Teresa and Lawrence arrived safely on Tuesday. We're happy that the weather was good for them during their drive. We managed to get a round of golf in this week. The weather has been a little rainy but Wednesday was a perfect day to get out. It was actually quite warm and humid which was enjoyable. We played at Founders Club which is in Pawleys Island.
We are anticipating the arrival of Hailey and Jordan on Saturday. It's going to be lots of fun.
I've been doing some research on how to eliminate "noise" in my photos and read a very good article which I put into practice at the beach this week. I had taken some shots of the pelican's flying over the surf but wasn't really happy with the result which drove me to do the research. I went out another day to practice again and I didn't see any pelican's flying by so I had to settle for the gulls instead. Oh well, there are plenty of days to practice. What I discovered is that I am under exposing my shots and as a result loosing detail and adding grain. I've always followed the philosophy to expose to the "right" meaning push the histogram to the right for landscape photography but never really thought about using it for wildlife. It seems to make a difference and I will keep practicing this technique. The first 3 photo's below have lost a lot of detail and to me are underwhelming.
We have been seeing dolphins on a regular basis from our balcony. I really like this shot that Ralph took.
In between services on Sunday we went to Huntington Beach and enjoyed our coffee along with the birds.
The weather wasn't the best this week so there were times that we stayed in for most of the day. I would go down to the beach when it wasn't raining and continued to practice on the local birds.
It was really fun to see the Pied Billed Greeb diving into the wave and actually capturing it on my camera.
There has been a lot of dead jelly fish on the beach. The seagulls are in charge of clean up and do a good job at eating them.
This is the shot that I have been trying to capture. I'm pretty happy with this one!
We made another trip to Huntington Beach on Friday. It was raining in the morning but cleared up in the afternoon. Sadly there wasn't a lot of birds but we were still able to get a few shots!!
Hailey and Jordan arrived on February 4 in the morning. Their flight went quickly and was almost 20 minutes early. We had a wonderful week together. During their time here we saw the Chinese Balloon which was shot down by the military. We actually saw jets flying in circles around the balloon and heard later that once it was over the ocean it was shot down. That all happened in front of our condo. The following two weeks we saw Navy ships and helicopters actively recovering what was left of the balloon. It was very interesting to watch.
We had such a fun time with the girls. We went to Huntington Beach the weekend they arrived and took a really nice long walk together. Hailey found a shell with a shrimp in it and Jordan found a "sea sponge". It was pretty cool! We went to Charleston and made a point to visit Bitty and Beau's coffee shop which Jordan had heard about. We also went to see the Angel Tree which is huge. The girls were quite impressed.
Later in the week we went to Holden Beach in North Carolina to collect shells and sharks teeth. Everyone came back to the condo with a bag full of memories. The girls enjoyed shopping (Oma and Papa did too) and got lots of deals. Hailey who is an avid reader bought 12 books on this trip and managed to take them all home in her backpack and carry on. Amazing! (A few clothes needed to be left behind). The hot tub at the condo got used daily and we spent the evenings playing games. Teresa and Lawrence taught us a new game "Play Nine" which we all enjoyed and got to experience Jordan's competitive spirit. Ralph and I taught the girls how to play Yacht which is the same as Yazzee (dice game). There was so much singing and laughter during the game playing. We will treasure these memories and the video recording of the girls imitating one of the characters from The Hobbit and Jordan's Opera singing. We finished off the week with breakfast at the Sea Captains, a fun round of mini golf (where everyone except Oma had a hole in one) and a visit to the Ripley's Aquarium. We were sad to see them go as we had so much fun together. They left with a promise to come back for 2 weeks next year. Something we look forward to!!
After the girls left, we have been spending our time golfing and having fun. We've been to Holden Beach a few times (it's really nice for shelling and shark tooth hunting). We also go back regularly to Huntington Beach to see the birds. Sadly there haven't been a lot however we do enjoy what we see. Ralph and I will enjoy coffee that we bring along and look for some new birds that we haven't seen before. I was so happy that the Eagle was in the tree when we went with the girls. They got to see him up close as well.
Now that Teresa and Lawrence are here, the girls are golfing together again as are the guys. We have this really good golf pass that we bought (Primetime) and it was well worth the $50. You earn points using this card and we have earned about 3 free rounds of golf that we can use in the month of March. We played at Aberdeen, Litchfield, Tradition, Long Bay, Founders Club, River Club, Myrtle Beach National South Creek, Burning Ridge and River Club. It's been fun and busy month.
Marian and Harry arrived during the time we had the girls. I'm glad that they were able to enjoy the nice weather. We were able to see Liz this weekend as she came down for a visit. It was really nice to catch up with all that she is involved with. It's hard to believe that she has lived in Georgia for 20 years already. Where does the time go?
All in all it's been a nice month. The weather has been exceptional for the most part. Weekends have been cooler but during the week it's been in the 20's. The pollen has gotten really bad already and the locals are saying that it's very early this year. Those who suffer with allergies are certainly noticing it.
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