This is Tidal Falls at low tide. There's something like 15-20 additional feet of ground we can walk on. And many, many tide pools to check out. This was a pretty amazing trip. The tide went just a bit lower than this, as this was about an hour before official low tide. That ground is not covered in rocks. It's covered in shells. COVERED. The crunching sound as we walked over it was a bit disconcerting at times, but I think most of the shells were empty.
The shells were all pretty much connected, too, so you couldn't pick up very many individual shells. So many great science lessons in tide pools!
This tide pool was filled with life. I loved watching the periwinkles move around. And we got to see the creatures poking their bodies out. Really cool.
I'm not sure what this is. Perhaps it's the beginning of seaweed? I need to research. But it's just so cool to look around and see all the things you can't see when the tide is high. So much life!
J found this sea star eating. On this side of the shoreline we found tons of sea stars. The shellfish were abundant, the barnacles were plentiful, but the sea stars and the crabs kept themselves somewhat hidden. But once we found a couple of sea stars, we must have found 15. All different sizes and colors. Unfortunately, a lot of them looked like maybe they were dead. The kids were really great with picking up and handling all the critters. When we went to the touch tank, the ranger didn't let them handle the sea stars, but they were very gentle with them when we were at Tidal Falls.
NB showed off his prowess with catching crabs. They were all excited to find the larger crabs. The teeny finy crabs are everywhere (if you have the patience to find them), but the larger crabs are more elusive.
J found a blood star. They're much smaller than the sea stars, and a vibrant/deep red.
Why is this post named Safety Safety Safety? Because falling in the ocean is still a bad idea. Because falling on rocks covered in barnacles is no fun for no one. Because one of our adults is an idiot. Do you see how my shoulders are a different, much lighter, shade of green? That marks how much of me was in the ocean. Fortunately for me, the tide was not rushing in or out, so it was a gentle abuse, mainly imposed by the barnacles (thankfully, the large crabs in the area decided to leave me alone). Since I had found crabs but did not have my camera, I was turning around to go get my camera. But the rocks were wet, my shoes were wet, and down I went, grabbing a hold of M to steady myself. She's the smallest kid I had with me at the time, so that made sense. Oh, and I was the only adult, so the kids were freaking out a bit. I couldn't find any hold on the rocks to help myself up, I could get no traction with my shoes, and I just kept slipping in further the harder I tried to escape. So with K and M grabbing hold of me, I just kinda kept getting beaten up by those darn passive barnacles. Thank goodness we travel with our dressers, so I was able to change into a new set of clothes, and we had towels to dry me off. I still hurt. And Bill saved me from the ocean, so he's my hero.
No comments:
Post a Comment