Happy Coincidences

On June 5, the sunset, full moon, and low tide came at the same time on Armand Bayou.

Low tide seems to bring out the water birds. We saw many more yellow crowned night herons than I'll show you here. This was a particularly patient one:

We also saw more mammals than the last time we came this way.

Do you think this rabbit knew we could see it?

There weren't many clouds, so the sunset would have been ho-hum if the full moon hadn't come to join it.

Twilight held its own charm.

Saturday afternoon we headed to Galveston.

Wildflowers were bursting out all over near San Luis Pass:

At dusk, the water birds joined us on the bay.

This great blue heron shows what a pleasant breeze we had:

This may be the first reddish egret I've seen. It matched the ruddy sky.

On the other side of the sky we were gifted with a more fiery palette.

Sunday afternoon, we were back to Armand Bayou. There were many other paddlers there, in many different types of vessels: kayaks like ours, traditional canoes, collapsible canoes, an electric mini-pontoon, and even inflatable kayaks (which I discourage anyone from using in these reptile-populated waters).

There are so many alligators and new paddlers sharing the water now that a new sign has been posted:

Really, you DO NOT want to try to catch one.

This young alligator had wandered off on its own.

We were as pleased as teachers to not have to talk to the parents.

We were also very grateful to another "monster."

This tree may be long dead, but it is a survivor in our eyes:

We, and, no doubt, many others, have named it the dragon. The dragon survived Ike!

Here is a photo I took in July of 2008:

if you would have told me at any point in my life before this that I would one day see a dead tree as a remarkable symbol of hope, I would have told you with great certainty that you were totally nuts. . . . Maybe you think I'm nuts now, but, to me, this is one of the most beautiful natural features around.

The sunset that night seemed to echo my optimism. (I see sunsets the way many others see sunrises.)