visiting a bar

Our first day in Florida, as a pre-wedding activity, all of the guests who were already at the beach cottages were transported to a bar...by boat. Several boats in fact. We played in the sand, had a picnic lunch and hung around the bar. A sand bar!

To me...there is nothing quite like the relaxation and calmness that I feel when my feet are on sand.

I tend to get a little dizzy though, because I'm always looking down, watching my feet squish the sand looking for ocean treasures, and watching out for that one wave that catches you off guard and almost knocks you over! There weren't any waves crashing towards us, but there were some treasures to be found.

The non-Florida-natives were doing a lot of this:

    Niece.

                      Sister.

                              Mother.

                                     Looking for treasure in the sand is hereditary I guess.

                              Others had walked the sand before us leaving their tracks.

My sister and niece had wandered over to another area of the sand bar and my niece was soon waving for me to come their direction. I could tell they had found something good by the way she was smiling!

Sure enough...right here on the highest point of the sand bar they had found...

this...

How cool is that? On the sand...in the middle of a sand bar!

A nest with five big eggs!  We were doing a lot of speculating as to what kind of bird these eggs belonged to. There were seagulls flying around over our heads, so we figured perhaps a seagull nest. But the eggs were pretty large. Pelican? No, I think they lay their eggs up high. 

The seagull made the most sense, especially because this one was keeping a very close eye on us.

But then the guys came over to get a look at the nest and they said they had seen some ducks fly up from that area when they had walked through earlier. And yes, by the size, we all agreed...duck eggs. 

After we walked away, I turned around one more time and sure enough, these two had landed off in the  distance and were just waiting for us to leave.

A nest on a sand bar.

Treasures.