Critters

 Dauphin Island is home to lots of critters.

The most frequent visitor was the heron.

They were not afraid of humans at all.

There were 2 of them that the kids named Gerald and Brad.

The first two days we were there, the mosquitos were plentiful too!  Dauphin had had lots of rain the week before we got there and there was standing water in the ditches.  So the 'Skeeter plane was deployed!  Luckily, it took care of the problem.

There were sandpipers of various kinds.

Have you ever watched the cutest, most "adorablest" Disney Pixar movie about the sandpiper?

You can purchase this movie from YouTube.

Of course pelicans! Always lots of those!

And of course, seagulls!

I saw one hawk.  In Kansas, they are plentiful!!

Lots of crabs!

Almost every evening after dark, you will find kids out "crabbing".

Letting them go!

There were little hermit crabs too.

The kids were happy to find empty shells to collect.  

And we saw one little shrimp!

Supposedly there are manatees.  

Look what else there were plenty of?

When we went to the west end of the island, Adam helped Jill across as she was afraid of getting stung.  We told the kids to be sure to shuffle in the sand so the stingrays would scoot away!

Unfortunately, August isn't the best time to come swimming at Dauphin as there were also LOTS of jellies.  Ugh.

Sophie was first to get stung.

Eli got stung too.  In fact, each of the kids got stung, and Claire twice.

Luckily Nurse Staci had just the concoction for it.  Meat tenderizer, baking soda, crushed aspirin and ocean water.  Make a paste of it and let it sit for awhile.  We then add lidocaine to numb it.  It worked great!

Whenever we saw one, we'd remove it so we wouldn't step on it or get stung.

One year, there were lots of sharks.  I suppose they were still there but I didn't see any. There was a guy down the way who was fishing and caught a 4' one.  We've been told they don't bite humans. ??  "I don't know about that!" (said in the voice on the Alexa commercial.) 

Here is a picture of Hannah back in 2014 when she caught one!

We saw dolphins every day.  

On the last day, we saw one up close when we went out on a pontoon.

Each day we would see schools of fish that would jump out of the water.  I never did catch a picture of that.  They jumped too fast!  We saw these little tiny pencil thin fish.  Almost look like green beans but they were definitely swimming about!

People would walk their dogs.  Our kids chose to leave their dogs at home but the kids sure missed their pooches.

"How many are Your works, O Lord!

    In wisdom You made them all;

    the earth is full of Your creatures.

There is the sea, vast and spacious,

    teeming with creatures beyond number -

    living things both large and small."

                                Psalm 104:24-25

Riding the Waves

Of course one of the best things about going to Dauphin Island is riding the waves!

Let's go surfing now                                                                                       Everybody's learning how                                                                                       Come on on safari with me!

The waves weren't quite big enough to surf like that, but we had fun, nevertheless.  Don't you love the sound of the waves crashing shore?

We had several floaties.  This year we bought a ramen floatie.  Isn't it hilarious?

The first couple of days, Eli was not able to go under water as he was recovering from an ear infection.  We were happy he eventually was well enough to get his head all wet!

We had 3 innertubes that can connect to one another if you want.

Our dolphin floatie.

If this dolphin had come closer, he'd have found a friend!

We also had a unicorn floatie.

These floaties also served as resting places.

Each day, a group would head out to the sand bar.

From land, you could see if they were far enough to have reached it (there is a change in the water color) and someone on land would raise arms to show they had arrived.

One guy thought they were in trouble.  He came to us.  "Are they ok?  Can they all swim?!"  We assured him they were all good swimmers.  Guess he was still worried because he swam out there with extra life saving equipment.

Adam reassured him.  Glad there are people out there that were concerned.  There are sometimes people who drown, perhaps caught in a rip tide.  A woman my age had drowned the month before.  We have taught the kids what to do if caught in one.  When I was 6, I was caught in one and it was so frightening!  My older brother shouted from shore and directed me on how to get out of it.

It may not seem that they are that far out, but check out their head sizes in this photo.  

Coast guard fly overhead regularly.