January 18th, 2022

The same storm that left feet of snow and inches of ice in it's wake in a huge part of the east coast of the U.S. was only wind, rain and much cooler temperatures than normal for us.  While I worried about friends and family in the snowy/icey places, we kept a close eye to the sky and ear to local weather alerts here.  There were tornado reports both north and south of us!  Wow!

But of course Tim and I being who we are, we didn't just sit in the house and hunker down waiting to see if trees would fall down or shingles would fly off.  Nope, we headed for the beach.  Of course we did.  Storms by the sea are both exciting and beautiful!

Because where we live is, technically an island (i.e. a body of land surrounded by water) there is a lot of water and a lot of different places to view it.  And by that I mean different access points.  It's all the same beach and the same ocean.

We started at the jetty because, well, that's where we almost always start.  The jetty is at the northest point of the island. There were quite a few other cars and occasionally there were people walking around close to the rocks. Those people were fairly quickly disabused of that choice as soon as a huge wave smacked into them.  That water was cold.  Little kids didn't care very much, they would just scream and run and giggle and end up drenched. But the adults weren't crazy about it.

It was already high tide when we parked right by the rocks, a front row seat as it were.  The few birds that attempted flight appeared to be suspended in the air in front of us.  Regardless of how hard they tried, their wings were just not up to the task and eventually they would ride the current to a safer spot to wait out the storm.

Eventually we headed farther south to the beach front park known as Service Club beach which has a boardwalk out to the sand.  Without the rocks to smash up against, we saw the curling rolling waves.  It's almost hypnotic watching them. I could have stood in place, buffeted by the wind, my hair a wild thing, watching for hours. We were the only fools standing there listening to the crashing waves and witnessing the power of the storm through the gloom.

We could see the pier off to the left and decided that would be our final stop.  I am so glad that we went.  There were other folks people out there braving the elements at the pier (most of them bundled up in puffy coats, teehee) but that was okay too.  It was mighty fine.  

We could hear the waves hitting the underside of the pier with a mighty slap and feel the tiny tremble under our feet. There were giant pelicans hunkered down, ignoring the humans as much as possible.  And the sun was beginning to break through the clouds a bit to the south leaving silver tips on the water.  And there I was essentially hanging over the railing trying to get the best possible shot.

Two young women were giggling while watching my calisthenics as I attempted to keep my footing, get the hair out of my face AND lean over the railing to get my shots while not getting swept out to sea.  When I turned back around they offered to take a picture of Tim and I.  Neither of us were looking our best (FOR SURE!) but it was such a kindly intended offer that we said yes.

I have to say that Tim was absolutely in his element. I think he might have been a sea captain in a former life.  He stood, immoveable and solid on that pier no matter how  hard the wind blew with a huge smile on his face.  As crazy as the weather was, he was absolutely at peace and loving every minute of it.

​So yeah, that's what we do on a stormy day here.