Saturday Service

We have a back-to-back trend of Saturday service projects. This one was with Mike's company to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the acquisition. We went to Bill Baggs State Park and spent the morning cleaning up garbage along the beach. 

Two things we learned from this:

1. Wow. So much garbage. And so small. Like little plastic that won't break down, straws and SO MANY plastic bottle caps. 

2. It was really, really hot. Can't even put words to it.

Sometimes it's so good to just get into the thick of doing something hard together. I think we'll look back on this day with laughter and a sense of resilience of doing something in hard conditions. We have so much to be grateful for, and it always deepens perspective to get out and serve in the community. And that we can all be a little more mindful of what we're doing with our trash!

Getting the directions from the Rangers of what to look for, and to track everything we pick up on a sheet (they do research on the garbage and like to know what's getting picked up).

 Some of the group before heading out:

 Hard at work:

 These two digging for a big piece of plastic. Abigail thought the whole thing was like a big treasure hunt. The question she'd ask most "is this nature or is this garbage?"

Max found some cool blue crab legs!

 The distance shot hides to pools of sweat all over us! We drank SO MUCH water out there - Tayler and I had to go back and refill our big water bottles (definitely a good thing).

 We were able to catch a glimpse of this beautiful almost 200-year-old lighthouse.

 Abigail had a way of making friends with everyone. So sweet.

 The view of Miami on the drive home (crossing the bridge). Always so pretty!

 We came home and swam in the pool for the afternoon - felt SO GOOD to cool off!!