A Mother's Day Adventure!

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” 
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

I decided when I got up this morning I was going to make today a little different and go on an adventure! I have lived here for over 42 years and have never explored the beaches! I have been once or twice when my parents took family visiting from the midwest, but never to shell, and never on my own! I went all the way over to VA Beach several times, when I was in High School, before I got the shelling bug! I have read on facebook from people who are local, and also had a friend mention that there is sea glass here, which is completely different from anything we find at Sanibel! So I studied google maps and decided to head out around 8:00 to see what I could find! Where we live is not really on the ocean, it is the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay!

I drove through a fairly new housing area and found the entrance to a small stretch of beach....

 This old tree was right near the entrance, I thought immediately that it had a story to tell...turns out I was right! See the sign hanging on the lower right branch?

GVI stands for Grand View Island

I noticed right away the beach was very rocky!

 ...and there were small pieces of angel wings in there!!

 ...and of course there are always slipper shells, wherever you go!!

I slowly walked to the end of this beach, and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful day and my new adventure, picking up a few things, and started finding Sea Glass!! I even found 2 aqua pieces!! 

When I got to the end, I noticed something in the sand, I noticed the 'aroma' first...this creature was 8 feet long or so, and I didn't want to get too close....for several reasons....I didn't know what it was, it didn't smell very good, there were ghost crabs all around it....and it was 8 feet long!! I don't know if it is a land or sea creature but I am going to have to investigate this! The head has been removed so I don't know where to start, and it has a long tail....What do you think it is??

It was very freaky! Looks like a sea monster to me!! 

After I left there, I drove around along the coast and found this quaint little marina, and couldn't resist snapping a picture. I caught this Great Blue Heron in flight, wish I had zoomed in a bit.

When I got home, I took some pics of my new finds....some are very familiar!!

A Wentletrap! 

A Channeled Whelk

Angel Wings!!

I'm gonna have to look this guy up....don't know what it is 

Razor Clams

False Angel Wings...

...and sea glass! 

Aqua Sea Glass

Green Sea Glass

White Sea Glass

Here they all are after I cleaned them up ....Except I broke one of the angel wings :(

I WILL be doing this again!! I hope you enjoyed going on this little adventure with me!! It sure is good therapy!

I hope you all have a Happy Mother's Day this weekend.

::Hugs::

Cheri

UPDATE:I found out that my 'sea monster' is actually an Atlantic Sturgeon, they have become endangered here in the bay, and apparently travel through here in April and May headed in to the James or York river to spawn. Here is a link for more information!

Beautiful Babies!!

A Baby will make Love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for" ~Unknown

Hubby and I had a great weekend! We FINALLY made it to the Big Apple to see our Grandbabies!! We decided to make it an adventure and jumped on the train and got to see a little bit of the big cities along the way!

The Beginning of our journey, Friday am

Washington DC, the Washington and Jefferson Memorials

Empire State building, NYC

The Freedom Tower!

We got there Friday evening after the trip up the coast on the train, subway and then a short city bus ride and walk!! We were so happy to see them, and I think they were happy to see us, though the little ones, Twins, Ava and Dylan just saw us as strangers at first. It was a lot of fun getting to know them, and letting them get to know us!! I am ashamed to admit that they are nearly a year and a half old and we haven't seen them in person before!! I know, I know we are terrible Grandparents!

Dylan and Ava

We have four Grandbabies, the oldest is Hailey, she is adorable, smart and so helpful to her Mommy taking care of the family! She loves to do crafts, read and already seems like a grown up at the age of 7!

Hailey with brother Dylan and her Dad, Jon! 

Beautiful Hailey

Next is Chloe, she is beautiful and favors her sister Hailey and right now is addicted to all things "Frozen", you know the Disney movie that came out in November?? She will soon be 5 and will be going to school full time with Hailey in the fall! She loves to color!

Beautiful Chloe

We spent the weekend doing family time, going to the park and just visiting and it was wonderful!!

Ava

Ava and Gammaw!

Chloe and Hailey playing on the laptop! 

Dylan was fascinated with this jump rope! 

Dylanwan

Dylan, Ava, Chloe and Gampaw!!

Dylan 

Ava with her Mommy, April! The hardest working Mommy ever!

Ava finally getting comfortable with a very proud Gampaw, he said this made the whole trip worth it, she stayed in his arms for a long time!!

Dylanwan

Chloe and Hailey

Being the 'Shelllady' you know I had to tie shells into this in some way or another! I wanted to make something special for them from my shells so I decided to make them each a necklace letting them know that even though we can't be with them all the time, we are thinking of them always!

Hailey's Horse Conch

Chloe's Lightning Whelk

Ava's Tulip

Dylan's Fighting Conch!

Hailey liked hers so much she wore it the whole day!

Hailey will also be thinking of something she would like me to make with my shells for them, so stay tuned for more shell crafts!!

While we were in the city, waiting for the train to go home, I saw this on the side of a huge building right next to Penn Station!

I looked a little closer, and there were guys up there painting this!! I didn't think anyone did this anymore!! How would you like to have this job??? Not me!!

When we got home, we got to see MORE babies! Two of our local Geese families gave birth to their babies! One has 6, the other 5!

We had a great visit with our family in New York and Hubby (Gampaw) said on the way home that we are going to make sure we get back there much more often, we are going to shoot for at least every 6 months! April works so hard with her family, and they are all so smart as a result! What a pleasure to spend time with them all!! I can't wait to get them down to our place in Florida and get them out there on the beach....can you imagine??

::Hugs::

Cheri

PS...Hailey and Chloe, I am including you in the term Grandbabies, hope you don't mind, I really do know you are not babies anymore!! :)