Alaska: Day 8 Friends Past and Present

Next stop was Seward! I had never been to Seward before and good friends of ours from Katmai are now at Kenai Fjords National Park, so we were excited to get there. We headed straight for the Alaska Sea Life Center for some closeups with the sea creatures. 

I love myself a good octopus and this one was showing off! Darcy got a cameo with it, too. 

The highlight, though, was meeting up with our good friends Sharon and Bryce and their daughter, who was born just two months after Darcy and slept in the same bassinet we'd bought used in Anchorage and passed along when we headed home to King Salmon. They were each other's first playmates, as seen in the very last photo. 

 It was very sweet to see how well they got along now that they were reunited after almost eight years. There will be more evidence of that tomorrow.

Alaska: Day 7

Well, I thought I was going to get us out of Bristol Bay with this post, but then I realized I didn't actually show Bristol Bay! And we did make a special trip to Naknek just so we could show Darcy. First, though: this is the bulletin board in the multi-agency visitor center next door to the King Salmon airport. The little piece of paper in the corner is four haiku I sent with a Christmas card our second Christmas out of Alaska. The photo at the bottom is of Darcy Jo from the same year. She is CRAZY-LOVED in her first home.

And here is Bristol Bay, home of some of the world's largest salmon runs, where peat and tundra fall off the cliff onto the beach. Where set-net rights are emblazoned on small billboards with ramshackle buildings for fish camps. So beautiful.

Ah, Christmas On The North Coast

Four years ago, when we moved to Crescent City in the fall (for the first time), we stayed here for Christmas and spent Christmas day on the beach. Darcy still had curls (I miss them!!) and she played with a stick on the beach:



So today we made it into a tradition: Every time we move to Crescent City in the fall, we're going to spend Christmas day on the beach and take a picture of Darcy with a driftwood stick:

Yes, it was warm enough to be barefoot on the beach. I didn't even bother to bring shoes at all. She's taller, her hair is straighter, but she is still our beach-loving girl. With an afternoon visit with friends, she got her feet in both the Pacific AND the Smith River for Christmas. Life is pretty darn good.

Merry Christmas to all, and I hope you are making great family traditions, too.

Sunset

Moving across the country and back again in just over a year was never our choice of how life would go. But here are a couple reasons we did the "back again":

These pictures represent more than a gorgeous sunset on the beach. Darcy and Michael could go to the beach easily to enjoy that sunset because of our amazing social network here. When living with our friends became detrimental to Darcy's sleeping needs a month after we moved here, other friends offered their "one and a half bedroom" guest house for more or less as long as we needed it. The guest house is separated from this beach by one house and one road. So Darcy and Michael walked down the driveway, across the street, and there they were, on this unbelievably beautiful stretch of the Pacific coastline.

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.

Darcy Says Farewell To Aquariums (Aquaria?)

Darcy had a day off school today and we took advantage of the only free weekday she has left on the North Coast. After a few about-town errands, we headed south for one more visit to HSU's Marine Lab in Trinidad. This is where Darcy did her week of ocean day camp this summer. The weather wasn't wonderful, but we had a good time seeing all her old friends, including Elvira the wolf eel, and walking out to see Trinidad beach.

Then we headed to Arcata. Darcy started acting very strangely at lunch and I eventually realized that she must have a loose tooth, based on the fact that she was trying to take bites out of a bagel with her molars. She wouldn't let me see her face and there were tears, so our trip to Arcata ended up being very basic. Lunch at Los Bagels; ice cream at Arcata Scoop (where Darcy had my normal favorite, lemon poppyseed, and I had an utterly delicious, new-to-me flavor, vanilla almond rose); and a trip to a kitchen store for a few cake-making supplies. On the way home, Darcy fell asleep. Her sleep-breathing always makes ME sleepy, so I stopped in the Big Tree parking lot and snoozed for 20 minutes myself. Very nice.

We stopped at Michael's office to bring him to his truck. While visiting with Nate, Darcy put her hand up to her mouth, spit something out, and handed me a tooth. Second lost tooth -- there's a real gap in that lower jaw.

After a few more in-town errands, we headed to Ocean World, our local aquarium. A few weeks ago, Darcy started making a mental list of things we need to do before we leave. The first two things that made the list: eat at Good Harvest and go to Ocean World. We took care of the first one earlier in the week and Ocean World was on the afternoon agenda thanks to an inside tip from our friend Kyle, who gets mad props for his role in this story.

Ocean World is a lovely, but small, aquarium and we've been many (MANY) times. Darcy has probably been at least a dozen times, probably closer to 20. It doesn't totally lose its thrill because Cora, their young sea lion, almost always knows new tricks and it's been fun seeing her grow up. She's four now and we saw her for the first time very shortly after we moved here three years ago. But I thought it might be nice if there was something more to this visit and Kyle had mentioned that he works there in the summer. I asked him if they ever offer a behind the scenes tour. The answer was no, but he said that a few days a week, they feed the critters after the last tour and will let people stay for that.

And so we found ourselves joining the 4:30ish tour at Ocean World. We stopped by the tide pool petting area; saw the sharks, fish, and rays; pet the sharks; and went outside to see the seals and sea lion perform:

And when Cora was done showing off her tricks, we stayed behind. Back downstairs we went, waiting to see the fish poured into the tanks and the feeding frenzy begin:

It was a perfect last visit to Ocean World. Many thanks to Kyle for the inside tip and the staff at Ocean World who made it all possible. On tap for tomorrow: last soccer game, end-of-season soccer party, and an early birthday party for Darcy. And maybe a trip to Brookings for some live music at a bar. And cake making. And other cooking.

Things I've Learned From Darcy's Obsessions

Most people probably don't know that Wilbur Wright didn't go to college because of a hockey accident that knocked out his front teeth. Or that Orville Wright almost died from typhoid after drinking contaminated water at his printing business. Or maybe you didn't even know that Orv and Wil even HAD a printing business. Or that Orv built his first printing press from parts that included a piece of their younger sister's baby buggy.


I know all these things because of Darcy's very first obsession, her eight-month love affair with the Wright Brothers.


Now, Darcy is obsessed with all things ocean, but most particularly with sharks:

So, just like with the Wright Brothers, I've been learning a lot about sharks. I thought I'd share some of the highlights. The largest shark is, of course, the beautiful whale shark, one of a few filter-feeding sharks. The smallest is the dwarf shark. 


One of my favorite (?) new-to-me sharks is the cookie cutter shark. We kept seeing it listed when authors were talking about sharks named after special features. What kind of feature could lead to the cookie cutter moniker? It required some Google research. It turns out that the cookie cutter shark eats "cookies" of flesh that it cuts out of sea mammals and large fish. Here's its jaw, with many rows of bottom teeth just waiting their turn:

The cookie cutter is small -- only a couple feet long -- but it has suction-y lips that hold onto the victim while the shark twists itself around like a drill, neatly cutting out a perfect circle of said victim for its dining pleasure:

It's unclear to me if these are generally fatal. I've seen some pictures of large (seal, dolphin) critters with healed-over cookie cutter bites. It's a bit gruesome, but also extremely fascinating that such a creature exists. Those teeth are just crazy.


I'm also fond of the wobbegong shark, partly just because the name is cute. The shark is also cute and sometimes called a carpet shark. They are bottom dwellers who blend in with the sea floor due to their flatness, coloring, and fringe around the front:

Darcy is sitting next to me as I write this and I asked her what picture she would like you all to see. We've been very impressed by the "flying" great white sharks, mostly off the coast of South Africa. They breach, flip, and fly through the air when trying to catch poor, unsuspecting sea lions. Here's an example, although watching video of them is much more impressive than a still image:

And there you are: a Memorial Day Weekend lesson in the joys of shark obsessions. Hope you enjoyed this shark moment! We try very hard to continue to enjoy our shark months and months. We're running out of shark books at the library, but I don't think that gets us off the hook any time soon.

Tide Pools

Tide pools! There are a few places to visit tide pools in and around Crescent City. One Sunday morning, we headed down to these ones. You can see orange and purple-ish starfish on the rocks.

Starfish are strong. This one is holding three large rocks!

Darcy loves the sea! (And has no fear of it.)

Yoga poses on the beach in honor of Uncle John and Auntie Best.

Sometimes, when a girl just doesn't want to leave the beach, she needs to become very, very limpet-like. We got Darcy to leave by letting her limpet her way from one rock to the next.

Darcy And The Sea

We are in the midst of a great holiday weekend. We started with a parade in neighboring Brookings, OR, and associated festivities tied to the Azalea Festival on Saturday. We all had a good time and then Michael went to softball practice. Today, it was warm right from the get-go, so Darcy and I walked to a playground while Michael slept in. Then we packed up a picnic and headed inland where it got as warm as 77 with glorious sun. We hiked a short loop trail to see the Darlingtonia (pitcher plants) in all their wild glory and then hit another botanical trail along the Rough and Ready River. There's a picnic table at the end of the trail overlooking the river and that's where we ate. Then we drove home, with a detour towards Happy Camp. Darcy fell asleep and one minute later, we were in snow! Lots of snow! When we got home, Michael went off to another softball practice and Darcy and I went to the beach. Where she ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ... you get the idea. For an hour.

The ocean was incredibly calm, almost flat, so it was a much less anxious visit to the beach than it often is. Darcy chased the seagulls and the waves, and I chased her.

As you can see, especially in the first picture, she had a lot of fun. I did, too, in part because of the lack of waves. I picked up pretty rocks with a plan to make them into a craft project for our family reunion in July. There are such gorgeous stones on our beaches, but I feel like I need a reason to collect them.

And just in case you didn't notice, we were in the ocean, the redwoods, the serpentine fens (where the pitcher plants live), and the snowy mountains of the Siskiyou National Forest, all in about seven hours.

The World Of Fish

Yes, I'm aware that this is a bird's egg, not a fish egg, but in Darcy's world these days, it's all about fish, so I felt I could include another picture of the murrelet egg that shows it's beautiful color better.

Darcy briefly returned to her obsession with the Wright brothers last month, but then quickly moved on to fish and all thing ocean. Finding Nemo was part of the inspiration, but I think the bigger culprit is Crescent City's aquarium, Ocean World. We've been three times now and, as an adult I can tell you that it is exciting three times only for a small child. It is a very small aquarium.

Yesterday, we drove south to hit a sporting goods store for Michael, who has joined a men's softball team for the county's organized league. He had his first practice late in the day and hasn't owned cleats for a decade. We also went to Arcata's art festival, which was a bit of a bust. Darcy insisted that we go back to the phenomenal ice cream shop as we walked past it to get to the car. I had a half-scoop of the almond rose vanilla that was outstanding. Last time, I had lemon poppyseed. Also a revelation in a bowl.

The point of this is that we were in the car heading south and Darcy asked if we were going to Fish Town. For her, the only answer is yes. After deciding that Eureka is Fish Town, she then dubbed Arcata, Octopus Town. So we asked what Crescent City is, and she informed us that it's Shark City.

There was a short pause and then she started naming other places she's lived or visited a lot. "And Las Vegas is, um, um, um, um.....Sea Urchin Town!" Even Primm -- PRIMM -- got renamed as Sea Anemone Town. What I loved best was the um-um-um in between naming the town and deciding on its new moniker.

A mere two and a half weeks ago, I was stopping tears about the thought of moving by promising airplanes on the walls of her new room. Now, we're planning an undersea fantasy.

But we're not stupid. The walls will be a nice neutral blue and we will be using wall stickers for the fantasy. I'm sure we'll be replacing them with the next obsession in a few months.

Tall Trees Trail And False Klamath Cove

We live in an amazing part of the world. Sometimes we pine for more services that don't require an hour and a half drive, but then we have days like this. A couple weeks ago, we had a beautiful day and we drove down to Orick to get a permit to hike the Tall Trees Trail. It is a crazy-steep trail that leads, as the name suggests, to a grove of particularly tall redwoods, including the tree that was measured by National Geographic for the article that eventually led to Redwoods National Park. The hike led down to the Redwood Creek drainage and the trees at the bottom were, indeed, very, very tall!!

We had a great day. We put our feet in the creek, saw frogs and dragonfly nymphs, hiked a gorgeous trail and stopped at the beach on the way home to satisfy Darcy's ocean fetish.

We also became famous! Once you get down to the actual Tall Trees Grove, the trail makes a mile-long loop. As we were getting back to the start of the loop, I happened to look down and saw an eggshell. It was from a marbled murrelet -- an endangered bird that nests only in the tallest redwoods.

We were very excited to see it and spent quite a bit of time admiring it and debating whether (as I prefer to believe) it was cleaned out of the nest after the baby had hatched or if it was an unfortunate example of predation by a raven or other murrelet-eater. But once Michael started mentioning it to other park staff, the excitement grew exponentially. All the marbled murrelet experts have been chiming in opinions about hatchling vs. predation and one of them thinks he's identified the branch the nest's on in this tree:

It was a very special experience and one that we've been assured is probably a once in a lifetime occurrence. Apparently, it's almost never happened before. Luckily, the rest of the hike can be recreated whenever we want, although never quite the same.

This view, for instance, isn't going anywhere any time soon unless there's a very serious storm. We spent quite a lot of time on this gravel bar, playing with rocks and water and eating lunch. That's Michael with Darcy in the backpack in the foreground. It's hard to get a photo that does justice to the massive size of the redwoods. This one comes close, but it's still a little short of the mark.

Once we returned to the trail after our gravel bank rest, we went through a section that captivated me. Throughout this area, there are trees that are completely covered with moss, lichens, ferns, and various other hangers-on. There's a short section of 101 near Klamath that is a tunnel of these green trees. I love them. I can't believe they can live with all the extra vegetation covering their trunks and branches, but apparently, they do. The trail guide claims that all the vegetation is made up of true epiphytes that don't take nutrients from the tree itself at all. I guess I should believe it, because the trees are leafing out these days! They are really magical.

When we were leaving the gravel bar, Darcy didn't want to leave the water. And we convinced her to leave by promising that we could stop at a beach on the way home. We stopped at False Klamath Cove, which is a beautiful stretch of beach across the "highway" from the now-closed youth hostel. For those of you who think that 101 is a six to eight lane monster, this is our version of 101: hugging the thin strip of flat space between the rocky edge of the beach and that steep hill.

We always think that we'll be able to keep Darcy from going in past her ankles. Or we think it will be too cold for her. Or something. She started this beach adventure fully dressed with her pants rolled up to her knees. By this picture, the pants were already soaked and the shirt was getting there, too.

Michael was her shadow for most of this beach visit, making sure that she didn't just walk straight in, which is what she seems to want to do. He got maybe just a little bit wet.

Or maybe a lot! Darcy's down to just panties at this point. She ended up "wearing" my shirt for the ride home because there was nothing dry of hers. She had fun, though, and once again, we had to take her up to the car screaming that she wanted to stay. Somehow, the fact that she's so cold her lips are turning blue and she has lobster-red legs doesn't make her want to get out of the water AT ALL.

All in all, it was a good day.