rainy, with a touch of tropical storm

Today's been kind of a touch-and-go day in terms of the weather. It was really windy and rainy this morning -- the palm trees were whipping around pretty energetically. And it has rained off and on all day long thanks to Tropical Storm Debby. But this morning, after we had a leisurely breakfast of pancakes and sausage at the cottage, we ventured out for a walk and collected seashells. There are a bunch of very large conch shells on display here (like, just laying around where you would expect to find knickknacks) so the boys have been very disappointed to not just find them laying around everywhere they go. But we did collect quite a few lovely small ones, and we'll fill a jar with them to display once we get home.

There was another, longer break in the rain (though not the clouds) after lunch, so we went out for a longer visit to the beach. The boys were really into waiting for the waves to roll in, splashing around, building sand castles, and, of course, collecting yet more seashells. This time they filled their pockets with shells, along with plenty of beach mud. Lucky for us the cottage has a washer and dryer! We stayed out there until we were all soaking wet and tired, then came back up to the cottage for a full round of showers.

We decided to go out for dinner tonight, and picked a place on the Back River called A-J's Dockside. It's kind of a funky place -- Mike said it looked ramshackle from the front -- with incredible food. We are determined to try some regional cuisine on this trip, and to expose the boys to it (did I mention that we stopped at a BBQ place in Tennessee?), so I vetoed Liam's request for wings for our appetizer. Instead, we went with deviled crab (so good!) and boiled shrimp (so good! and so messy!) to share. Full confession: We did let Max get a hot dog and fries for his dinner, but only because we want him to eat and he is notoriously picky. But he did try a little of everything. We stuffed ourselves with shrimp and scallops and flounder with remoulade, which I had read about but never tried -- once we get home, I am definitely learning how to make that at home!

We ate outside, and that bird in the photo above was tormenting our fellow diners during the whole meal. We thought the whole thing was pretty funny, but there was a woman who was super furious that a bird would dare fly near her. She was lucky it didn't give her a special deposit the way she was squawking every time it entered her airspace! For us, it was free entertainment -- dinner and a show.

By the time we got back from dinner, Henry was pretty wiped out, but it was low tide so Mike took Liam and Max and headed back down to the beach to try to go out farther to find better shells. They got some good ones, but no giant conchs. Oh well, at least we still have tomorrow! And it looks like there might be a break in the weather, which would be wonderful. Stay tuned!