Everyone was surprised when they put their feet in the water and found it to be very warm - even warmer then Galveston water in late August. They were then surprised to find that it remained less than knee-deep quite a ways out. Then they learned that the dark patches of color in the water were fields of seaweed rather than deeper areas.
When people started questioning whether we really want to spend Thursday afternoon on a Tampa beach, we realized that this beach is on Tampa Bay. The beach we will visit on Thursday afternoon will be on the Gulf side and should be different.
Everyone walked around in the shallow waters for a while, finding hermit crabs (Nicholas) and sand dollars (Kristin). People started coming in to shore when a couple of people stepped on sea urchins and got some spines in their feet (Jessica and Haleigh). Out first aid kits came in handy as Chris and Dave searched and removed the spines (4 from Jessica and 10 from Haleigh).
We then joined the rest of the groups in a hamburger dinner that the Team Effort staff had prepared. After dinner and some free time, we held our nightly worship in the beach pavilion. We started worship early (7:00) since we had to be out of the park before sundown.
We headed back to the dorms to clean up and have a little free time before bed. We're up and at 'em again tomorrow morning at 7:00. They say we're having pancakes and sausage.
Glad the first aid kits are coming in handy! So, which works better for getting sea urchin spines out - Splinter Out thingies or tweezers? :-)
ReplyDeleteDebbie
Thanks for posting these updates, Kurt! It's great to be able to keep up with what's happening on the trip!
ReplyDeleteCindy