We had company!

I love company. I love having people stay with us and showing them about our town. Now, I am not overly in love with the city where we live. Don't get me wrong, I like it but that's about as far as it goes. Every now and then all the pieces come together to make for a great day. Luckily we had a few of those when Dirty's dad and his girlfriend came to visit. (By the way, thanks for the game suggestions. We didn't end up needing them, but I bought Blokus for my dad and it is great. I am getting one for us to. Boy, do we get the smack talk flying on that game...)

{A great day for the beach}

Lately it has been hot here. Not only hot, but humid, too. The weather people like to tell us the "feels like" temperature. The "feels like" temperature in the summer is similar to a wind chill factor in the winter. For example, growing up I would hear, "... 28 degrees but with the wind chill it is 15 degrees." Here, we get to hear, "...and a high of 98 degrees with a 'feels like' temperature of 105 degrees. 100% humidity and a UV rating of 11." That means it takes about 5 minutes for fair skin to sunburn if no protection is worn.

{Sea Gull, you may not eat our bait}

We were a little worried that our guests would be too hot to be outside longer than it takes to walk to the car. They were troopers and I think they were still unthawing from the winter and didn't notice quite how hot it was.

{Random lady wading under the pier}

Dirty, his dad and I have traditions when we visit each other. We go to flea markets (the more the better), hole-in-the-wall breakfast joints, Asian buffets with crab legs and sushi and delicious homemade dinners. It was a really great visit and we like the new girlfriend (I'm teaching her to knit!).

{Fishing and wading in the water}

We went to the beach a couple of times. First to the shell-y beach for sharks' teeth and shell hunting then to the fishing/swimming beach for fishing and swimming. Amazingly the water was very calm and clear. Usually our water is a little more murky. We could walk out to shoulder deep water and still see our feet. Which was good, because on one ill fated cast I lost my whole rig but was able to find it thanks to the clear water, diligent searching and bright orange beads.

{Surf fishing}

We didn't have so much as a bite on our lines, but we saw an osprey catch a fish so big he couldn't hold on to it in flight and nearly got attached by sting rays. I saw one swimming in the water by Dirty and warned him about it. He saw it and said there was a school of them swimming towards him. He is always cool, calm and collected so he just stood still and they all swam around him. One swam towards me and I freaked out! I screamed and tried to run away (not easy in waist deep water). Then I threw my fishing pole at it like an idiot. Dirty laughed hysterically at me and I heard his dad and his girlfriend laughing from the shore. I must have looked ridiculous! =]