Dolphins leaping!

Relaxing by the pool

Hello readers!  I am so excited to tell you what happened this morning.  Really early.  My mom and I were sipping coffee flavored with hazelnut creamer when the Most Amazing Thing happened.  I wandered out on the lanai and saw…are you ready for this??…Leaping dolphins!

In all the years I’ve visited Florida, I have never seen such a show.  We can’t decide if it was one dolphin leaping over and over and over again, or many dolphins.  It arched maybe six feet in the air. Maybe nine feet in the air.  It leapt with grace and spirit and beauty.  Up it arched and down it dove.  Again and again and again.  At least a dozen times.  Maybe two dozen! No time to look for the camera.

The dolphin leaped and we gasped in awe and amazement.  I said, “Look at the dolphin!  It wants to be on the blog.”  (My mother, I’m sure, rolled her eyes.)  But you never know.  The dolphin maybe did want to say hello to all you blog readers.

These photos are all backwards.  I like to usually start at the Beginning of the Day and then progress toward the end.  Tonight I’m starting in mid-afternoon (with a lounge by the pool) in about 78 degree temperatures.  Sunlight appeared after a day of wind and gray and threatening rain.  It was lovely.  I brought my new book down to the pool.

It’s the story of a woman deciding whether to become a Buddhist nun or finding true love with a man.  Which would you choose?  I’m thinking she’ll choose the guy.  But you never know. 

Woman and dog run along the Gulf

Now let’s back up. After a lunch of leftover seafood salad, my parents had to attend a condominium annual meeting.  So they dropped me off about 2-3 miles from “home”.  “Find your way back,” they instructed.  (Just kidding!  They didn’t really say that.  There’s really no way you can get lost on the island.)

Man on bike

I walked on the white white sand and thanked the Universe for the ocean, the sand, the sun, the warmth, the seaweed, the people, and sixteen other things.  Tried to walk very very slowly appreciating everything. 

Kids with pails

The beach featured some seaweed–not enough to challenge swimmers–but enough to notice.   I kept looking closer and closer, until their beautiful patterns and colors revealed themselves.  After about five minutes of peering at seaweed, I was in love with its patterns.  You could do an entire blog photographing seaweed. 

Red seaweed

The wind blew fiercely. So fiercely that I looked like Einstein’s niece upon arriving back at the condo.  You needed a hat to hold your curls in place.  The seagulls sat motionless, almost asleep, the wind attempting to blow them airborne.  They allowed me to approach rather closely and did not fly up.  The wind was too much for even them.

Gulls snoozing in the wind

Very few sun-bathers lingered along the shore on the rented cabanas.  The sun-bathers were waiting for the sun.  Almost all the green cabanas below were empty.

Long line of green cabanas. Anyone want to rent one?

I like to look in places most people ignore.  The storm sewers looked fascinating.  The leaves, the reflections.  This one looked like a work of art.  Do you agree?  Or do you think it looks only like a storm sewer?

Down through the sewer grate

Almost back to the condo, I had to sneak oh-so-carefully up to a rented condominium to photograph the flower photo below.  I shot a series of about ten photos of the flowers framed in white, but for some reason really like the simplicity of this one.

Oleander? Bougainvillea? Looks like art!

Tonight we ate dinner at South Beach in the Santini Plaza.  It was the best meal ever!  I ate glazed salmon (with some horseradish sauce) and my mom ate parmesan-encrusted tilapia and Dad opted for crab cakes.  All the meals were absolutely gourmet.

Actually, it was a gourmet day.  From dolphins leaping to swimming in the pool to glazed salmon…ahhh…  Bring on Day #2.