evening stroll

First: I AM SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS. It's my family's year and we'll be spending it in frozen St Anthony, Idaho. CANNOT WAIT. I pretty much think about it all day every day, probably as the direct result of living in a third world country. Earth has never seen the likes of me eating a hamburger after four months of meat deprivation. Plus, I'm a little ashamed to admit how much I miss Penny. Jon thinks I'm a terrible person for missing a dog seemingly more than people, but I maintain that it's not at all the same thing. It's not. She doesn't understand where I went. We can't talk on the phone or email. She might forget me for crying out loud. Anyway, I'll admit that I had a dream three nights ago about my happy Christmas reunion with her. When I told Corinne that, she wrote back, "Was there slow-motion involved?" Perhaps. But she's living it up in Idaho and being the perfect little dog for my parents. Except for the other day when she took a dump in the middle of Petsmart when my mom brought her in for a grooming. The best part is that there were little kids around that freaked out, plugging their noses and yelling, "ewwwww that STIIIINKS!!" I laughed hysterically when my mom told me about it. Sorry mom.

Second: Last night was really fun. We went on another evening walk along Crooks Castle beach and saw some interesting things. PHOTO OVERLOAD:

Herons love beer.

Jon, sifting for blue beads.

Oh my gosh, I laughed so hard - so Jon picks up a pretty shell, turns it over, and a CRAB comes out, flailing its legs trying to get away. Jon drops it out of surprise. Apparently the impact scared it out of its shell. I'm fairly certain that's never happened. After the photo shoot, we propped its shell up right in front of his face and left, so hopefully he figured it out.

What in the H is this?? No clue. There were three all in the same area, about the size of ping pong balls, very firm, and full of swirling liquid. Jon reached down and barely touched this one, then jolted backwards and yelled something like, "Gah!!" Scared me to death, so I'm all screaming "What is it?? Did it sting you???" It didn't, but I guess the texture caught him off-guard. (?)

This crab tried to take refuge under Jon's shoe. Then Jon touched its head.

Somewhere in here we also saw the exoskeleton of a sea urchin, but I couldn't get my camera out in time before Jon stomped on it.

These goats are an inch from death. Srsly. Last time we were there, we saw a goat skeleton at the bottom of this cliff :-( And there they are, frolicking around, leaping and sliding and causing sand-avalanches (generally considered more dangerous than sand-moustaches). I watched them for like a minute and it took five years off my life.

A coconut tree growing from a coconut!! Has anyone seen anything more delightful??

And then, to conclude, oh my gosh, prettiest sunset ever on our walk back home. I took an unheard-of amount of pictures of it. Here are the best ones.

(spot the people swimming)