It's Been A Beach Type Of Week

Today was our 4th trip to the beach in less than a week. We just couldn't resist the last -3.0 low tide for the month.

We met up with a bunch of friends and enjoyed the afternoon. My son has double-jointed elbows, just like me. Now I know how weird I look when I'm pointing at something.
After exploring tide pools - finding sea anemones, crabs, and sea cucumbers - Henry and one of his friends had fun climbing these rocks and acting like they were real mountain climbers.
Alice mostly enjoyed the discoveries down by the water. She has a good eye for sea anemones and snails.

Larrabee State Park (the first state park in Washington) is known for it's sea stars. Gobs and gobs of purple ones.One of the beach naturalists who took us on a walk this past weekend was at the beach today. Because of Lisa, we were introduced to some new sea animals. This is a type of mollusk. She told us the real name, and I can't remember. But it was something cool. The top of it, shown here, has an 8 layered shell - it looked rather prehistoric. The bottom looked like a gooey clam (not to be confused with a geoduck!).

Lisa helped Henry and his friend find crabs under the rocks. They turned over one rock and found this very cool bullhead fish. She had a better name for this too, but once again, I can't remember. Fortunately, Lisa recommended the book, The Beachcomber's Guide to Seashore Life in the Pacific Northwest. I'm gonna get my own copy! Just think how much fun I'll have during the next low tide...And we left with really dirty feet.