I'm on a boat!
Surprise, the marina sold a bunch more boat tour tickets, so I finally got to go. There were 28 of us altogether, which surprised me. Maybe they talked Wednesday's group into coming a day early. There were about half a dozen children, who of course shrieked like they were being axe murdered every time they so much as saw a seagull, but at least we were outside where it wasn't as jarringly loud.
I slathered myself in sunscreen, only for the boat to turn out to have a canopy. Should have seen that coming.
Anyway, it was interesting! I mean besides going close to the lighthouse, which was my whole objective. The tour was 3 hours and I felt kind of grumbly about it, like ugh that's the whole afternoon, I just want to go out to the lighthouse. But actually the time flew by. It's weird how far away everything is out on the water; I mean you can see the lighthouse from the condo balcony and it doesn't seem like it's that far, but the entire first hour was just getting out to it.
After circling the lighthouse, they threw out the shrimp net and dragged for a while. It's funny how the birds know what that means, they instantly start following the boat when they see the net go out. After a while they hauled it in and dumped everything in a touch pool and talked about all the different species, then we threw everything back out to feed the pelicans and a dolphin who had come by to check us out. I didn't try to photograph that, opting instead to experience it. It's hard to have both and sometimes you gotta choose; plus, photographing wildlife is a whole different skill set.
Pelicans really lend credence to the whole "dinosaurs turned into birds" theory once you see them up close.
I slathered myself in sunscreen, only for the boat to turn out to have a canopy. Should have seen that coming.
Anyway, it was interesting! I mean besides going close to the lighthouse, which was my whole objective. The tour was 3 hours and I felt kind of grumbly about it, like ugh that's the whole afternoon, I just want to go out to the lighthouse. But actually the time flew by. It's weird how far away everything is out on the water; I mean you can see the lighthouse from the condo balcony and it doesn't seem like it's that far, but the entire first hour was just getting out to it.
After circling the lighthouse, they threw out the shrimp net and dragged for a while. It's funny how the birds know what that means, they instantly start following the boat when they see the net go out. After a while they hauled it in and dumped everything in a touch pool and talked about all the different species, then we threw everything back out to feed the pelicans and a dolphin who had come by to check us out. I didn't try to photograph that, opting instead to experience it. It's hard to have both and sometimes you gotta choose; plus, photographing wildlife is a whole different skill set.
Pelicans really lend credence to the whole "dinosaurs turned into birds" theory once you see them up close.