Low Tide

It's the middle of the week, so of course the day is perfect. There are only enough clouds in the sky to be decorative and the ocean peeking between buildings is sparkly, so Toby and I scratched our usual around the block plans and headed for the beach. We hit waterfront when the tide was low and the bay was scattered with boats sitting too high in the water. We walked past one that was planted completely out of the water, but it didn't matter - there was someone still working on the boat and another working around it. In fact, most of the boats that were beached had people working on or around them.

As Toby and I walked I started to notice all the incredible beauty around me. The color of the water looked photoshopped, and the way the water had run across the sand left patterns that made the ground look like marble. As blue swirled below, the canopy of green above seemed to blossom out even more than usual. God's creation is so perfect - even as I walked down the beach I noticed that when I started to get to warm I would pass under the shadow of the palms into delicious cool air.

Toby was loving his time at the beach - he almost seemed to prance in and out of the scattered seaweed. He thought the seaweed flowing with the current was alive, so I sat, entertained for a while, watching him tentitavely reach out his neck as far as it would go in order to smell it and then a wave would catch the seaweed and more it a little, so Toby would jump back! Then he'd paw at it and leap sideways! I'm pretty sure he would have stayed there with that clump all day.

A giant sandbar was uncovered because it was low tide, and it stretched out nearly half way across the narrow part of the bay. It was packed with people, and we wove our way around them in order to walk out to the end. I walked in the warm, shallow water while Toby was a little more hesitant, but he started to prance in and out of the little waves and soon was wading across the little channels all by himself. When he came out of the water he looked hilarious - since just his legs were wet, they looked really tiny and spindly and his fat little fluffy body sat on top. He looked so out of proportion that I couldn't help but see him as a cartoon character - he would have been pompous royalty prancing around with his nose in the air, a white ruffly collar on, being tailed by a butler carrying a silver platter of doggy kibble. He is just so happy at the beach.

As we walked back, the beached boats seemed to be collecting people. The one stuck completely out of the water now had 3 people sitting on it, drinking and talking, another one was being rolled out to the water on logs by 2 people, and as the sun got hotter the fishermen seemed to be doing more socializing and less fishing.

Oh how I will miss Maceio!! I love it here, and I know that my dreams during the rainy, grey winter in OR will be of walking along this beach.