Swimming With Jellyfish

After spending a lazy morning working on the blog and reserving campgrounds through Labor Day, we headed for the beach. It’s at the Irving Eco-Center, the one with the long and winding boardwalk, remember?

I know. When we started out, we weren’t wanting to reserve like that, but we’ve found that with a little research, we’re in each place about as long as we want, so we call ahead. It’s less stressful! Plus, when we started looking for places over Labor Day, we discovered that many were booked up already, so it’s a good thing we booked when we did! Otherwise, we’d be living in a Wal-Mart parking lot!

Sitting in shade under the boardwalk (neither of us are sun-worshipers), reading, resting, people watching (what few people there were) and stepping into the water on occasion . . . It was a terrific day! The only negative? Every time someone walked on the boardwalk, sand would rain down on us! Not enough to matter, but you could feel it.

The view from where we were sitting.

Under the boardwalk. Did you ever think you’d see Blaine reading on the beach?

It’s so shallow, the deepest place only went to my knees. Unless, of course you went out REALLY far. There are no waves, and it didn’t look like the tide changed much.

There is no seaweed at this beach, but there are hundreds of jellyfish of all sizes. They’re all the same type and they don’t seem to sting. Once we conquered that fear, we found them beautiful and fascinating to watch. They don’t actually swim, they just undulate and flow with the current. Since there’s not much current, they pretty much stay in one place. They seem to be the same kind as the beached one’s we took pictures of earlier (the purple blob?), only all of the one’s today are smaller.

This doesn’t do them justice, but can you see all the dots in the water?
That’s them!

Here’s the “inside”.
We saw a video at the Interpretation Center that showed staff having kids put their finger in it’s mouth – – right in the center.
That’s how we knew they wouldn’t sting. : )

I tried to research to see what kind these are. Couldn’t find anything that matched. Sorry! No trivia today! Now. If I was REALLY good, I’d call the Eco Center. But I’m not that good . . . .