With sunshine streaming in the big dining room windows this morning, we put ourselves together much more quickly than usual in order to take advantage of the beautiful weather. Picnic lunch packed, camera in hand, we headed to my personal favorite place: Salt Creek Recreation Area.
Wild winter storms have hammered the coast this past week, and Salt Creek beach was no exception. Large chunks of barnacle lay scattered across the sand at the high water mark. Battered fish parts offered up a feast to scavenging gulls. An abundance of crab pieces added color to the grey expanse as well. The real find, however, was a large blubbery chunk of....something. Reddish purple wrinkled skin on the outside and creamy white fat and muscle inside. We poked and prodded it, flipped it over, moved it around, and made our best guesses. Sea lion? Squid/octopus?
Little R was once again keen to bring it home with us, in all its smelly wobbly glory. I felt bad saying no, once again. The size of the chunk made it prohibitive, and we currently lack a good microscope to really dive deep on something like this. I also wasn't entirely sure of the legality of removing it. I think that legal aspect will stymie a lot of her collecting urges, unfortunately. I need to do more research on what is allowed and where.
Today was not a showy "look! we're learning stuff!" kind of day. And that's how we tend to like it around here. Today was about asking questions, and being present in the sunshine together. January in the Pacific Northwest can be a grey drizzly affair, so weather like this begs outdoor time.
We are starting to finalize a game plan for our parks exploration concept, and once that kicks off, we'll have loads of time outdoors scheduled. I'll update as soon as we have a firmer plan.
