You know what would be useful and really fun? A sea lion bark translator, because we have been staying at the Sounds of the Sea RV Park in Trinidad, California and all day (and at least part of the night) the sound of the Pacific surf is punctuated by the honking and barking of sea lions. Maybe if you live here it gets old, but in three days this has yet to lose it's charm for us. It did get us wondering just what it is they keep yelling at each other. Does all that "AWRK! AWRK! AWRK!" and "ORCK! ORCK! ORCK!" really mean, "WHADDUP YO YO YO YO WHADDUP KILLER WHALE!!!"
It's a bummer, but we did not get any good shots of the sea lions, although we did get some time observing them through the telescope (Mike and Judy, we have yet to aim that thing at stars, but we sure are enjoying it's superpowers). I figured once we got down onto the beach we would be close to some but they were nowhere in sight. That's okay -- we saw plenty of other cool marine life.
We began with a trip down to the beach at Patricks Point State Park at low tide (6:30 a.m. in case you're wondering...*yawn*) to do a bit of tide pooling. People always ask us, "What is tide pooling." It's where you go explore tide pools. You know, those little puddles of water left in the crags of the rocks when the tide goes out. They are teeming with life of all kinds. Crustaceans, bivalves, gastropods, bryozoans, visigoths, nerds who like big science words, etc. Check out some of our finds:
After a couple of hours of tide pool fun we headed back to camp for a big French Toast breakfast (because it was only a half mile and that's how we roll) and packed some serious snacks to hang out on Agate Beach for the rest of the day. Agate Beach is named for the semiprecious stone that is found in abundance (seriously, Californians are so cryptic with their place and animal names). We hunted for agates and found about a dozen over the course of the whole day, but we also came home with several pounds of beautiful little stones and pebbles of all sorts. I'm not kidding about the several pounds part -- if you want some awesome rocks for a homeschool geology lesson just holler. I'll mail you a handful.
When we got all stiff and sore from hours bent over digging through the sand for geological treasures we stretched and burned off calories with some Frisbee golf and random tossing. I am now more sore than I was the day we hiked out of the Grand Canyon. We rewarded ourselves with S'mores by the fire and spent time getting to know the family camped next to us (they're from Alabama and visiting with them felt like a trip to see my Aunt Lou Ann and Uncle George and their clan. Awesome!).
Today it's Life Church online then we roll out and head north for Brookings, Oregon where we intend to collect more rocks, play more Frisbee, explore more tide pools and figure out what those sea lions are saying.
Today it's Life Church online then we roll out and head north for Brookings, Oregon where we intend to collect more rocks, play more Frisbee, explore more tide pools and figure out what those sea lions are saying.
-Jenni