St George Island 4: A Journey to Port St Joe & More Sunsets!

September 13, 2016 - With our family and various beach paraphernalia both loaded in the truck, we headed to Port St. Joe.

(We didn't take the route marked by the red line.)

On the way, we needed to run an errand in East Point and pick up a couple of things at the local Dollar General. 

We did a "divide and conquer" but I accomplished my mission well ahead of time and took a seat out front near the Redbox while I waited for the truck to return and pick me up.

And in that short period of time, for some reason unknown to me, 3 strangers asked me for help with the Redbox kiosk.  One person wasn't even renting or returning a DVD - they just asked me to walk them through the process for when they did!

 Obliging guy that I am, I was glad to be of help, but it's all pretty self explanatory.  Basically you just use the screen and this clearly marked slot (below) to pick up and return DVDs.

If YOU experience any difficulty, you can contact Redbox directly at: (866) 733-2693

We were greeted at Port St. Joe State Park by fruit flies that seemed to be refitted with the ability to bite like a vicious and experienced mosquito.  Yet, despite their predatory appetites, they lacked the reflexes of a mosquito and many of them lost their lives on this beach.

Nigel the pelican returns

Its wasn't too long before a storm that, though little, was fierce and broke in upon us:

But the storm blew over as quickly as it'd come...

...and not before it'd left its mark in the sky.

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky. 

Are also on the faces of people passing by. 

Noah and the rainbow

When the lights go down in the city. 

And the sun shines on the bay. 

 - "Lights" by Journey

After we'd had enough of "adventure" and of the flies at Port St. Joe we drove back home to St George Island and back across the bay.

Shots from the beach - during my "sunset walk":

You can easily look across the entire island to where the sun is setting on the bay.

Shall I speak of the sea, which itself is so grand a spectacle, when it arrays itself as it were in vestures of various colors, now running through every shade of green, and again becoming purple or blue? 

- Augustine, City of God XXII 

 #greaterlighttoruletheday 

#lessertorulethenight 

#whatabeautifulsuccesion

The "Harvest Moon"

Our little beach community at night.

I'm scratching non-existent bug bites remembering what I went through while taking these photos - despite all of my clothing.

 This blog obviously doesn't have a very strict editorial policy concerning what photos are or are not posted. :)

Moon shining on the palm trees

This pool looks inviting - or so I thought when I finished one of my runs.

So I had a celebratory plunge (and a shake) after I posted my best 5k time.

Shine on, shine on harvest moon - up in the sky! 🎶

Scuba Diving

 

   This evening we had the fantastic opportunity to try out scuba diving at a special lesson here in St. Louis!

   Our Mom was curious to know whether we’d like scuba diving  and might want to peruse being certified and getting some gear.

   The teacher was great and he gave a quick talk in the classroom before we hopped in their salt water pool.  There were only us and one other family in the class, so we were able to ask any questions we might have.

   Taking our first breath into the regulator underwater was little unnerving, I could easily see how someone who was claustrophobic could freak out, but we did our testing in 4ft of water so if there was a problem we could stand up.

   Then we learned a few other skills like learning how to take out the regulator, clearing it and breathing out of it again and we also learned how to clear our masks of water…while underwater. 

   After we had tried doing these things in the shallow water we put on our flippers and swam into the deeper end of the pool that was 10ft deep.  We had to be careful not to descend too quickly without adjusting the pressure in our ears to the pressure of the water.  It was a bit of a problem with me at first, but we got used to the higher pressure and began a game of catch with water torpedoes.  It was really neat to be able to stay underwater for such a long period of time and I wish that I would’ve had a waterproof camera with me.

    We all had on a Buoyancy Control Device (BCD) that is an awesome vest that can fill up with air until it’s puffed up very large and can then be deflated…I wonder if you could fill them up with helium?

    We were in the water for about two hours and we repeatedly tested various diving skills and learning to use the flippers alone for swimming.   Our instructor was very thorough and we talked with him before we left about how we could pursue diving and what equipment would be necessary.

   This was a fantastic opportunity and my brothers and I had a great time!

Noah Works Up the Nerve to Do a Backflip

Swimming-Photos

Noah really enjoys swimming, so he was pretty happy when got to swim just about every day. One of the days, Benjamin swam 1 mile in less than half an hour.
Someone 15 or older had to be present while they were swimming so Mom and I played cards quite a bit.
In one of the pictures you can see Kate doing her school work. She had a test to take on the following Thursday and had to get some studying done.