The Youngest Island Boy is
our summer child. His birthday is on the Summer Solstice so naturally
we celebrate his birthday on the water.
This year his brother and
sister were both out of town but he wanted to spend the day with his
girlfriend, Miss B, so it was just them and the Island King and I.
We left the dock in the
late afternoon, bounced across the Bay and anchored at our favorite
spot on Okaloosa Island.
It wasn't long before I
noticed two dolphin swimming pretty close to the shore. I hurried up
to the beach and ran down to where they were and waded out towards
them.
They were circling a
school of mullet and not paying any attention to me so I was able to
get about 30 feet from them when they closed in for the feast.
I got a video but it's
pretty shaky because I was walking fast through the water but I got a
really cool view of them.
I guess it's weird but
even though I have seen dolphin on a regular basis my entire life and
have been fortunate enough to swim with them a few times, I still get
just as excited as someone who's never seen one before.
There is something magical
about them that always leaves me in awe.
The sun started to set and
I noticed that my son was standing on the point with his girlfriend
watching the sun set.
We've always watched the
sunset together and even though I spied on him with binoculars last
time I decided to leave them be and watched the sunset with the
Island King. Not that that was a problem – I do love the old guy
but it's not his birthday.
The sun did not disappoint
and the sunset was the perfect end to the longest day of the year.
As an added bonus, Tuesday
night was a once in a lifetime astrological event, a Strawberry Moon
was expected to rise.
The moon was supposed to
rise about an hour after the sun set so we spent that time making
dinner.
Kabobs on the grill and a
salad are always his birthday dinner choice so that's what we had.
We ate, he blew out the
candles on his cake
And just as we finished
the brightest red/orange moon I've ever seen started to rise.
My husband is a
professional photographer but he refuses to bring his work equipment
on the boat so we were stuck with Iphone pictures.
Sadly, they do no justice
to just how beautiful it was.
Once the moon got higher
in the sky it lost it's color (at least where we were) but was so
bright it was like daylight out there.
We enjoyed the critter
sounds coming from the Island, talked a while and then packed
everything up and headed home.
Spending that day in the
warm water next to our boat, seeing our son so happy with to be in
the water and with Miss B, getting such a close up look at the
dolphin, enjoying a beautiful sunset and then seeing the Strawberry
Moon rise was incredible.
The Youngest had an
amazing birthday and we all had an evening to remember.