Tide-pooling too

The tides were great after Christmas, so Emily, Kevin, and I went out tide-pooling again. We headed out in the afternoon on the day after Christmas.

I love tide-pooling, so bear with me while I post more pictures!

What critter within? I don't know!

Dead.

What made this track?

A boring clam makes these perfectly-round holes.

And here is one!

And another!

The next two pictures are of a rare find. Two hugging isopods. These guys are the roly-polys of the sea. You may have read about a giant one that was brought up from the depths last year.

Kevin the Eagle Eyed found these.

A baby sea star was hiding pretty well, but I spotted him!

I love the different looks of the anemones!

A sea urchin skeleton

The sun was setting as we walked up the beach toward home.

Our Little Christmas 2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Last year I took you through our Christmas traditions. We did much the same this year, with Christmas cookies, light-viewing, and Chinese food on Christmas Eve.

Annette created a requisite likeness cookie, this time it is Anderson Cooper.

She tweeted it to Anderson, but he hasn't answered yet.

Kevin's traditional cookie is the snowman.

When we decorate our tree, it is traditional that her dad lift Annette to the top for the placement of the star. Can't do that anymore, so they made do:

A hand up....

And the final adjustment makes it perfect!

Our tree was so pretty on Christmas Eve!

And Christmas morning came!  It was fun!

Merry Christmas! I hope your day was gadget-ful!

Gaviota Wind Caves

Had a nice hike up to the Gaviota wind caves yesterday. Ironically, it was sunny and warm up there, and cloudy and cool here. Usually it is windy and freakin' cold in Gaviota.

It was an easy hike, and purty.

View from up there.

The top cave. Tunnel, actually!

See the round hole at the top? That was the top tunnel.

Cool geology!

Nature Day!

Kevin and I had a wonderful day of nature today. We are so thankful to live in such a beautiful place.

We went to Ellwood Beach and visited the monarchs.  The docent that was there said the estimate was over 21,000 butterflies and more to come. They have a fascinating life. This is their wintering ground. It's amazing that three to four generations from these, they'll return next year. How do they do that??  Read about monarchs here.

Clumps of roosting butterflies in the eucalyptus trees.

Closer view of clumps

A little sun on this clump.

After enjoying the butterflies, we went to Coal Oil Point. We had a mega-low tide today at a perfect time: 3:30 in the afternoon. It was a -1.6 tide, which is about as low as it goes!

Here are shapes and critters.

A miniature geology lesson

Tracks. Crab? I don't know.

A surf crab.

In a few hours, the surf grass will be gracefully waving in the water.

Anemoneeville.

Self-portrait

A couple little hermit crabs.

A chiton

A big limpet

                           Kevin in one of his favorite spear fishing spots! He loves to wait for fish along this rock!                                                       It's a little different when it's high and dry!

A sea cucumber

A field of sea grass and many other tide-poolers enjoying the beautiful fall day

When you come and visit, let's go tidepooling!