Chris and Taunya were exhausted after their trip yesterday, particularly Chris as he had been up all the previous day working and then had to travel from Drumheller to the Calgary Airport for a two in the morning flight to Toronto where he had a couple of hours to meet Taunya flying in from Halifax and then climb aboard the Tampa flight which arrived here at one fifteen. They made a point of staying up so they would be able to catch up and not suffer from jet lag today so they slept in a wee bit. Since we were planning to take Peri to Moulin Jaune for his weekend treat we only had coffee at the boat and headed in. Peri is a favoured customer there and really is spoiled rotten - tablecloth and china plate and the chicken this morning. The rest of us had omelette and French toast done superbly, of course.

After breakfast we had to bring poor Peri back to the boat as the beach that we were going to was not doggie friendly and we needed someone to guard Nelleke while we were out. We took Chris and Taunya down to Passe-a-Grille and showed them Don Ce Sar's and the Art Centre where we are taking our lessons.

The beach had some people on it but not too many so we were able to find a good spot to stake out and started to beach comb. Today we were concentrating on Jingle Shells as Barb wanted a bunch to make some jewellery out of and I was also looking for some interesting shells some of which we already had but of different colours. It's very interesting to find in the same square foot of tidal beach two shells of the same species but of different colours - an ark that is orange and another that has black marking on it. I even found one that was green! I am wondering if the colouration is based on what they have been digesting, but if they were found in the same area you'd think that they would have been eating the same stuff, wouldn't you?

Barb and Taunya have been talking and it looks like Chris and I will be subject to another trip to the outlet mall over in Ellenton. He's never been before so maybe he'll find it interesting, but I'm looking forward to it like I would to a root canal. Oh well......

We stopped off at a grocery store for some steaks. Chris bought the beer and the wine and I bought the steaks and lest you think he got boned, I bought four New York Strip steaks an inch thick - a bronto sized one for Chris, a normal sized one for me and two smaller ones for Barb and Taunya. Enough that I won't need much else, I can tell you.

Cliff from Prairie Star came over to visit and to be introduced. He is a political bachelor these days as his wife, Lee, is one of the movers and groovers in the political arena here in Gulfport and was having some sort of organizational rally at their house. We helped him out with several beers and enjoyed his company. He is a great source of information about where to go etc. in this area.

Tomorrow I am hoping to get some help from Chris for some boat chores to make them go more quickly; plus, and this is important, I am going to hook the regulator up to the tank to make sure that it doesn't need servicing before we leave Gulfport. The last thing that I need is to get to the Dry Tortugas and find out that my reg needs servicing. It's been a while so I should probably get it done anyway. That way if I need to buy a new one I will have the opportunity to do so.