by a pallet of wood for entertainment. I was quite liberal with the fire logs as I figured tomorrow would be a washout..
In making sure we had enough wood for the next day (we did), we retired around 10:30 to the coach and enjoyed the musical stylings of Beatmaster Tommy and Hugo the rhythm equine.
The anticipated rain was still hours off when we went to bed....
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