Sunny Daze

You have to love a sunny day. Especially in the Pacific NW. Whenever there is a sunny day here I always think, 'I could live here...'. Then I think, 'Bad Megan, No!' and I try to remind myself how I felt two days ago when the rain wouldn't stop and the sky was grey and the air was cold. Anyways, what is the only thing people should do on sunny days? Why, go to the beach of course!

I spent all my summers in B.C. when I was growing up. My grandparents lived on a tiny little island and had a house right on the water. I used to play non stop....looking for shells, digging holes, finding strange creatures, chasing birds.....

Yesterday took me right back! I walked the shoreline getting squirted by clams until I finally gave in and dug one up. I found some live sand dollars. I found a fluorescent green shell. I played with seaweed - talk about natures camouflage. Best of all I watched a dog have fun. Dogs really know how to have a good time.

I hope you are all enjoying sunny days wherever you may be!!!!!

Birthday Surprises

Of course Historiauntie delivered some totally cool presents for my birthday! She found some more things that belonged to my Grandpa. A navy joke book (I think I'll have to share some of them with you in the future!) and a book on semaphore signaling.

Wanna know what was also really cool?! She gave me a stick pin that had a piece of mined gold on the top. My great, great, great grandpa mined it in Yreka.

I'm probably lying about the great, great, great part....the good news is that she wrote it all down for me so I can look it up when I get home!

If you ask me, having a piece of mined gold that's been passed down through the generations means you're a bonafide American. So it's official! I'm no longer a fake American!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today is my birthday!! Wanna know what I've done today?

Absolutely nothing! It's been glorious.

I partook in some delicious coffee, I went to the mall and bought a long sleeved shirt (ahem, Pacific NW.....it's May! Warm up soon.....pretty please?), had a tuna fish sandwich instead of a salad and have been lounging on the couch reading for the last several hours.

Historiauntie and Cousin are driving up from Oregon today for a visit. Squuueeee! I'm uber excited! (Cousin doesn't have a blog code name yet.....so for the sake of this post I'm calling her Cousin.....but what I do need to say is that she is absolutely one of my favorite people ever and her birthday is tomorrow we almost share a birthday!)

This is the view I'm currently enjoying:

Everyone loves a pooch snuggled up on a rug braided by your Grandma.....right?!

Hope you are all having a wonderful day!!!

Back on the road....

Aaaaaand I'm off! My time in Hilo was over much quicker than I would have liked. MUCH quicker.

I'm back in airport mode and am headed to the Northwest for two weeks. I haven't seen some of my family in ages and started feeling like I needed a dose of mainland family!

The sad 'leave Hilo day' always comes quicker than expected.

Hopefully I won't be too cold tomorrow! I only packed one fleece!

Honu Town

I saw something incredibly cool yesterday. I happened upon four sea turtles sunning themselves while I was out and about with Travel Buddy. Seeing one is cool enough four was over the top exciting. Then, we spotted four more sunning themselves on the rocks. Soon, another turtle swam up to join the first four and then another one swam by! Which means, we saw a total of TEN turtles at the SAME TIME! Being a turtle (Honu) lover means I was so over the top excited I could barely stand it!

I'm convinced we happened upon a Honu town!

Shell Selections

It's a lazy Friday morning in the Nautiemermate household. Yesterday, I celebrated my 'fake birthday'. I'll be on the Mainland for my REAL birthday and Travel Buddy will be far away so my friends encouraged me to have an early celebration. It was fun! I may have had one too many diet seven ups.....which is why it's a lazy Friday morning. Wanna hear something quasi exciting? I'm going over to look at earrings this morning! Is there anything cooler than looking at earrings? Why yes, yes there is. Taking your own shells to make earrings with!

I found a bunch of shells on the ship when we heaved up anchor one day. The anchor was COVERED in mud and of course it fell all over the deck as we cleaned it off. Of course, I had to dig through it looking for shells! There were an amazing amount of beauties. (Looking at them now I will admit they are a little on the rough side and probably won't be getting turned into wearable jewels.). I also found shells in Rota, Spain and Poti, Georgia.

I can't wait to see what I end up with!