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.
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.
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