Sea Shells and Banyan Trees; Relaxing By the Beach

Alex and I have been spending a ton of time by the beach. The weather has been pretty awesome most of time we've been along the Florida coast. Accept for the last two days. It's been raining cats and dogs since last night. The really weird thing is that it's been in the 70 and 80s while it's raining, so it still feels like tank top and shorts weather. Today it was pouring and people were walking around in tanks like it was nothing. The pouring rain was mixed with lightning and thunder as we were driving down Hwy 1(yes, Florida has a hwy 1, too), and lightning struck literally like 15 or 20 feet in front of us. The entire van shook and a jolt went through my entire body. I felt like my heart had jumped out of my chest. I had never been that close to a bolt of lightning before, and to say the least, it was terrifying. I don't think I want to experience that again.

Hanging out at the beach

The water is really warm

I found a coconut

This is a Man O War jellyfish. One of the most deadliest of jellyfish. There were a crazy amount of these washed up on the shore

With all the time Alex and I have spent by the beach, we collected a ton of sea shells. Our intention is to use the shells to make jewelry. I already made two necklaces and a pair of earrings, but I didn't like the way they turned out. I think I need to get some beads or other things to go with the jewelry making, but we don't really have the budget for that right now. It would be cool to do something with the shells when I get back to Sacramento, so I think I'll save them.

Pocket full of shells

This was one of the prettiest we found

While driving down Florida's coastline we stopped at a lighthouse that has been active for the last 150 years. It has been nicely preserved and the surrounding area is beautiful. The lighthouse is located in the town of Jupiter and that area has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years. The lighthouse is built on a large mound that was created by a pile shells that were placed in that spot over thousands of years by the native people. There is a fresh water river that runs off into the ocean and there is an abundance of shell fish in that area, as well. When the native people caught shellfish they would always put the shells in the same spot, which then created a huge mound. A tree by the mound had shells embedded in the trunk, which I thought was really cool.

The lighthouse on a mound created by shells

View from the lighthouse

Peep hole inside the lighthouse

It was really windy at the top of the lighthouse

The river that flows into the ocean

Shells in the tree trunk

In front of the lighthouse was a huge 80 year old Banyan tree. Some people call it a "walking tree" because when the vines that grow from it touch the ground it will form into another tree trunk. It seriously looked like fourteen trees all combined together. Absolutely amazing! I had never seen anything like it, but Alex said he saw some Banyan trees in Hawaii. The tree is native to India and it's actually the country's national tree. I think it's my new favorite tree; my second favorite is a Weeping Willow.

This is all one tree

Very cool

Now I'm going to tell you about some random awkward situations I have come across.
I was watching my favorite T.V. show(Gossip Girl, I know it's super girly, but I really like it:) on the internet while sipping on some Green Tea at Starbucks and this guy walks right up next to me and motions me to take off my earphone's. He then awkwardly puts one hand on his hip and the other one scratching his chin and says, "um....let's see....how do I say this.....um....this is going to be awkward.....You see, I lost my pack of cigarettes and..." I quickly interrupted him and said, " I'm sorry, but I don't have any cigarettes and I don't smoke."  I mean, come on, I was in the middle of watching my T.V. show and he's asking me for cigarettes? Then he says, "No, I don't want your cigarettes, I want to use your computer to look up on the internet where they might sell the cigarettes."  I turned him down. First of all, I was in the middle of watching my show and I'm not going to let some random guy use my computer to look up a place cigarettes. Crazy.

Another funny thing was, when I was sitting in the van in a Walmart parking lot a group of black guys walked by the van and started making fun of our VW van. One guy said he'd rather walk than be seen riding in our van. Haha. So funny. Then I thought to myself, "I've never seen a black guy in an old VW bug or van."

We drove around Palm Beach to try to find parking along the beach, but everything was privately owned. A ton of millionaires own homes in Palm Beach. When we finally found parking it cost 5 bucks for one hour! So, needless to say, we didn't park along the ocean. Instead to parked along the intracoastal waterway, which is a water area that's not so pretty between the beach land and the mainland. 

Alex and I are slowly making our way to Key West. Tomorrow we may go to Miami.