tide pools

ever since i was a wee lad, the story of the 5 Chinese Brothers has always fascinated me.  i have often dreamed of being able to walk the ocean floor, its treasure laid bare, picking up doubloons or whatever else might suit my fancy.  since i don't have a friend who can hold the whole ocean in his mouth, however, i try to make full use of tide pools any chance i get.  the late fall and early winter months are when the tides are ripe, so about a month ago i introduced the boys to the experience at cardiff state beach.  

ryder jumped right into the whole affair, stomping through pools deep enough to soak his fleece vest, and pointing out each and every one of the eleventy billion anemones he saw. 

isaac, true to his form as the first born, was more content to observe from the sand, taking every opportunity to scoop some up with his shovel and throw it into the water and whatever happened to be underneath the water like this sea star. 

ryder points out the orange sea star that he found stuck to the side of a rock.

afterwards we headed to rubios and observed the more domesticated sea life in the aquarium next to our table as we at chicken nachos and tried to get the sand out.