A Day at Turtle Beach and the Orange Octopus

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Jo continued to sleep the afternoon away. My mom and dad decided to make the short drive to Turtle Beach, so Oliver and I joined them. Turtle Beach is still in the midst of clean-up from the Red Tide, which is the algae bloom close to shore that killed lots of sealife. There are trashbags littering the beach, filled with dead fish. The whole beach reeked. That didn't deter us, though!

Oliver is hilarious. He enjoys finding seashells and rocks and hurling them back into the ocean. As he throws them, he yells random things, like, "Gesundheit!", "I don't like rules!", "Uncle Scott!", and "Peanut butter and jelly sandwich!" We let him throw to his heart's content. My mom and I collected more shells (Turtle Beach is great for seashell combing).

When we had enough of the sun and the fish stank, we decided to get some lunch. We made a quick stop at our bungalows to pick up Andrew and Jo, and then we went to the north side of the island to eat. I spotted a place called Anna's Deli. We enjoyed some egg salad sandwiches (Andrew, my dad, and me), turkey and cheese sandwiches (Oliver and Jo), and a tuna salad sandwich (my mom). They were all a hit. From there, we walked about half a block north to grab an ice cream cone from The Orange Octopus. It's a shop filled with fun, old candy like the paper reams of dots and Cowtails. They had a good selection of ice cream. One was called "Gator Tracks" instead of "Moose Tracks" that most people are familiar with. I selected a half scoop of chocolate (so good! Joanna agreed) and a half scoop of espresso chip (so-so). Oliver chose chocolate ice cream with Reese's Pieces on top. My dad had a vanilla cone, and Andrew got a scoop of peanut butter fudge. Everyone enjoyed it, but no one liked the ice cream more than Joanna, as you can see from her photo.

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Photos

Turtle Beach
This is a great beach for finding shells, but it currently reeks of dead fish. All of those garbage bags are filled with the bodies of fish that died from the Red Tide.

Throwing Shells Back into the Sea
Oliver collects shells and throws them into the ocean.

The Sand Goes, Too!
Oliver is hurling sand into the ocean after running out of shells to throw.

Strolling Turtle Beach
Turtle Beach is a very quiet beach. It seems like it's mostly locals there, but there were a few other tourists combing for seashells.

The Orange Octopus
For ice cream, of course!