The Best Day

As I write this, a winter weather alert is in effect in my area. The roads are just beginning to ice up, and the weatherman predicts we will have a foot of new snow on the ground within 48 hours. What better time to post pictures from my best day ever on Diani Beach in Kenya this past October. Where, by the way, the forecast for today is mostly sunny and 85 degrees.   

Goodness, I can’t believe it has been a full two months since we were there! Seems like a lifetime ago.

Anyway, one afternoon, Denise, Val, and I took a walk up the beach just to see what we could see. The tide was out, leaving behind a wide swath of jagged rocks, pools of seawater, and stranded sea creatures.

As we were wandering around, a young man pulled a five-armed octopus out of the water to show us. It is actually a brittle star, a relative of the starfish. 

Pretty soon, two of his friends joined us, and we all walked and waded back down the beach.

The boys continued to pluck sea creatures out of the brine and tell us what each one was.

I wish I remembered the names of them all. Some are easy, such as the starfish.

The middle one is pregnant and upside down so we could see her belly.

No idea what these were called, but the boys said that if a man ate a handful of them it would be like nature’s Viagra. No thanks.

 A crab.

Can’t remember.

A sea urchin.

What a fun afternoon! . 

And beautiful too. 

And what nice young men they were. They offered to take us on their boat the next day, but we already had plans. We did give them a nice tip, though.