Beach

The beach was simply perfect this week. The weather was warm, but not too hot with a wonderful breeze down by the water and a breeze with the sweet aroma of Gardenias when you were swinging on the villa porch.The waters were clear and calm. We could easily swim past the breaking waves and enjoy the gentle rock of the ocean waves. The water was pretty warm, which made for nice swimming. The sealife also put on a show for us that we did not expect. The first morning that we ventured out to the beach a group of dolphins came swimming by. It was fun to see the dolphins jumping slightly in the water. As is that was not enough of a treat a few days later the rays arrived. First, there was a group of four rays that just glided around the beach area for about an hour. They were quite close to shore and we were less than 10 feet away from them at one point when we were swimming out in the ocean. Then all of a sudden a pod of almost sixty rays glided by. It was so beautiful to see this large group of rays just gliding through the ocean. They were on their annual migration as explained here: article, wikipedia, and video
The links show the rays passing through Destin and a very similar to what we saw.

I was a little worried that the ocean might scare Henry, but he is in love with it. After his visit to the ocean, he began to point from the villa to ocean and saying 'ocean go'.

Henry loves the sand too. He sees the beach as his personal sandbox. He likes to dig in the sand and I mean dig. He enjoyed the holes as deep as him that somedays even were below sea level so, that they had a little water at the bottom. He often requested steps to get out and in to his holes. He would roll around in the sand and shift it in his toys.

Henry enjoyed sitting where the waves came ashore and letting them cover his legs. He also loved going out past where the waves break. He would hold on very tight and go out in the deep water. He would point to the waves and say more wave as each passed him. He laughed and smiled so much as we jumped over waves. He even played ball out in the ocean. He was very happy in the water and was not always excited to leave.