Resiliency

That's our word for today: Resiliency. 

When we picked Darcy up on her last day of school at Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods (KRECR), she came with bags of gifts from her class and after-school program, and a pea seedling in a plastic cup. The pea had five or six leaves at most and barely peeked over the top of the cup. We didn't have high hopes of keeping the pea alive as we drove straight from KRECR to Ashland, OR (Bed #2 for those keeping track), and beyond across this great nation.

The pea mostly lived in one of the back seat cup holders, where it got a little sun most days. On the first desert-y days, we watered frequently and took it into hotels at night to prevent freezing. In St. Louis, it found a cozy kitchen window with our friends for two days, high above the reach of curious cats. It lived for almost a week in my parents' south-facing windows and for a week and a half in the shadowy light of Bed #16 with the great view.

Over the five weeks (FIVE WEEKS) since the pea joined our traveling circus across the country, it has survived and occasionally thrived. It wasn't getting enough sun at Bed #16 and had grown pale, but it is soaking up the rays in abundance at Bed #17. I expect it to make a full, deep green recovery.

Like the pea, the pea's caretaker-in-chief has also demonstrated her resiliency over the past five weeks. She misses being in school and we hope to have her registered next week, as soon as we know which house will become our next permanent bed. She has put up with all 17 beds with grace and (mostly) good humor. She has entertained herself with a limited collection of her own things and has taken opportunities as they've been presented (anyone else been massaging fan-tail pigeons recently or riding their bike around a hotel's empty parking lot?).

We hope to hear today whether our offer on our first-choice house is accepted and then the pea and the girl can settle in for the long haul and put down more permanent roots.

So. About That Blogging Daily Business...

Bed number 16 is quite comfy and has a beautiful view in the morning:

It has its own bridge that leads from where we can park to the house:

And it has more beautiful views from the dining table. The first day, Darcy and I watched an osprey flying around while we ate lunch:

This view includes my car (on the left) and the bridge (on the right). And of course, the stream. I think we figured out what the stream is, but I've forgotten again. 

What our house does not have, most unfortunately, is internet service. It's supposed to and it has a wireless modem that flashes its seductive lights at us around the clock, but there is a password required for access and nobody seems to be able to tell us what that is.

Although it's hard to be completely sad that I have to come to the lovely Patisserie Fauchere for internet, there have to be some limits on how many of their pastries I consume for the sake of using their free wi-fi. This morning, I tried to be restrained and had one of their homemade English muffins. A revelation of crispness! But I can't pretend that I can still blog every day when I am constantly seeking internet connections. The patisserie isn't open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, for instance.

I'll blog when I can and enjoy the views of bed number 16 while we search for bed number 17, which will hopefully be our own!

If I Was Single In Another Era...

There are many jobs in our modern era that are much easier to imagine having if you were childless and preferably single, so you didn't have to worry about the amount of time you were spending at your job.

I think in previous eras, there might have been even more of those sorts of jobs and if I were choosing one of them, I would choose working on this mobile post office. This is one of the cars we got to tour at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton. It's a car that was leased to (or by? I don't remember the exact relationship) the railroad, but it's a fully self-contained post office. It is amazing, but I get the feeling that the postal workers pretty much lived their whole lives on the train. Not good for maintaining relationships.

What do you say, Auntie Best? In the days before airplanes would have let you teach yoga around the world, would you have joined me on this post office car?

News Of The New Home Front

Permanent housing may still be beyond reach right now, but we will be moving into semi-permanent temporary housing Friday afternoon! We finally found an available vacation rental at an affordable price. It has some interesting quirks, including a long, wooden pedestrian bridge from the parking to the house, but it is reasonably well-located and definitely beautiful.

One of the other quirks? Dial-up internet. Oh goody. Haven't had that since Alaska. Hopefully, I can get photos to upload to Blogger without timing out constantly.

While I can still post photos (although it took a long time), anyone recognize these two trees?

Congratulations, Mr. President!

Woo-hoo! I didn't even have to stay up past midnight to see our President re-elected to a second term! Good work, American voters! President and First Lady Obama, congratulations -- so glad you get to stay in the White House for another four years!

The House Search

When we were in St Louis, we drove by our old house on Liermann Ave. It was looking about as we left it, although with new basement windows, I think. The house wasn't perfect, but we enjoyed it.

Today, I started looking at houses in our new home. It was a bit of a reality check. I visited five houses and only one was a realistic option for us. I will be continuing to look.

Unfortunately, I'm also having to continue to look for a temporary living situation as well. We had hoped to extend in our current hotel for another few nights as it has a kitchen, but when we asked, we found that they already have booked it. So we're moving to bed number 15 tomorrow, but I booked it through Sunday because I'm having so much trouble finding a longer-term temporary house.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Bed #14

Ok. So I am tucked in bed and it is very comfy. It is also the 14th different bed I've slept in since October 18th. There's something slightly wrong with this picture. We were supposed to be in a medium-term rental (like 30 days) last Tuesday.

However. I am grateful that I have a bed to sleep in, with electricity, heat, and running water. We passed through so many communities without power on our way from my parents' house back to the Delaware Water Gap. A week after the worst of the storm and there are still huge trees being held up by nothing but the power lines. There are major intersections that still don't have power for the traffic lights. It is unbelievable.

More St Louis

We went to the St Louis Zoo while we were hanging out in the old 'hood. I left to drop bags at our hosts' house and Michael and Darcy continued on to the Insectarium and other joys. I missed going to see the penguins, which made me sad, but they had a great time. Darcy loved identifying the butterflies and getting up close and personal with them.

In case you are reading this and have never been to St Louis, let me share one of my favorite things about the city: many things are (or at least were) free. I once stood behind a family of four paying for their afternoon at the Museum of Natural History in New York and their bill was $84!! There are an awful lot of families in New York who could virtually never afford to take their kids to the museum at that price.

But when we lived in St Louis (and I believe at least some of this is still true), the Art Museum, the History Museum, the children's Science Museum, and the Zoo were all free. When the most-amazing Van Gogh exhibit came to the art museum, you had to pay to see that. Unless you went on the free day each week, which I did. Twice. The Missouri Botanic Garden wasn't free, but for St Louis residents, it was only three bucks.

When I first lived in St Louis, the zoo, the art museum, and the history museum were all within (long) walking distance of my apartment. On nice days, when I had to get away from my books for a short time, I'd sometimes walk over to one of these fine institutions and wander around for 15-20 minutes and walk home. It was awesome. If I'd had to pay to get in, I'd never have done that, but it gave me a great destination for a break without feeling like I had to get my money's worth and stay the whole afternoon.

We did pay when we went to the zoo on this visit because there are extras that aren't free: the zoo train, the carousel, the petting zoo, etc. For ten dollars each, we got a pass into all those extras for the day. 

In other words: Go St Louis!!







(I could also get a ticket to a Cardinals game for under 10 bucks. I'm guessing that's not possible in the new stadium.)

Ok. Guilt Works.

So I had said that I was doing daily blogging in October and NOT in November, but now two of my fellow bloggers (see my blog roll on the right side of the screen) appear to have taken the leap for NaBloPoMo. And I feel that it's partly my fault. I obviously did not blog yesterday (and I missed a couple/few days in October, too), but I'll try to keep blogging daily through November. 

It is after 11, I just helped paint a ceiling while my laundry dried (isn't that what you do when you're doing laundry at 10 o'clock on a Friday?), and I'm feeling very, very sleepy. So here are a few pictures to get you through until tomorrow:

(Oh. And for those keeping track, we are now at my parents' house for the weekend, we do not have temporary housing for our return to Pike County on Sunday, and we have not looked at a single house for our permanent residence either. It looks like the Dingmans Ferry Post Office pegged us right: We are transients!)

On our drive east from St Louis, we stopped to see our friend Jim and Karla and their boys, L and BabyL. We were terrible about getting a picture of the whole family and photos are loading very, very slowly, so these are my offerings for tonight. WashU folks will recognize Jim showing Darcy how to shoot a bow and arrow, with BabyL's legs just visible on the right of the photo. BabyL very nicely fell asleep in my arms while we were outside. In the bottom photo, L was throwing leaves at Michael while Darcy was playing with Paddington. Yes, Paddington and Nutmeg, dogs formerly of St Louis, are alive and well in Indiana. 

It was too short a visit, but much better than no visit at all. We had never met either of their boys and now we have! Hopefully, there will not be time for two more children to be born before we see them again!

Sandy's Results, According To The Glores

Whew. Sandy has officially welcomed us to Pennsylvania, or perhaps exactly the opposite. We have been hunkered down in a very wet Pittsburgh while Sandy tried her best to destroy the lower part of Manhattan island. We had a great day, with 4.5 hours of fun at the Children's Museum (awesome art options!) and dinner with my cousins. The rain was light, the winds mostly non-existent.

But then we started trying to figure out what we do next. We haven't been able to get in touch with anyone at the new park, but know that the park itself is closed at least until Thursday. The vacation rental house we were planning to stay in for the next ten days doesn't have power and doesn't expect to have to have power restored for 7-10 days. Ooops. There are 19 road closures in our new county, including the main road in sections. Not so good either.

Our decision? We're going to move closer to our new home, but not quite there. Officials are asking people to stay off the roads except for emergency travel, for one thing. And for another, we're assuming that no hotel will take new guests if they don't have power and that any hotel in the immediate area that does have power is probably full of storm refugees.

So we're going as far as Scranton tomorrow. They have power, there are only minor road closures, and we found a hotel with a lot of vacancies. Also with a true one bedroom suite with a door between the bedroom and the rest of the suite just in case we end up staying there for several days while power is restored to everything closer to where we'll be living.

Ah, Sandy, you really know how to make people feel welcome in their new home! We could have done without this particular welcome mat.

Life Is Exhausting

I had this misconception that driving across the country instead of flying would minimize our experience of jet lag. But our driving schedule (and socializing schedule, to be honest) has meant that we haven't been able to take advantage of the gradual time change and keep Darcy's bedtime at a normal hour. And so, having crossed into Eastern Daylight Time earlier today, it was a struggle to get her to sleep by 10:15. Hopefully, we can start to fix this problem in Pittsburgh. It now looks like we may be there three nights, as all park employees are being told to ride out the storm at home rather than at work. We'll get updates about power outages, downed trees, and flooding and make that decision on Tuesday morning, I think.

And that's my extremely exciting blog post for the day. We had a great time in St Louis. Saw many, but not all of the folks we'd hoped to catch up with and some, but not all of the places we wanted to show Darcy. Pictures tomorrow unless somehow Pittsburgh is without power!

My Network Administrator Prevented Blogging

You know how your computer sometimes gives you an error message that ends, "If this problem persists, contact your network administrator." My network administrator is Michael. When we get to a new hotel, he's the one who figures out how to connect us to their padlocked wi-fi. If there's a problem, he takes care of it.

But last night, he failed me for the very first time and couldn't get me internet access in our friends' home. So you all went blog postless and almost did tonight as well. Luckily (?) for you, Hurricane Sandy is disrupting our travel plans, so I had to have access to cancel a couple hotel reservations and make new ones to keep us out of the storm for a couple days. We'll reassess depending on how widespread the power outages are on Wednesday.

We are having a great time in St Louis. Good friends, good food, almost no driving, and beautiful places to hang out. What could be better? 

That's all I have tonight. Hope those of you reading on the eastern seaboard are prepared for whatever ends up coming your way. Stay safe. We're hoping to get to western PA before the storm really arrives and then stay put through the worst of the driving conditions. I'll keep you posted unless all of PA loses power!

Getting Closer To St Louis

So, of course, part of me is excited about living in Pennsylvania, near my folks and other family, a lot of old friends both from high school, college, general life, and Ashokan, and near the big, wicked city that I do love (in moderate doses). But another part of me is sad to have left Crescent City friends and California family. While talking with a Crescent City friend today, I realized that I'm dealing with this by not thinking as much as I should about house-hunting in Pennsylvania and other details that indicate the permanency of this sojourn across the country. Right now, I can close my mind and think of this as a really great vacation. After all, we stopped at a Lewis and Clarke interpretation site this morning and we're staying in a cool old hotel on the Missouri River tonight.

And tomorrow, we'll arrive in St Louis where we can show Darcy our old house and school and favorite places. That is the most vacation-y part of the trip, and we will stop driving east for 48 hours of old friends in our old city. With any luck, the time with old friends will remind me that leaving  a place with great people doesn't mean that the great people leave your life. It just means that they're a little further away.

There's an anthropological term for people who aren't biologically related to you, but play the role of family in your life: fictive kin. I have gathered fictive kin wherever I've gone in my life and it makes for a richer, more meaningful existence. And just as my uncle isn't any less my uncle if he's on the other side of the country, neither do the ties of fictive kinship lessen with distance. 

It's a good thing to keep in mind during transitions.

Arches!

We crossed another time zone today. We have been out of our house for eight nights. Driving 350-400 miles a day since then. We're tired. And so, I am especially grateful for the amazing natural beauty of Arches National Park, which needs no captioning:

Hickison Petroglyphs

As mentioned yesterday, one of our stretch breaks along the "Loneliest Highway in America" was at the Hickison Petroglyph site. I had read about it as one of the few possible stops during that drive and it couldn't have come at a better time. We were all ready to get out of the car. There were beautiful views and beautiful lichen (if you didn't already know, I'm a huge fan of lichen and I know I've posted lichen pictures on this blog before, but I can't find them):

In this picture, as you can see, I've combined the view and the lichen...clever, huh?

If I was more ambitious, I'd get the pictures from today off the camera and show you all the mind-blowingly beautiful scenery in and around Arches National Park. But my child is asleep, my husband is well on his way to asleep, and I'd like to get there, too. Tonight, we are all sleeping in Denver, after a lovely visit with our friend Gretel for dinner. Last time we saw Gretel, she had her lovely dog Tule with her and they got a mention in this blog post about Darcy and animals (Gretel, there is a picture of Tule).

Tomorrow, we drive the rest of the way across Colorado and much of the way across Nebraska. It's been a lot of driving and I have to say that I am looking forward to TWO NIGHTS in the same place. Two more long days and one very short day of driving left until we hit St Louis and stay put for 48 hours!

Moab!

We made it safely to Moab while it was still light yesterday, but the internet was so slow last night that I skipped posting. This is a cheat: I am post-blogging for yesterday.

Top photo: Darcy and Salmon with the kokanee at the stream bank viewing windows. Most of the kokanee in this stretch of stream were spawned out and dead, unfortunately, but we saw plenty of live ones in the stream. Bottom photo: Darcy and Michael on top of the scenic viewpoint at Hickison Petroglyphs off Route 50, the loneliest road in America.

Honeymoon Nostalgia

Here's the thing: We're driving across the country. Our stuff is in a million different bags. We try to stay organized, but the emphasis is definitely on the TRY. So I managed to bring the card reader for the camera but not the cable in from the car. In other words, no NEW photos tonight. Lucky for you, today was in part about a little nostalgia visit to Lake Tahoe, where Michael and I went for our honeymoon almost exactly seven years ago and I had Michael put a couple pics of that on the desktop for me a couple days ago.

As a theme for our honeymoon photos, we took the salmon Michael gave me from Katmai with us and posed him in many pictures. The same salmon came with us this time and recreated a number of them, but due to the lack of cable, you only get to see the originals:

This is the time of year that the kokanee salmon (miniature sockeyes descended from sockeye introduced to Lake Tahoe in the 1940s) spawn in Taylor Creek. The forest service has a great streambed viewing area, but today, we had much better views of the kokanee from above than below.

From Lake Tahoe, we drove the "Loneliest Highway in America" (Route 50) almost all the way across Nevada. We're in Ely, NV, for the night, with Great Basin National Park on tap for a morning visit, followed by a drive to Moab, UT, the base for visiting Arches National Park. Saw lots of great stuff today -- so sorry I can't share the photos!

Michael's Day

The shortest route between Crescent City and Pennsylvania goes through southern Oregon to meet up with Interstate 80 at Winnemucca, NV. That is not the way we are going because Michael has some issues with leaving California without seeing the Sierra Nevada mountains (I know there's some redundancy in that phrase; just want to be clear). So we dipped south along I-5 and then across to Lake Tahoe where the granite peaks are naked and the air is crisp and scented by Ponderosa pines.

To make the day truly Michael's, we stopped in Chico to visit the Sierra Nevada Taproom so Michael could inhale the smell of cooking grains, try several different beers, and we could all eat a delicious, but crazy-big meal. He peered through windows into rooms full of hops, saw lots of copper kettles and pipes, and bought a couple new beer glasses. You'd think I didn't just give him a new pint glass a few weeks ago.

Unfortunately, we arrived in Lake Tahoe too late to do much except enjoy the heated pool, eat some leftovers for dinner, and hop into bed. But we have big plans for tomorrow. Darcy thinks it's hilarious that we can walk to Nevada, so we'll do that. Then we have big plans to see the kokanee salmon before heading out after lunch.

No photos tonight -- sorry about that! I could have given you a picture of the perfectly-poured pint of beer Michael enjoyed at lunch, but I decided not to.

Darcy Jo Love

Our girl is an amazing person. We are her parents, so we would believe that no matter what. One of the things that has constantly amazed and touched me deeply is that so many other people believe that, too, and are quick to tell us and show her. She is truly loved by a measurable percentage of Crescent City's population. I say this not to brag about my girl (although I'm not adverse to doing so). I say this because I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of love showered on our Darcy Jo in the past weeks.

Michael said lovely words at our last dinner with friends on Thursday night. He claimed that he understands why people want to be friends with me, but is often surprised that people are genuinely and equally fond of him and his company. I think both of us could say that about Darcy. I sometimes think that our family is welcomed into society because everyone loves Darcy. We are merely her transportation staff.

Darcy's last day of school just confirms this view for me. After a wonderful evening with a dozen or so close friends and a night spent in the home of the ever-generous, gracious, and much-beloved Leonard-Rhodes clan (our house was empty), Darcy did early-morning yoga with our hostess and we all ate huckleberry pancakes (one last gift from our garden/yard). Then off to school, somewhat coincidentally in the same outfit that started this school year:

Her teachers and class showered her with gifts (which I have to find proper stowage for in the trunk this morning) and hugs. Our good friends at Vita Cucina shared their own daughter's birthday glory by providing cupcakes to the whole Cohort A that were for both B's birthday and Darcy's departure. More gifts followed from her after-school contingent, who has posed for a group picture earlier in the week that was framed and gifted yesterday.

Darcy's fans (well, one fan anyway) even met us at the school when we went to pick her up to be sure he could say a proper good-bye:

We have extended our fictive-kin family while in Crescent City: there is no doubt about that. Darcy will forever have extra honorary aunts, uncles, and siblings on the North Coast.

One of her friends went the extra mile, however. The beautiful elder Miss W was sporting a homemade shirt expressing her sentiment for the day:

And this proves my point. We all got bone-crushing hugs from Miss W. I personally got four, all of them long-lasting. But only Darcy Jo got the t-shirt.

Oh, how we will miss you, our Crescent City friends. Never doubt that. You will be welcome in our home always, no matter what national park is outside our doorstep at the time.

Step One

It's a small step, but we have said our farewells to friends and places in Crescent City. Our stuff is on a moving truck (or in our car in Oregon or our pickup in Wyoming). We are in Ashland with a zonked-out Darcy and two parents very close to joining her in dreamland.

Some highlights of the day:

Watching the truck drive away from the house

Eating a last lunch from Vita Cucina

Being surrounded by good wishes from good people

Seeing Darcy Jo showered by gifts and hugs and love from her school mates

Going to the Medford Trader Joe's on its Grand Opening: that's right -- they opened the day we are leaving

A last drive along Crescent City's beautiful coast

One more drive through the redwoods on Howland Hill Road

Almost three years ago to the day (I think we arrived on October 18th and we've left on the 19th) that we first came here, we repeated some of our first stops. It has been a tremendous three years and this place has shaped who our child will be in many ways.

Tomorrow: Lake Tahoe and the kokanee salmon!

Random Photo and MOVERS

Random picture again. This of Darcy (wearing the shiny crown in front row) receiving her Student of the Month award last year. I'm pretty sure I gave the text, but you'll have to comb through the archives yourself if you want to see what her teacher said about her.

The movers come in a little over an hour. We're close to ready, but not quite there yet. Despite their original plan to pack today and load tomorrow, the driver called last night to say that he wants to try to do both today. I am SO on board with that sentiment. I hope it happens. There are supposed to be four people coming (maybe five if the driver helps?). When we left Alaska, two people packed and loaded everything we owned in less than five hours. I think there's a good shot it will be done today.

There Is No Extra Time Left

So it's just a picture so you know that moving hasn't killed me yet. One of the legacies of our sojourn in Del Norte is a bigger network of community gardens. I even worked yesterday to improve their future before the door hits us on the way out:

Time Speeds Up

We are down to days now.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, everything that's going in our pickup has to be in it. Uniforms, bike, a few kitchen things, my gift box of spice mixes, box of files, golf clubs, gas cans, propane tank, extra Darcy comfort items, heavy winter gear...all destined to travel by Tacoma. We're handing it over to a friend who will drive it partway across the country for us because driving two vehicles 3200 miles and trying to meet up for meals, hikes, and stretch breaks just doesn't sound like fun. We'll meet up with friend, truck, and stuff somewhere near the Ohio border and drive just the last day or two separately.

Thursday morning, anything that the movers aren't packing either has to be out of the house or labeled very, very clearly as DO NOT MOVE because our experience tells us that anything not nailed down will be packed. Quickly and efficiently packed, with no time to notice that one thing we'd planned to carry with us disappearing into a box.

Friday, we will leave. We are not ambitious about that afternoon of driving. Darcy will go to school, but probably not the after-school program. The plan is to stay in Ashland, OR, just 2.5 hours away.

It's crunch time. Here are a few random pictures for you to enjoy.

 Darcy and her friend K at the end of Camp Tall Trees Girl Scout camp.

A beautiful late-June day in Del Norte. Rock slide in pouring rain at False Klamath Cove.

Darcy and T at Big Dune.

View from a fire tower near Willow Creek.

Rangers point. (At Ballard Locks.)

Library envy in Eugene, OR, after a successful banh mi hunt.

The Cake

Several months ago, Darcy mentioned that she wanted her birthday cake to look like a sea star. I figured that should be doable. I had thought about farming out the task to our local fabulous cake-maker, but she was unavailable, so I went in search of a star-shaped pan. That didn't work out. Nobody wanted to sell me one and I couldn't find anyone who owned one to lend out. I did find a silicon pan that makes six small star-shaped cakes. So I decided that the plan had to become a tide pool seascape.

Let me digress for a moment. There is a blog called Cake Wrecks that pokes fun at professionally-made cakes for various crimes. Like terrible mis-spellings or bizarre themes ("Sorry I peed in your bed" anyone?). Some of the cakes are very seriously disturbing, so if you like cake and don't want to have to bleach your eyeballs in order to enjoy your next piece, just take my word for it and skip the blog.

In between having all the elements for my cake complete, but before starting to put them together, a friend happened to post a link to a Cake Wrecks post. Suddenly, I had some fear that I was about to create a Cake Wreck. While the cake didn't turn out exactly how I'd pictured it, it was not a wreck.

Here's the main cake. It's a brownie cake with blue water frosting and an ochre sea star gracing the top. I should have taken a picture once the candles went in. About five or six months ago, we saw some really cool shark candles at a toy store. Hoping that Darcy's obsession with the sea would last this long, we slid some onto the counter while she wasn't watching. Surprisingly enough, the small ones mostly asked for pieces from the other cake:

Again, the cakes are brownies frosted with cream cheese frosting and the "sand" was three kinds of crushed cookies to get the mix of colors and textures just right. One of the party guests came back for seconds of sand, so I think it was a hit.

In Which I Hold An OCTOPUS!!

Yes. You read that right. I held an itty-bitty, adorable OCTOPUS:

I've been watching the tides for the last couple weeks, hoping for a good opportunity for one last round of tide pooling before we leave our gorgeous North Coast. Today, there was a minus tide (meaning that the low tide is below the average low water line) at a reasonable hour (5:35 pm). Often, minus tides are at unreasonable hours like three in the morning. I love to stalk the tide pool creatures, but not by flashlight in the middle of the night. It seems rude.

So we went. Darcy left a birthday party before it was over and we arrived at Point St. George about an hour before the full low and started seeing sea stars and giant green anemones almost immediately. We were already having a good time when I saw something shiny move in some gravelly sand just in front of me. I stooped to get a closer look and saw that it was an OCTOPUS. I'm just a little excited about this. I got to hold an OCTOPUS.

I put my finger near it and it grabbed right on. We had a ziplock bag with us to watch things close up, so we got some water and put the octopus in it for a minute or two before returning it to a tide pool. Once it let go of the bag and swam off, we could see the puffs of sand from the water it shoots out to propel itself. It was unbelievably adorable. Since we didn't get a great picture, here's a picture of what I think I held, a baby Giant Pacific Octopus.

When John and Stef visiting us a little while ago (read about their North Coast adventures here), Darcy convinced them to try going tide pooling even though it was almost high tide. They played along and didn't get to see much. Here are some pictures of what they should have gotten to see:

Top photo has ochre stars and giant green anemones, among other things, on an isolated rock and pool teeming with life. The bottom photo is a rock half-covered with aggregating anemones. They're closed up and a bit sand-covered, but amazing. Here's another view:

The shore birds were in abundance, too. We saw gulls, some small plovers, pelicans, oyster catchers, and another that we haven't positively identified yet. It was wonderful. Here's Darcy with the leather sea star (she learned at marine camp that if you sniff their underside, it smells like garlic, so she always checks them out):

And then another isolated rock. We had a wonderful time. Beautiful low tide, wonderful creatures, a good view of Point St. George lighthouse, and, because it can't be said enough, I held an octopus.