My son and I managed to make it into Laguna’s Main tide pools! And the photos we took, including this one, are awesome!
Yeah!
I took the vague tip of a lifeguard yesterday, who in an attempt to keep as many folks away from the closed tide pools as possible, was quite the double-talker. He could have rivaled the best politician when I asked the simple question, “Is there any chance that the tide pools might be opened tomorrow?” The one distinguishable bit of information I got from him was a time—noon.
Of course, he said that’s when high tide was to be. Then he contradicted himself by stating that would be low tide. Then he dismissed that information, telling me there was no chance that the tide pools would be opened at all.
But…me being stubborn me, I returned to the beach house and, having latched onto the noon time he kept reiterating, I Googled tide charts and found that 12:40 PM would be low tided today. And so, it was just after noon when my youngest son and I headed out, armed with my digital camera, to the tide pools, hope oozing out of us that they’d be open.
And they were! For the next fifteen minutes, we braved more rough surf and waves that threatened to soak us as I took photos, my son acting as wave lookout and official spotter of neat things to photograph.
Just as we were really getting into our task, we heard a disconcerting voice, calling towards us. It belonged to a lifeguard who had approached the area and was telling us we needed to evacuate the area since it was now being closed.
Damn! Is he kidding?
Seeing as he was rather serious, we began our trek out of the area, after notifying another family, who hadn’t heard him, that they, too, needed to leave. Once outside the area, we turned to note the dreaded “Tide Pools closed” sign hanging.
As my son and I walked away, depressed that our fun had been so short-lived, I came up with an idea and smiled. I shared it with my son, who said he was game. We walked over to the tower where a nineteen-year-old lifeguard sat and posed my idea to him. At first he was hesitant, and then agreed. Climbing off his perch, he picked up his flippers and buoy and followed us towards the sign.
The closer we got, the more hesitant he became. I reiterated that it would be fun. That all we wanted was a photo of me mock choking him in front of the dreaded tide pools closed sign. After another moment or two, he stopped in his tracks and said he really didn’t feel comfortable with being photographed and having that image go up on my site.
Hmmm…. What’s he got to hide?
My son and I, although rather disappointed, thanked him anyhow and headed back towards the beach house, minus what would have been a really cool picture. We agreed that if that dammed sign is up again tomorrow, we won’t stop until we gain the cooperation of some lifeguard to aid us in our photo op.
Once back at the house, we headed into town to have lunch at Johnny Rockets and were delighted to witness the sun—the actual orb of blazing hot heat—break through the clouds and then accent a sky that broke into periwinkle blue with fluffy white clouds.
Yippee! Eat faster! We have some serious soaking up some sun to do!
Back at the beach house, I laid out for a bit while reading and then played a rounding game of smash ball with my son. We had some awesome rallies where we not only didn’t have to move our feet, but our shots were so accurate that we didn’t even have to shift our weight, until….
After playing for over an hour, and having been driven up near the wall due to the rising tide, my son dove for a shot and both his knees came smashing down on a huge slab of rock-encrusted concrete buried just under the surface of the sand.
Holy shit! Ouch!!!
There was a lot of blood, skin lost and kneecaps so badly impacted, that he couldn’t make coherent thoughts at first. We’ve managed to clean the wounds—great battle scars as we call booboos in our family—and he’s resting. It’s tough to watch him try to stand up after sitting, though, as his knees want to lock up from their bruising.
Despite the injury, we both agree that today was an awesome day! Not only did we get into the tide pool area, but also the sun came out full-force.
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