Special Day.
Ty’s special day with Jay and Memaw was a success! When they dropped Lily off at school, Ty had to tell everyone he wasn’t going to be at school because they were going to the beach. They went to a beach that has an inflatable playground on the water. It took Ty a while to get up the courage to play, so he and Memaw walked the beach a bit first.

The picture below was taken from the web. There were no other kids there, so Ty was able to get help from the lifeguards and wasn’t rushed by big kids. Jay said he did a great job.

They headed down to our favorite beach – Rainbow Bay. When Jay stopped to fill up with fuel, he glanced at a newspaper that said a huge (3.5 meter = 12 ft) great white shark had been caught near Rainbow Bay just hours before the Roxy Pro Surf competition. What? Sharks? Surf competition? Be there in a jiffy!

They had set up all sorts of stages and vendors on the beach. The swells weren’t great on Friday, so they delayed the competition until Monday. But they still had music blaring from a huge stage on the beach. Ty ran from rock pool to rock pool while Memaw watched the continuous stream of surfers. Just as it was about time to pack up and head home, a guy got on stage and said that at 4:30 Jimmy Buffett may or may not get on stage and play a free concert. What?!?!

Ugh. I am so bummed that I was at work, didn’t spend the day at the beach, and wasn’t there with Lily so that we all could have stayed for the concert. Nuts!! Turns out that Jimmy did actually play. Sigh….

When we all got home, we fixed the pizzas, threw them in the oven, and went for a bike ride. Ty is so super fast now.

We watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory before calling it a night.

Saturday.
We started the day with the normal swim lessons, then we packed up the boat to take Memaw to Couran Cove. This was my view from the back of the boat.

It was a little windy, on the cooler side, so there wasn’t much boat traffic. We cruised along until we got to the Broadwater and picked up the pace. We were moving right along and Jay saw fins ahead. First thought was sharks. But then we saw dolphins!!! There were 5 or 6 of them, splashing in and out of the wakes. So freaking awesome.

We parked at Couran and went to the pool restaurant. Ty couldn’t wait to try out the new snorkel gear that Memaw got for him (he tried it on first thing in the morning).

After lunch Memaw watched the kids while Jay and I went for a kayak ride. We saw a little water snake on the beach (ewww!), and then while we were out paddling away, we saw a stingray!!! It was around 1 foot diameter. So stinking cool!

We caught the 2:00 tram to the other side of the island so we could show Memaw the beach. I don’t think I will ever get tired of the view there. Breathtaking. Sherry said she had never seen anything like it.

We were walking along the beach and came across hundreds of perfect seashells. I haven’t ever seen so many in one place. We picked up quite a few to take home.

In the same area where all of the seashells had washed ashore, there was what looked like a big, smooth, gray rock. Jay used his foot to try to flip it over. He jumped back when he realized it wasn’t a rock… It was a jellyfish! Jay and Ty got a stick to flip it over. It appeared to be dead, but Ty wanted Jay to try to save its life and put it back in the ocean. He was able to pick it up with the stick and throw it out to sea. If it lives, I hope it chooses not to kill someone. :).

On our way back home, we saw a wallaby on the banks getting a drink of water. About halfway home we came across nearly a dozen kangaroos getting a drink. So fun!

Big Boat.
Our neighbor with the big boat is back. If you look back a few posts, you may recall what the cable guy told us was his profession. Another version of the story came from our next door neighbor. She said that he made his money from Viagra (so related to the first story). He has homes in several different places. His crew takes the boat to all if the places and he flies his own jet. Think about how many men are out there who needed this guy’s services…

Rest.
It is Saturday evening. I think we are all kind of waiting for 8:00 so we don’t feel too bad about going to bed. The sun sucks the energy right out of us! G’day mates!