Chris' and Becky's Family

Chris and Becky and their family arrived at our home shortly after 7 pm.  They made the trip from Provo in about 11 hours.  Seems incredible.  It didn't take anyone long to change into a swimming suit and jump into the pool.  The coolness of night was setting in but the pool was warm from the day of sunshine.  

Noah (4 years old) and Becky

Chris, Bridger (6 years old), and Celeste

Sydney standing on seat in corner of pool

La Jolla Shores

Bridger, Chris, Celeste, Becky

Becky and Bridger

Chris and his dad, the Professor

Noah walking hand in hand with his grandpa

Noah watching the waterfall and erupt out of the rock with a hole through it.

Checking out the Tide Pools

 After reading a bit about hermit crabs, I have discovered that they are actually more like tiny lobsters than crabs.  

Hermit Crabs

Noah was nervous about getting to close to the hermit crabs that his Dad and Celeste offer to him to hold.  When you look closely at one, you can understand why.  If they were large, they definitely would be nightmare material.  Watching them in a tide pool is fascinating.  They crawl all over each other.  I am not sure if it is an effort to steal a shell or to devour a neighbor.  You'll have to read some more yourself.  We saw very tiny pin head size shells housing the crabs and fairly large ones.  

Tide pool filled with hermit crabs

These are the same two starfish that we saw yesterday.  

We left the tide pool area when the tide started to come in.

These mussels covered with living barnacles have fascinated me since I discovered them with some of my other grandchildren.  

I have discovered that some of the barnacles become tangled in the sea weed rather than attaching them selves to rocks.  These ones seem to be more likely to have barnacles attached.  

If you look closely you can see the open mouth (blue and red) of the barnacle.  It feeds off the microscopic particles of food siphoned out by its host, the mussel.  In this article by Caroline Bell, she refers to barnacles as the Klingons of the marine world.  

The tough part of the day for me was that Chris and Celeste walked out into the ocean a short way this afternoon and found themselves among the leopard sharks.  Sob.  Wish I had been able to go with them.  But I came to the beach completely unprepared to get wet.  They both said it was an incredible experience.  They saw lots of corbina (white fish) and "either a lot of sharks or one shark a lot of times."  I am so glad that they had this special opportunity.  Next summer, Chris is going to take his MOM.  

More Tidal Pools

Thanks to a young girl and her mother, the Professor and I saw two more orange starfish today while walking on the beach.  Of course, I did not have the camera with me.  Thank goodness for great cell phone technology AND the Professor.

Looking north towards the tidal pools among the rocks and Del Mar

The Professor's sun tanned toes and the remains of a lobster.

If you look carefully, you can see the "arm" of the orange starfish draped across the rock in the middle - just under the water level.  

Check that One Off My Bucket List

When the wave hit me, I was thrown towards the beach.  I could not find my footing.  While I struggled to breath and to get my feet on the ground, the thought flashed across my mind, "If I don't get out of the water, I am going to drown."

That thought was preceded by two other thoughts.  1. The Professor is going to have to come out here to save me.  2.  Lifeguards are going to have to come out here to rescue me. However since the lifeguards were very far away and would take several minutes to reach me, the thought above crossed my mind.

The Story

Since we have been coming to the Manning-Holland house in the summer, I have loved swimming in the pool with fins.  I can swim a length in no time at all.  It is really fun.  With the fins came a very good mask and a snorkel tube.  I really don't have any reason to use either in the pool, but have tried them out.  No sweat.  Easy as can be to breath with your face underwater.  



All summer we have been watching for fish in the ocean.  Sometimes we see Corbina or the Shovelnosed Guitarfish.   One time I went out into the ocean next to a group of people with masks and snorkels.  They were actually standing in the water rather than swimming.  When I was almost next to them, I was surprised to see a long gray smoothhound shark swim only a few feet away from me.  



I played with the thought of putting on the fins and snorkeling and getting a look at the leopard sharks that are supposed to be in abundance at that end of the beach.  



Our time in San Diego is running out.  University will be starting soon.  We will be going back to "Real" life in a week.  It was now or never to try out the snorkeling gear and see if I could find some fish in the ocean.  

There were so many people in wet suits snorkeling this morning.  Or on the beach either planning to go into the water or coming out.  It just all looked so easy.  I walked out until the water was above my knees then leaned on the Professor and put on my fins.  The only way to progress with your fins on underwater is to back up.  I backed up slowly because I felt so awkward. The fins felt so cumbersome.  Each time a wave hit my back,  I had to fight to keep my balance and stay on my feet.  I finally was out far enough into the water that I thought I was beyond the waves that were cresting and curling.  Just a few feet from me, I could see a person in a wet suit swimming along being bounced gently up and down by the incoming waves.  

Time to put on the mask.  I could see everything beneath me so clearly.  No fish but I had hopes that I would see more as I swam out further.  Then the first wave hit me.  I was knocked off my feet.  By the time that I had been hit several times by the powerful waves, I could not get my footing.  In fact one of my fins came off.  I remember thinking, "I'll never see that again."  When I finally stood up on the sand, there was the tip of the fin floating just out of reach.  

By that time there was no air in my lungs and I felt beaten and confused and shattered.  I carefully shuffled my way back into the shore and was so grateful to reach the Professor.. I still wasn't breathing normally.  In fact it took me quite a while to start feeling like my usual self.  

I was so grateful to have the Professor by my side.  But it is a sure thing that I will not be taking the snorkeling equipment with me to the beach again any time soon.  

Stingrays and Shovelnose Guitarfish

As we were walking on the beach at Del Mar yesterday, the Professor spotted several stingrays and shovelnose guitarfish.  One time yesterday we were standing side by side in the shallow water of the ocean looking for fish as the tide came in and out.  Both of us were surprised when we discovered that we had disturbed a buried stingray between us.  In a swirl of sand it raised from its hiding place and swam away.












Saturday, August 10, 2013

 Saturday on the beach we saw lots and lots of shovelnose guitarfish.  Today we saw none.  But there were corbina fish everywhere.  Tide must have something to do with it.  I am glad you got to see the shovelnose, Kimberly. If you look at him, he does look kind of like what we would call a spade.  

On Saturday, Dad and I saw three all in one spot close to each other.  A man came out to the water and excitedly called his family to come see the stingrays.  One woman panicked and grabbed her child and pulled him out of the water.  

I am not a person qualified to say anything so I kept my mouth shut.  This little guitar has some of the characteristics of stingrays but he is harmless.  He likes to bury himself in the sand and wait for prey to swim past.  

I should have told the people to go look at the pictures on the wall of the restrooms.  They would have seen immediately that the stingray is round.  Not a triangle with a tail like the shovelnose guitarfish.  Wish you were all here to walk on the beach with us.  Even if some of you, who shall not be named, thought it was no big deal to see fish swimming next to the beach.  :o)

Alaska 754 from Portland

And all of the way from Texas....

La Jolla Shores

When a girl 'does it herself',' it doesn't always turn out just right.

Gigi's and Lily's grandpa can speak before large audiences.  

He can write books.  He has traveled all over the world.  And now we 

know that he is the most patient and loving swing pusher ever.

One pair of the shoes is Grandpa's (the Professor's) 

and one pair is Lily's.

Can you guess which is which?

Lily would have liked to stay for the day, but we didn't bring one

 shovel or pail. 

She loved the water.  I don't think she has ever seen

 anyone run away from the waves as they come in, but she

 realized immediately that it was the best game a preschooler 

can play at the beach.  

Her joy was catching.  All of the grown-ups kept saying,

"Isn't it a beautiful day?"  

It might look as if we are at the ocean but the sand on the beach was a much bigger attraction.  

There were three large holes close to each other.  Gigi  seem to think it was a system of fox holes and she did her Army Crawl from one hole to another. 

And got very sandy.

Lily didn't need to crawl through the sand.  She had no trouble getting covered in it.