We spent the afternoon here, at beautiful Horseshoe Bay. This is the far side, the entrance would be in the background down the right margin. Famous beach, very pretty place:

There was a lot of energy in the water today. I snorkeled around the big rocks at the point one time and gave it up. It was manageable, but all the fish were elsewhere, so it wasn’t really worth it.

The best part of the day was on the beach. This guy had it figured out:

The next several photographs are just part of a series of the day’s snapshots.

The White-tailed tropic bird, Phaethon lepturus catesbyi, is the smallest of three closely related seabirds. Based on the colors and length of the tail this one is a male:

“Come on in, the water’s fine!”

(It was a bit cool, actually.)

This is apparently the thing to do now, enlist someone to take a photo just as you’re about to be doused. Do it for Facebook!

The most colorful, smelliest guy on the beach. He was the first one of the locals as the tourists started leaving and the locals moved back in, about 4:30.

I wonder how this happened, geologically speaking.

The trail behind the beach. Lone tree, trail and sand running out of the back of the shot. Fair composition.

Our cab driver had a global economic theory. If we all worked less, others could work more. Unemployment would go down, vacations would go up. Not sure about the first part,but I like the second-level effect.

Here is magician illusionist Jason Bishop. He’s highly regarded as one of the best guys working, despite some cheesy sweeper sound effects. Here he has placed his lovely assistant in a box, folded it up and then stuffed it full of blades.

Here’s Bishop and his lovely assistant, Kim, after she was found safe and sound in the recently perforated and then-rebuilt box. At one point he’d spun her head around and around in the original structure. It would be hard to explain. Just go with it, it was visually impressive:

Before the show he invited people to come up and sign his magic box. This bit has been in play for a while, as you can see, and so the magic box (which was empty, I tested it) has almost become a piece of folk art. For the show he invited about a dozen people from the audience onto the stage. He stuffed Kim in a canvas bag and had three people tie it up. He locked the box and stood on top. The dozen or so participants from the crowd threw up a big curtain, just long enough to get it over Bishop’s head. When it fell, Kim was standing on top of the box. She hopped down, unlocked the box and he was inside, in the bag, and the knot-tiers verified those were their knots. It was blink-of-an-eye fast. We talked with one of the knot-tiers later. She said all you could hear was a quick bang, like the lid of the box shutting. She was two feet away and mystified. Neat trick:

We met one of the chefs tonight. He was from Jamaica. He said his job was to count things. So I guess he handled the logistics of how many lobster tails the ship needed. In a sense, he is every bit as important as the guy driving the thing.

Because you don’t want to anger a bunch of old people from New Jersey who’ve just learned they can’t get that second dessert:

More food art. Some watermelons from sushi hour: