164: Crossing the threshold of adventure

Today's sunrise

Not really.  It was a search engine term from today’s stats and I thought it would make a great post title.  Someday I may have a real reason for using it, but why wait?

Another beautiful morning

We had another fun and full day here in paradise.  We didn’t do any one thing in particular, but there was a lot of walking going on.  Even a little jogging and some swimming.  I’m trying not to take home more weight than I arrived here with, and that means exercise in addition to moderation.

Some of today's storm clouds heading out to sea

A few storms moved in and out throughout the day.  We got our sun and beach time in before noon, then set out for lunch and some shopping.  We got caught in the rain once or twice.  Having a good hair day today was pretty much impossible.  Not that I was going for a good hair day.  Humidity, salt air, wind.  Nah.  It ain’t happening.

A gull and his reflection

I’ve been taking photos of birds and flowers almost since we arrived.  Since I have nothing in particular to write about today, it’s a good time to show you some of the birds.  I’ll come back to the flowers another day.  I don’t know the names of most so I won’t guess.  Perhaps my Florida friend and fellow blogger, Anhinga, can clue us in on some of them.  I do know that some are gulls.  I also know that there are a large variety of gulls.

I love these guys. They look they're from NJ. Yo, Vinnie!

Some of the photos are probably blurry.  The blustery wind makes it difficult to avoid some kind of camera shake.  Even a tripod would be of little use.  The winds are supposed to decrease a bit tomorrow, after a cold front passes through. It won’t get cold, though.  Upper 70s, low 80s.  Nice.

A so black he's blue bird

I’ve been playing around with the camera again, using manual settings most of the time now.  Last night I decided to give light painting a try.  I’ll show you a (bad) sample of that when I finish with the birds.

I think this is an egret. He was hanging out near the grocery store.

Sunset tonight was interesting with storm clouds off in the distance and lightning shooting across and through the clouds.

Bird on the beach, after the storm.

Time for me to wrap this up and bring you the bonus light painting shot.  I’m hoping to give this a try again tonight after dinner.

Squiggles

I used the lights from the fishing pier which is just a little ways from us.

Lightning is still playing around way out over the ocean. The waves have calmed.  And most of the lights around here are shielded or lowered for the sea turtles.  M and I are going to have some dinner and then go relax on the balcony and listen to the sounds of the sea, something that will likely lull me into an early sleep as I’m already pretty tired.

See you tomorrow.  🙂