This morning, a large group of folks left to explore the USS Yorktown, a battleship from World War II. Tyler and I were among the few with little interest in naval history and a lot of interest in cozy couches and novel-reading. We opted to stay in. Eventually, though, the stay-at-home contingency decided it was time to take a hike. We mustered the energy to close our books, get off the couches, and head out into nature.

We ended up at Patriot's Point, close to the battleship, in the hopes that we could meet up with our friends …also because we'd heard there was a beach nearby where we could find sharks' teeth!

On the way to what turned out to be an elusive shark's tooth beach, we stopped often to look at birds. I am not a birder, but our friends Parks and Alexia are. It was loads of fun to learn about their passion.

Eventually, we found the beach: a grassy, sulfurous, salty, garbage-strewn swamp in front of a row of under-construction hotels. Needless to say, it was not at all what I'd been imagining. Still, we squelched around looking at shells and stones, searching for sharp, pointy teeth, and snacking on briny, bitter seabeans. It was all pretty low-key.

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...until Lizza found a shark's tooth! And then another!

And then Alexia found a shark's tooth!

And then I found two shark's teeth!

The guys never did find any.

When we eventually decided to leave the beach and head back to the car, however, Parks found a good-looking clump of oyster mushrooms growing on a tall, dead(?) tree trunk. It took several climbing tries, but eventually, he worked his way up there, busted out his pocket knife, and cut the mushrooms down.

It was awesome! A day of walking, birding, searching, and foraging... priceless. (Literally.) I love my friends.