The Stars

Even though I actually don't have any pictures of the stars, it was one of the most memorable parts of this trip.  Being far, far away from any big city lights, and being out on a secluded island, on the beach, where most residents are careful to keep off their beach-side lights so as not confuse the poor little sea turtles - made for some AMAZING star gazing.   Every evening, we would walk out on the pier over the bay and lay there and watch the stars come out.  Later in the week, after spotting three water moccassins in 24 hours on the bay side (shiver) - we decided to walk the other direction to watch the stars on the beach instead.


Our amazing beach house was bay side AND gulf side  - this island is amazing.   It's a long thin little stretch of an island, with not one fast food restaraunt.  There were just enough little locally owned shops and restaraunts to get what you needed - with incredible friendly service to boot.  We all decided to pick up our homes and move them to the island, along with our schools and our friends.  I'll get right on that. :)   Seriously, the locals that live here are so friendly and helpful.  They will open their stores for you if you need something, and the guy at the teeny-tiny little post office on the main land is my hero. 

This is the view of our little 5-house neighborhood - Kinja Bay.  We simply walked across the street to the Gulf of Mexico! 

Or sometimes we would ride our bikes.


The wildlife on the island was so much fun!  We found plenty of sea turtle nests, and made nightly rounds to them to see if anything was hatching, but no luck.  It was still fun to see where the nests were though.


My sister Karen and her hubs of 25 years - they are two little lovebirds - you rarely see them not holding hands. (Unless of course he is carrying five beach chairs, two inflatable tubes, three beach towels, and three snorkels all while balancing a cooler on his head). 


The sun set over the bay side, but it was still beautiful beach side.


We had a great time paralyzing the millions of crabs scurrying about by shining a flashlight in their eyes.  They are so funny - I can't tell you how many crabs ran across my feet as we were walking along the shore as night fell.   Two of the older children (who shall remain nameless) could NOT handle the crabs at night.  Soooo funny.   And then we would watch them scurry back into their little crabby holes.   Can you just barely make out the little crab eyes in his hole in the picture below?


And then we would pile about 17 of us onto one little beach blanket and lay there and watch the stars come out.  They were AMAZING!!  I have never in my life seen stars so brilliant.   We saw too many shooting stars to count.  We could even see many satellites as they orbited through the milky way - the milky way itself was beyond brilliant.    It's a memory that I will treasure up and store - so many people that I love piled onto one little blanket gazing at the stars - all while laughing our heads off!!