We drove out to Padre Island and kept going until we could go no farther without 4WD. This landed us in the National Wildlife preserve.
Ella loved using the boogie board and riding the waves. Eli overcame his fear of the waves and had fun riding waves in his tube. Rhys was in heaven.
We didn't camp, but we did have a fire and roasted some hot dogs.
While we played on the beach I found this: (can you tell what it is?)
Here is a closer look: (do you know yet?)
YES! It is a Portuguese Man of War. !!!
After taking pictures of this very evil Jelly Fish, Chris shoveled it into one of our buckets and moved it away from our "camp". We promptly forgot about it with the intention of getting rid of it when we left.
Want to know what happens when you forget that you have a Man of War in your child's sand pail?
This:
Sigh. It was so sad. Rhys found the bucket and decided to touch the @#$% Jelly. My back was turned. I heard him scream. I ran to him. Chris had me soak his hands in the salt water, but mostly I held him as he clung to me and cried.
And you know what I learned? The nematocysts can transfer from person to person! That's right folks, my son stung me on the left shoulder when he hugged me. And OH BABY it hurt! A sting from a Man-o-war is not like a bee sting. It's more like an intense, penetrating, deep muscular ache like you've been attacked by a 2x4 on the spot where you just had a tetanus shot.
That is when we decided to go home. =)
But let's not close this blog on a sad note...
we had a ton of fun at the beach.
4 comments:
Yikes!! Poor little guy...and poor mommy. I'm still jealous of you, even with the nematocysts. :)
So sad. Ouch!!! For both of you.
As I've read your last few posts...I'm a bit confused. I thought I heard that you were moving back to Tucson? But none of these cool things you are doing are anywhere near my old stomping grounds. Did you change plans? Or was I misinformed?
That man of war lived up to its name. Hopefully it was near the end of the day in which this happened. Also I am still jealous that you were at the beach and had a cool fire on the beach and cooked hotdogs over the fire. That is almost as cool as doing it up the canyon or while camping ;) I am sorry that you were attacked. ( by the way I keep coming up with extremely funny and incredibly bad puns that I keep wanting to use, so inside I am laughing but for your sake I spared you, don't worry)
That is so sad. What an eventful trip to the beach. At least now you've got quite a story!
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