Fort Matanzas National Park (that’s French for Fort Massacre…lovely) was closed for debris removal Saturday. Chris and I could have called to discover this, but instead we decided to drive all hour and a half down there and read the sign for ourselves. Oooops. So we crossed the parking lot to the beach, popped a California spumonte and tried to eat our sushi rolls before too much sand blew in them. 
I keep thinking we’ll happen onto the beach one day and find an enormous lightning whelk or horse conch. No such luck, although we found bazillions of starfish washed high up on the sand, looking sad. We tossed back a bunch, but I’m pretty sure they were already quite dead. 
I would appreciate it if someone could explain what this muscley-looking thing is (below). They were sprinkled all over the sand and looked…fresh. Chris guessed they’re the insides of all these bivalve shells we found. Any input?
And WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?? It was pushing its snout (??) forward, so we scooped it up with a shell and put it near the surf, but then it just shrank into its own globbiness like a slug, except less gooey. We saw a smaller dead one further down the shore. 
Chris is pretty picky about sushi, so I’d picked rolls I knew he would like: basic California rolls and spicy shrimp rolls—nothing raw, very tasty. “Do you like it?” I asked (this was before all this unappetising sea life). “It’s ok,” he said. “Isn’t this good champagne?” I asked. “Not bad,” he said. I frowned and helped him out: “Gee Mari, isn’t it romantic to drink champagne on the beach together right after a tropical storm? Thanks for picking out my favorite sushi and the sweet champagne I like. Yuuuuuum.” Chris considered this, then said: “I couldn’t have said it better myself!”
Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
