Beach Day

---

The weather was really chilly last night but the sun was bright in the morning and promised to warm the day quickly. After our early routine we had oatmeal pancakes for breakfast and by 11am we were off to the beach. We ended up going to Venice Beach, a little farther south, but we were told it was the best place for shells, and we needed to collect shells. We drove most of the way on back two lane roads and saw so many strawberry farms and cattle ranches and orange groves. The land is flat and the road was straight so we motored along over 60 mph.



We found public parking very close to the beach and picked our spot on the beach behind a dune as it was windy and a little chilly. The sea is a beautiful blue/green and was wavy from the wind, it made a really beautiful picture. Pat headed out looking for shells, I sat in a chair enjoying the view. The shell picking was sparce, too many beat us to it. There were people searching for shark teeth, they scoop up a bunch of sand from the tide line and put the sand in a screen box that they put in the water and sift the sand out. I guess the pickings were scarce there too, but several people were working at it.



We left the beach and made it home in time for cocktails, cheese and the rocket launch. A rocket carrying the DSCOVR satalite was launched at 6:03 tonight and we SAW it. The launch was from Cape Canaveral and I am about 75 miles from Tampa, pretty incredible it was visible from that distance. Picture.



We ate leftovers for dinner and had a quiet evening. Another big day planned for tomorrow.

---