Island Time

J took the day off and the sun was out so we headed out and after a beautiful drive, found ourselves on a rocky stretch of an island beach. It
was perfect. Other than a few passerby, we had the beach all to ourselves. J and I both left our phones in the car. With nothing to distract us, we were fully able to enjoy each other's company, our sweet girls and the quiet peacefulness of our surroundings. We were on "island time," a term we quickly picked up on a couple of years ago when we vacationed in Hawaii. We had nothing to do and no time constraints.
It was relaxing and wonderful. J took a little batting practice with makeshift bat and ball. While the Girl looked on
in amusement. There was a fair amount of shell collecting and scanning the beach in search of a heart-shaped rock.
Down by the water's edge J started overturning rocks and unearthed a cache of living treasures - hundreds of fish eggs clumped together on
the underside of a rock, a tiny crab scuttling along and a school of starfish. Surprisingly, the girls did not shy away from using their sense of
touch. As much as the Girl has been learning in school, there is just something to be said for the learning that was happening
today...nothing can compare to being out in nature and experiencing it firsthand. And as if all of these up close encounters with sea
creatures weren't enough, there was a bald eagle majestically perched atop a boulder less than a hundred yards up the beach and late in the afternoon we were treated to the sight of a momma whale and her calf swimming close to shore. They breached a handful of times and were close enough that we could hear it when water spouted out of their blowholes. It was definitely a day for the
memory books! As we were leaving I vowed to spend more days like this one - where there are no agendas to be met, no technology
competing for our attention and we spend the day as a family out enjoying all that nature has to offer and that we often times overlook.