Morning Walks on the Isla

Like clockwork, Millie (and the roosters that live behind the RV park) wake me up at the crack of dawn.  I’ve never been a morning person, and in Chicago, the limit of my morning physical activity used to be stumbling down the stairs, to open the back door for Millie to go out.  But here on the Isla, where mornings are usually sunny in the low 60’s, and an infinitely long sandy beach is just right outside my doorstep, it’s nearly impossible not to be motivated to take a nice long walk on the beach as soon as we wake up.

We see many of the same people (and their dogs) on our daily walks—a middle-aged Mexican lady with a cute yellow puppy who loves to play with Millie;  a younger guy with an ugly-looking (but friendly) pitbull, and a local couple with a veritable menagerie of 5 or 6 tiny Chihuahuas.  As colorful as these folks are, out of respect for their early morning privacy, I don’t photograph them (as I sure wouldn’t want my ugly “bedhead” showing up on their blogs!).  So, I photograph the sunrise instead…

The sun rises at what appears to be the southern tip of the beach, however, the beach continues on for miles beyond this point, virtually completely uninhabited.
Some mornings start out cloudy, but the sun usually always still finds a way to poke through the clouds to provide plenty of visual inspiration.


Even with fewer clouds in the sky, the sunrises here can be quite magical!

Our goal is usually to walk to the abandoned white house at the far end of our stretch of the beach (which makes about a 2 1/2 mile walk round-trip). 

Along the way, we usually find some interesting stuff in the sand…



I’m still hoping to find baby sea turtles some day soon (like Contessa recently found on one of her walks)!  In the meantime, I’m content to look at all the fishing boats…


and the fishermen hard at work pulling in their nets with the morning’s fresh catch..



A variety of sea-faring birds are always scurrying around each morning looking for their breakfast.  The gulls patrol the shoreline just ahead of the surf…

usually finding very little that has not already been picked over by hundreds of earlier birds.  But every once in a while, one hits the jackpot and finds a treasure!

Even a Great Blue Heron can occasionally be seen fishing these shores!

But the rulers of the roost around here are the pelicans.  Some mornings, they’ll fly for miles looking for a good fishing spot..

When they find one…it’s Kamikaze time!

Unless the free, all-you-can-eat seafood buffet is in town, then all they have to do is line up!

They seem to do exactly as we humans do after a big feast…just unzip their pants and fall asleep for awhile!

What a way to start the day!