Monday, May 8, 2023

Happy birthday, Younger Daughter!

Younger Daughter turned 25 years old yesterday!

She knew something was up since she caught us whispering a lot. My dad is fairly deaf, so "whispering" is often a relative thing. Still, she didn't know exactly what was planned.

The surprise was my youngest brother and my sister-in-law, who showed up laden with balloons and the elegant cake shown above, a culinary marvel from a French bakery. It was a pistachio cake with a layer of mango sponge at top, and a mango glaze all over. Since Younger Daughter adores mangoes – they are literally her favorite fruit – she was very happy.

We had the best party! My brother and sister-in-law stayed for several hours, and all six of us talked nonstop.

Toward evening, since Younger Daughter and I needed to run an errand, we decided to hit the beach again before it closed.

Apparently there was a shark attack at this beach a couple years before, so this sign was installed as a warning. Shifting sands have literally buried the sign up to its neck.

Of course we couldn't walk on the beach in shoes. Within moments we had kicked them off to splash in the water.

Gorgeous views.

Even the seagull seemed to think so.

What is it about waves? I could stare at them for hours.

We walked along the deserted sands for about thirty minutes, beachcombing. Younger Daughter found a small but lovely sand dollar.

I found what looked like a small siphonophore of some sort.

While we didn't know whether it was a Portuguese man-o-war, Younger Daughter drew a warning around it.

As we walked back to the parking area, a train passed by.

The beach was a very nice way to end a the day of celebration.



5 comments:

  1. Happy birthday, Younger Daughter! Your cake looks delicious.

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  2. Beautiful. Happy Birthday to YD!

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  3. It’s a “by-the-wind-sailor”! V. Velellum. How appropriate that your favorite sailor find it! Thanks for the lovely blog, Miss Patrice.

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  4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velella

    Link for the jellyfish found on the beach. Sure sign of an El NiƱo to come.

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