Mike has never even DONE this..so he was being very indulgent. We got up at sunrise (stopped for coffee, of course) and drove north, up past the Cayucus pier and found a place to pull off the road and park . Up to this point, he is still very skeptical.

Honestly, where WAS he in kindergarten when they went on walking field trips? Obviously not in

my class! Tia and I took a walking field trip every Thursday of the world and we went everywhere. The barber shop, the beauty school, the pizza place, the post office, the Cuban mercado, Tiangi's...if we could walk there inside an hour and it was in Cudahy, we dragged those kids there. Today was not much different. I dragged him over the cliffs and bob war and down to the beach...and Mr. Rule Breaker was worried that we weren't supposed to be there or maybe the fencing

was to keep cows and stuff in. Sure, it is. Keeps them in..but doesn't keep us OUT.

This comes from the woman who dragged her

kids down into a herd of elephant seals (before you could bother them) and had Lisi lie down next to a pup-. A new elephant seal is the exact size of a 2nd grader, did you know that? (These elephant seals are from a different trip. They are as big as pickup trucks...what was I thinking? )

So anyway, we go tromping down the beach and Mike is moving from indulgent-I'm

married-to-this-eccentric-woman to hey!-this is kind-of-interesting mode. I only taught in the MARE program for ten years....I know tide pools, elephant seals and birds. I can chatter about them for HOURS..and I sometimes do. I have about a million lesson I could do just off the top of my head (which, after my quiet outing yesterday is not just filled with the whoooshing of air anymore.

Anyway, here are some photos of the tide pools, sea urchins, anemones. mussels....just pretty much whatever caught my eye.

Oh, I am not the 19-year old mountain goat I once was. I was climbing up a rock (fearless! brainless!) and fell. Just some road rash. It makes me look like I did something besides the dishes.

Oh, and this?

That's the Cayucus Pier. When I was little, we came down here all the time and I was terrified that I would fall thru the chinks in the pier and dangle by my little feet and when the tide came in, I'd drown.

Now HOW I thought my whole self would fit thru the chink but my feet wouldn't...and that the tide actually came up that high...and that NO ONE would notice is beyond me. But that is what I though in my little three year old brain. And the sea anemones scared me, too. I thought they would get me. Not that that little detail ever stopped me from sticking my fingers in them.
And yes, whenever I saw a starfish washed up above the tide line, I took them over to the tide pool and tossed them back into the water. I know I can't save all of them, but I bet the ones I saved are glad I bothered.