Tornado skies and broken seashells.

I just love the color and texture of this seashell.

At first it seems like a normal shell. But look closer...

The color.

There are bits of orange, blue, sea spray, plum,  rose, dusty green, mango, grey, white and on and on. So many colors hidden in this shell.

The color of grey kittens and of stormy seas. The color of sunsets and of tornado skies. 

My other favorite shell is this one. At first when I found it I was disappointed that it was broken. But now I love it for that reason. Because if it wasn't broken, I would never have seen the glassy lavender and the fragile spiral hidden inside.

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

― Ronald Dahl

Dear Person {doggy scarf and pirate}

 Seen a few weeks ago on the way home from church:

Seen last week while driving around town:

I'm also wondering, why don't they just fly away?

Ones. Lots and lots of ones.

I can't believe it! I actually got to see the clock at 11:11 on 11/11/11! 

And I made a ton of epic wishes. :)

(Thanks, sis, for snagging this screen shot!)

Don't fret if you missed it, though. Ya'll have one more chance tonight!

Dear Person, Texas Edition

Seen on the car ride down to Texas:

In San Antonio, Texas. Near the river walk. This drawing was done in pencil, which is why it's not as clear as the pen drawings.

San Antonio, river walk. The person was a waitress who had apparently dropped the $20 into the water. She had to run across a bridge to get to the other side of the river and rescue it. Everyone watching applauded when she succeeded. :D

Surfside Beach, Texas. Obviously. :)

And yes, those are the sunglasses I wore in a bunch of the pictures. ;)

Have you seen anything interesting lately?

Surfside Beach, Texas

The second week of vacation, Surfside Beach! 

(See the first vacation post here)

Note: all photos were either taken by my sis, my mom, or me. :)

When I finally saw the ocean, it made me so incredibly happy. I ran and ran, splashing through the water. It was beautiful. 

This is the house that we rented! All the houses near the beach were on stilts. We had to climb 20 steps just to reach our front door! 

We spent hours on the beach almost every day.

:D

In the evenings we had fun watching tv. In Chefs vs. City one of the challenges was to make cactus salad. So when Mom went to the store and found cactus, she bought some!

Awesome Texas shaped cutting board that was in the house. :)

After I cut off the skin & prickles, this is what was left. Ummm ... slimy much?

We cut it up really tiny and put it in a salad. The cactus tasted like super sour cucumbers. That were extremely slimy. :P

I love trying new things. :)

One of the other new things I did was fly a kite! What? I've never flown a kite before?? Shocking, I know. But hey. Now I have. And I loved it.

One day we took a short road trip to Galveston. One of the cool things we saw was this house! Reminds me of the villa villekulla. :)

Then we headed down to the fishing wharf. It was super cool! It's such a different world than the one I'm used to.

Stretching his pouch on his ... neck?

And then we got a free ferry ride! We got to stand up on top. It was so much fun to be "out at sea". ;)

Not very often you are looking down on a flying seagull. 

Getting ready to land.

We got off the ferry and hung out on the other side for a while. We sat on a pier and got to see dolphins!

On the ferry ride back, this seagull hitched a ride on the flagpole! It was pretty funny.

This is the S.S. Selma, a ship made out of concrete. She was designed during WWI, when steel was in short supply.
On May 11, 1920, the Selma struck a jetty at Tampico, Florida and was damaged. She was temporarily repaired and headed to Galveston, Texas for more repairs. The crew in Galveston had no experience with concrete ships though, so the government finally decided to scrap her. She now sits near Pelican Island, where we passed her on the ferry ride! 

After a stop at starbucks, we headed back to our beach house.

Here's a little peek at the way all the houses looked. There were some HUGE houses. Houses that would have been 2 or 3 stories high before even putting them up on stilts!

Back on the beach. :)

This was our last day on the beach. I made this sea turtle. :)

Under the turtle I used a stick and wrote, "You so totally rock, dude!"
Brownie points if you recognize that quote. 

And Mom made a dragon/dinosaur thing. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Taking our goodbye pictures on the beach. :'(

The next day we got up at 5. My sis and I walked to the beach in the dark to see the ocean one last time. To hear the surf and smell the salt and say goodbye.

We were on the road before 6. 

On the way out we had one quick stop. (Coffee for the parents. :)

We saw this gigantic flock of birds. It was crazy, and pretty funny too. 

They covered the phone-line for blocks and blocks! 

It was a pretty good way to start the 27 hour trip home.

We were home in two days.

I was super sad that our vacation was over. And I still miss the ocean.
But it feels pretty good to be home, too.