Sunday, May 15, 2005

Flying Stingrays

Dan and I went for a walk on the beach on Saturday. I, of course, stared at the ocean the entire time, always scanning for critters. Suddenly, I saw two small sharks in a wave about five feet away from us. The two of us turned to watch the water and realized that it was very dark. There were shadows everywhere, and what looked like grey fins poked up here and there.

We couldn't see what they were at first. Dan pointed out three stingrays swimming along the shore, and then we saw two stingray eyes popping out of the water. This one was probably about four feet across, and he was just swimming along the short. It was beautiful.

We kept losing track of the school, then would find some again. We realized the stingrays were "riding the waves." They would hold their "wings" out so that the tips poked out of the water, then ride the wave in. We saw one coming right at us. It looked like it was flying.

We tracked them for a while, then had to go back to our blanket, pack up, and head back to his house to clean it up (we were the last ones there...all the other siblings left earlier).

This was one of the most amazing things we had seen. Dan and I love to watch the ocean, and it really helped us this weekend. It's very rejeuvenating. When I would start to get upset, I pictured the stingray "flying" along the wave at me.

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