Minus Tide Adeventure

Another minus tide this weekend so we headed to Kopachuck State Park to explore. I only expected to walk around 45 or so minutes and didn't prepare with sunscreen-- might have been a mistake. D and G can walk forever finding creatures in the water. M had trouble getting in the spirit at first; after he got over the fact he was going to be a little wet and dirty he enjoyed wading and discovering. I have only a single pic with E in a frame this time. He will not pick up animals and is hesitant to go too far out in the water. He had a terrific time and helped me pick up sand dollars--I'll get to that later.

G loves animals. He will pick up anything. He was picking up every sea star around as well as crabs and clams. You can see the joy on his face as he is discovering.

Sea stars (formerly known as star fish--renamed by scientists since they are not technically fish) were plentiful. So many colors and shapes.

G turned one guy over so we could see what made that neat feeling on his hand.

Now let me finish with a little story. Once upon a time there was a man who loved sand dollars, lets call him D. On the Atlantic coast sand dollars were rare and precious-- a real find to show off. When D moved to the Pacific coast he was amazed to find sand dollars were as plentiful as the sand itself. But he had the need to collect them anyway. The first year he collected as many as he could (about 150). Took them home and his lovely and patient wife cleaned, dried and created pretty home decor and gifts with them. The second year at the beach he went out of his mind and collected about 300. His wife said "you can take them home, but you take care of them". He took them home, put them in bleach and left them for 3 months before draining and abandoning them. The wife finally dried them and used a few for crafts and gifts and said never again will sand dollars be collected by our family. Never. Travel in time one more year to today. At the beach the wife sees something she has never seen before......
baby sand dollars!!!! And the wife found herself picking them up and then encouraging her son to help and before she knew it she had a whole pocketful of baby sand dollars. And she felt guilty for yelling at D in years past as he brought her more for her collection. The End.

love and hugs and no sand dollars were harmed in any of these collection episodes--we only collect the dead sand dollar skeletons. B