One of the last things we did, before leaving Port Aransas, was to take a walk through the Nature Preserve at Charlie's Pasture. We knew nothing about it, really. We'd just passed a sign for it, and I was curious about a plant I could see near the entrance, and wanted to get a closer look.
Those huge clusters of long brown bean pods are what first caught my attention. I remembered seeing them in my "Trees" class back in school, but I couldn't think what tree it was. When I got a closer look at the foliage, I realized it was something in the Mimosa/Albizia julibrissin family. My teacher said the old timers called it Ju Ju Bee.
At first the path led us through grassy dunes covered in masses of these sunflower-like plants with soft grey foliage, and scattered clumps of the mimosas, but then a wooden boardwalk headed us off towards this flat sandy area with small puddles of water here and there.
It wasn't until we bent over and spotted all the seashells that were embedded in the sand, that we realized these must be tidal pools that fill up with ocean water now and again.
Nature just never ceases to amaze me.
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