St Stephens

It was a nice day today. But after sleeping late and calling the relatives, we felt we should explore somewhere close to home. So we packed up our beach gear and caught our shuttle down to Stanley. From there we walked about 10 minutes to St. Stephens beach. This is the beach that Steven and I hung out on when we came here for vacation 10 years ago. We haven't been back till today. It's a small pleasant beach that looks back onto Stanley. There is a small sailing center and a food kiosk and best of all some trees for shade. We were all happy to be outside. Steven laid back on our mat to finish his book. The kids climbed trees and started to explore. They started to build an elaborate sand palace complete with a moat. It wasn't long before the caught a decent sized green crab, with the help of a local, to live in the newly constructed abode. They sounded out the word KEEP OUT (with a little help) and wrote it in the sand to protect the crab. I am sure he would have been happy if he could have just lived quietly. But the kids were constantly putting him back in the bucket to remodel his home. Austin then decided to snorkel. He wasn't out past his knees when he spotted a sea urchin. So we got the bucket and scooped it up. I was amazed to see such a creature drifting in the sand so close to the shore. Now the kids have successfully captured two decent size sea creatures and were on a exploration high. They quickly made freinds with an older, local lady and gathered sea snails off the rocks together. After terrorizing every creature we could find, we decided it was time to head to the club and take a dip in the chlorine to kill off anything we caught from playing in the polluted bay. Overall it was a nice day.