A Quiet Beach Day

 We had nothing special planned today so we improvised and visited some places we liked in the past.

Our day started with a 2 mile beach walk.  We spotted this Valentine's Day leftover, and I could not resist getting a picture of my Valentine standing inside it.   On the right is a picture (click to enlarge) showing the intense beach erosion.  In the past, some group had the foresight to build the brick breakwater which protected the beach behind it.  But on this side, erosion from this year's hurricanes was pretty severe.  Many wooden ramps which allowed people walk to the beach in this section were washed away. 

While walking, I spotted the unusual shell on the left; one shell with some smaller shells stuck to it!  Speaking of shells, this is a great beach for a shell collector.  It is very hard to walk this beach without crunching them, as you can see on the right.  You definitely need some beach shoes to walk in this area!

After lunch we headed for the Seaside Seabird Sanctuary.  It's a rescue place for injured seabirds and has a large number of bird enclosures on site, separated by type of bird.  And there are lots of other birds hanging around like this fellow on the right.  Many of the enclosures have high roofs so the birds can fly around inside them.  They even had a bald eagle and several owls.

After the sanctuary we did some shopping at John's Pass Village before having supper at Mad Beach Craft Brewing.  After we got back to our condo we headed out to watch a beautiful, cloudless sunset.

Tomorrow we are headed to Sarasota for dinner with fellow DTE retirees Irene Chmura and John Olson with John's wife, before going to a Jim Curry Band concert in Sarasota.