Filling My Free Time

I still don't feel like I'm retired. I haven't had to go to or worry about work for over a month but I have still been pretty busy. I guess I just had a lot of things I wanted to do and now have time to do them. The last week of December and the first few days of January were pretty cold with most days not even getting above freezing. Because of that I had the posse come out where I live and do a hike instead of a ride over the Christmas break.

Luckily we had a warm up this week and I got out a couple of times. The one good thing about retirement is I can now ride whenever I want so can plan my riding around the weather as oppose to hoping the weather is good on the weekends or my days off.  

Part of what I did over the last few weeks is put together list of things I want to do with my free time. One of the things on the list is to go get a few pictures of the seals at Sandy Hook. As the water has gotten clean over the last couple of decades more wildlife has come back to some places along the shore. For the past 10 years there have been seals at Sandy Hook in the winter. So if you go there near low tide on a sunny day without a lot of wind you have a chance to see them.

They gather on the rocks and sandbars to relax for a few hours. We tried to see them last year but couldn't find them. This time they were easy to see. 

 

They usually gather at the top of Sandy Hook by the church and old barracks. There are some sandbars and rock outcropping that they like lay on that are only about 100 feet from the shore. We parked in a parking lot behind the barracks and walked out to see them. 

 

There were probably 35-40 of them laying on the rocks and swimming around. I had my good camera with the telephoto lens so go a few good close up shots even though I was shooting into the coming sunset. 

 

We watched them for about a half hour as they laid there and moved around and played with each other. After that we headed out to a place on the water for dinner. It was a nice relaxing way to spend an afternoon. I have a lot of other things like this that I want to do so it is nice to now have the free time to do them,