Dolphins and Sand Dollars

In case any of you are tempted to be jealous that I'm at the beach, I post this photo, taken after our beach walk this morning.

This is not a balmy day on the beach, a day of bare feet and sun bathing.

We're staying right on the Atlantic, with good-sized dunes between, but we have a two-story house so we can see over them to the breakers.

First thing this morning we saw dolphins swimming by. That was thrilling!

After breakfast we went on our morning walk, shell-seeking.

The beach looks odd to me -- lots of sea foam this morning and rocky chunks that Jan says are a particular type of rock that is normal along this coastal area.

And lots of oysters. We threw them back. See my gloves? My hands were still cold.

This particular beach, North Topsail Island, evidently has lots of sand dollars. I found these in about thirty minutes this morning:

 They're fat sand dollars, full on the inside of hard-packed sand that looks like concrete.

 And a few sea urchins as well ~

 Pretty brown shell

 When I first sat this in the sand, I thought, "A fossilized fish? Really?"  See his eye, his nose, and the layers of thin shell look like ... something ... something fishy.

 But it's not a fish. Turning it over, I found it's just a rock.

This is Muffin, our mascot for the week. She's delightful.

This is Muffin's human, Jan. She's deep in thought, studying her new tablet.

And there might be some game-playing going on too.

Mostly, we're relaxing, eating, laughing, reading, cooking, among other things. We're good friends who get along, and I'm finding this trip a wonderful idea.