Sand Dollars Aplenty

All of those sand dollars in the above photo are from yesterday's trip to Point Reyes National Seashore.  They are the results of walking along the beach and finding absolutely nothing, followed by Mister Man stating "we really haven't been finding sand dollar pieces this time."  Usually, we do.  But next time he wants to state something we haven't found, I suggest sea stars...or big chunks of gold.  Because as soon as he mentioned this, we started finding SO MANY SAND DOLLARS.  So many.  And we couldn't leave any behind, it appears.

  We had at least five casualties in Mister Man's pocket.  He thought they would be safest there.  They were not.

Yeah, those are baby sand dollars.

A few other things to point out.  That jacket always makes an appearance in photos on the seashore.

Also, the wind was missing.  Usually we fear we will be swept away from these huge gusts of wind.  My hair is always ruined for days after a visit.  For the first time, there was little wind.  Huge waves, but little wind.

Another strange thing.  The sun was there.  We didn't even know the sun could shine here.  Because it never has.  At least when we have visited.  It's always foggy and gloomy, and yet, still gorgeous.

It was 72 degrees, which normally would still be chilly with the fog and wind.  But yesterday, it felt lovely.

Some time early this year, we discovered tide pools.  And we were all, "how did we miss these before??!"  We really were confused.  But then yesterday, our tide pools were gone.  Just up and vanished.  Was it because it was high tide?  No.  Because it wasn't.  However that rock in the above picture is sort of what we were looking for.  It was covered in sand.  And the ground did seem higher yesterday.  The sand was much higher, in fact.  So we wondered if at certain times of the year, the tide pools are hidden.  We don't know for certain, but it makes us feel better for missing them last year.  Perhaps we had never missed them at all.  After all, they've been hard to miss the last few visits.

The Redhead exclaimed when she found this that she had found baby tide pools.  There were indeed baby sea anemone in there.

Vultures.

These turkey vultures were devouring a dead sea lion, tugging on its carcass.  I wanted to get closer and see if there were shark bites or anything, but with The Redhead as a witness, I decided against it.  I didn't know how the vultures would react, and in case it was badly, I didn't want her around.

For the first time, The Redhead had the opportunity to swim in that cold Pacific water.  She insisted.  She seemed to enjoy herself.

I kept expecting the sunshine to be momentary, but it stayed.

 For not finding any shells to start with, we sure found plenty, and lots of different kinds than usual.  Also, it doesn't matter how old I get, I never tire of picking them up.  And since the tide was so low, we were able to finally walk stretches of the beach that have never been accessible to us before.