Another Day, Another Mollusk

So, as you all know, my friend Caroline and I are at the beach.  So, my dad dropped us off at the actual beach, which is across the road and down the ways a bit, at around 10:30 this morning, after we'd gotten up and nommed my dad's "famous" chocolate-chip pancakes, which Caroline can easily eat sixteen of in one sitting--literally.  She did it once.  

(On a completely random note, somebody just walked by underneath us--the condo's balcony is on the marina, where all the shops and restaurants are--whistling "It's A Small World" very clearly.  But when I stood and looked over the balcony edge [I'm typing from said balcony], the whistling fluidly stopped and no one was there.  When I did look over, however, I heard cooing from above me, from the roof.  Looking up, however, nothing was there.  *Twilight Zone music plays*)  

Anyway.

The waves, at first, were puny, and the water was cold.  Unpleasantly so, at least for me.  Caroline, however, did what I would normally do--flailed right in and splashed around, pestering me to do the same. Eventually, she managed to do so by dead-legging me, causing me to splash down in the water.  Naturally, a small water war ensued.  I'd like to think I won.  (That cooing was just confirmed--the pigeon took flight, wings flapping it into the air with that signature pigeon-wing sound.)  After that, we played in the waves for a bit before I yelped.  I'd stepped on something sharp, and automatically bent down in the water to investigate, though Caroline was basically yelling, "C'mon!  Just leave it alone!"  

All right, I'll admit, you think I would've learned my lesson after yesterday's incident with the horseshoe crab:  Caroline and I were wading in the ocean, and I'd felt something smooth yet with spikes in the sand, like a shell, much like today, actually.  I'd gone down to investigate and deduced that it was a horseshoe crab.  A dark-haired guy with a couple tattoos had answered my summons for help, then promptly backed off and said, "I'll pass."  I'd sighed and continued digging, ignoring Caroline's protests all the while.  Finally, I'd dug it up enough to pry it from the water.  Then I'd felt something slimy and hard.  I'd shrieked and dropped the crab, and I saw its tail thrash around just below the surface.  "Those things can sting you, you know," Caroline said nervously.  We then promptly flailed away, with her yelling "I told you so!!!" the entire time.

Well, today, I proved that I was not the "live and learn" type.  I felt something similar, but I quickly identified it as a conch or whelk shell because of the shape it felt like.  

So, naturally, I started digging it up.  Caroline groaned, throwing her hands up in the air.  "For heaven's sake!" she cried.  I ignored her, still digging.  I unearthed a beautiful pink whelk shell, containing the fattest, biggest, and possibly ugliest-in-a-cute-way creature I had ever laid eyes on (with the possible exception of...nevermind).  I promptly scuttled out of the water and went to the tidal pools, plopping it down in there.  "It's our mascot," I announced to an exasperated Caroline as she walked up.  "Its name is Frederick."  

She plopped down beside me in the shallow water and looked at Frederick with a blank expression.  Then she looked at me and said, "Can I stab it?"  

"NO!" I yelped.  I grabbed the long-handled pink shovel from our umbrella place and returned.  I then commenced digging a pool.  

"What.  Are.  You doing?" Caroline asked as I began to dig.  

"We're making a pool," I replied.  After I saw that she wasn't going to participate, I huffed out a breath and commanded, "Just...just make sure Frederick doesn't burrow too deeply, all right?!"  

She grinned smugly.  "Sure, sure."  She watched me dig for a very long time.  Finally, she looked at Frederick again, pulling him up from the sand and putting him back.  He didn't move.  She looked at me, then back at him and asked, "Do you think he's dead?"  At that precise moment, Frederick squirted a trail of water out of the tail of his shell in her general direction.  

We broke out in laughter.  "I'll take that as a no," I replied, then went back to digging.

Long story short, we used the extra sand from the poolfail to make a tiger sand sculpture.  I'd post a picture or two, but a storm was moving in, and my dad herded us off of the beach before I could get a shot or two.  We did, however, release Frederick with a call of "Be free!" that earned us several strange looks.

This is the life.

~Cara