Saturday, October 29, 2016

Celebrating Health

The beautful natural beach which is part of a state park reopened yesterday for the first time since the hurricane. Pawleys is still closed and a big mess; no predictions as to when that will be open. (All of the beach in South Carolina is theoretically open to the public but parking space is rare. There are No Parking signs everywhere and tickets are handed out to violators.)

 

Anyway, when Huntington Beach reopened yesterday morning, we were among the first to hit the beach.

Oh, it felt good to be back!

 

 

 

The dunes have been reduced significantly and there is plenty of debris, driftwood, and even some nice shells (although this area doesn't have such pretty ones as, say, Florida). It felt wonderful to be walking on sand again.

 

Lots of these little guys scurrying everywhere, ghost crabs smaller than my thumb nail. This one had a good look at me and let me take his photo before disappearing down one of the many holes he has built.

Ghost crabs are transparent. That is the sand you are seeing through his body.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We often see monarchs flying along the beach and wonder how something so fragile and light can stay so steady in the wind, why they aren't blown out to sea.

This one didn't make it through the storm.

 

You can see how hard at work park employees have been during the three weeks since the storm. This is all damaged walkway decking from the dunes, broken up by the force of the water and piled in the parking lot, waiting to be hauled away. There are also many, many large downed trees, cut up just enough to remove them from roads and paths, throughout the park.

 

 

We had been cooped up in the university hospital in Charleston for two days while The Writer had a "little problem" with his heart worked on.

We were so happy to be out of there, back home, and back at the beach.

Happy, relieved, and very, very grateful.

 

16 comments:

  1. The ghost crab is very cute.. hope everything will comeback to normal life very soon..

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  2. cynthia beach looks so peaceful

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  3. What a relief that your writer is OK now and his heart could be "fixed." There's something awful sad about seeing a fallen butterfly.

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  4. Hope his heart I ok now, it's always scary when they start tinkering with them. The beach is open but we haven't been out that way.

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  5. You must have been out early to experience such an empty beach. It looks wonderful for a walk. Sorry to hear about the writer's heart misbehaving. Glad all is well now.

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  6. Hope all is well with that heart issue. Rebuilding the beach area and rebuilding his health!

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  7. A beach walk and a paddle or better swim in the surf - not that the Atlantic is overly
    famous for surfing beaches - will do wonders for Paul.
    Do you good too Cynthia to take a flying plunge into the waves.

    2 sleeps until the Big Day here when at 3.00 PM (Summer time) Australia stops still.
    Cheers
    Colin

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  8. Hope the writer is OK and now on the mend. Nice to be able to get back to the beach, they certainly are working hard to get all the debris and damage cleared away, hopefully it will be back to normal soon.

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  9. I enjoyed seeing the beach and I am glad there is still some beach there. Get well wishes for your writer. Hope all stays well with you two:)

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  10. As long as the Writer is ok now.
    I love walking in sand and the edge of sea, there is nothing like it so can relate to your post :)

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  11. There is a lot to clean after the hurricane, but they are making progress I can see an glad you could join the beach again. That scares when the Writer had to get a check up. It causes a lot of stress for both of you, I know from recent experiences... Glad he is ok now.

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  12. I've never seen a ghost crab, thanks. What kind of footprint/handorint was that to the lower left of the first monarch photo? Is there such a thing as a little heart problem? Glad to know The Writer is out and about.

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  13. I have not been to the beach and 3 1/2 years :) I need to rectify that!

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  14. The beach is so rejuvenating - just what the Writer needs to help restore full strength, hopefully. What a lot of damage from the hurricane.

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  15. Cynthia, I do hope the Writer is doing much better and it's nothing long lasting.

    Love the photos of the beach and know how satisfying it must have been to have some of them reopened.

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