Beach scenes

We spent a long weekend with my parents at Harbor Island, where there's no surf except at high tide and lots of tide pools to play in and shorebirds to watch. But we were drawn there because it's within wading distance (at low tide at least) of Hunting Island, S.C. -- still one of our favorite places to go because it's a state park where forests, dolphins, shorebirds and osprey still prevail over condos and beach-cruising cars.

Here are a few of our favorite things to do at both beaches:

hermit crab catch-and-releasing

wave braving

surfing without the surf

body surfing with grammy

treasure burying

bird and dolphin watching from the pier

And two parting scenes:

gulls in a row

loving chokehold