Sunday, January 13, 2013

I began yesterday’s blog, telling how I celebrated my oldest son’s birthday. Of how we discovered a usually hidden-under-tons-of-water, mile-long, tide pool area at a nearby beach. We made our discovery quite by chance when we opted to begin a hike from that beach. But rewarded with such an unearthing that just so happened to unveil itself due to the lowest tide of the year on my son’s actual birthday, well…

My son and I never made it beyond the tide pool area to continue on with our hike. Instead, we spent the next several hours, combing all its nooks and crannies. In them, we spotted an octopus, an endless supply of starfish, including pink, black, tan, chocolate brown and pumpkin orange ones and a colorful spectrum of sea anemones.

Included with this blog is a picture of one of those. I spotted its neon green underbelly as the sea anemone, clinging to the side of a normally submerged wall, hung up side down. There were a mere six inches between it and the sand, so I’m surprised I noticed it at all. 

But I did, its neon greenness calling to me. I wondered if it was a brightly colored piece of algae, similar to what grew plentifully in the rest of the tide pool. Without knowing for sure, I decided to take a chance to capture its image. It was a bit dicey trying to snap a picture of the anemone without getting my phone in the water.  I still hadn’t the slightest idea what the inside of the anemone actually looked like but carried on with my quest. Perseverance paid off. What you see is, I was rewarded with after I snapped a photo of the anemone in all its stunning beauty.

Sometimes, it pays to take a closer look at those things that capture our attention.  

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Yesterday was my oldest son’s birthday. When I asked him what activity he wanted to do to celebrate, he said he’d like to go for a hike, though nothing with any significant elevation climb. I thought about that and suggested we begin at the beach where there’s a trailhead that lead thirty miles up into the mountains. Course, I emphasized how I didn’t expect us to go anywhere near that far on our hike. 

My son liked my suggestion, so we headed out. Upon arriving at the beach, I was surprised to see how far out the tide was. Though I’ve become an avid tide chart enthusiast, watching for low tides so I can gather sea glass and seashells, I’d never seen the tide this low.

So just how far out was the water? Far enough to expose an entire tide pool area that spanned a mile in length and was usually completely concealed way under the water. 

Both my son and I are avid tide pool explorers and love to take whatever opportunities to explore them. So, when faced with this newly revealed tide pool area, we jumped at the chance to see what treasures might be hidden.

Tune in tomorrow to see what we discovered.  

Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year’s Eve!!!

The greatest thing about being at the beach after a big storm is that the ocean has receded enough to triple the size of the beach. And with that, large portions of the tide pools, normally submerged, are available for up-close-and-personal-viewing. Sitting on my balcony this morning, I gazed at the withdrawn ocean and gulped down my coffee, anxious to get on my way to the tide pools.

Once there, I found a veritable smorgasbord of sea life that I hadn’t the other days I explored the area. And my first stop? The portions waaaaay out—the part that’s usually under water. There I found huge pumpkin orange starfish. They’re one of my personal favorites and seem to have become rare to spot. So today when I came across a half dozen or so, each fifteen to twenty-five years old and close enough for me to touch, I felt truly lucky.

If you check out the new photo album my Webmaster posted this evening, you’ll glimpse some of what I spotted while at the tide pools earlier. For diversity, in this album, I tried to only post images not in the last one. I hope everyone enjoys.