Tidepools

The other day we went to the tidepools in Point Loma. The tide was going down, leaving all sorts of animals and plants for a few hours in holes full of water. It is quite magic to walk on the rocks and to look for “things” to observe. It was not hot so the water stayed cool and the animals were not too fast to hide under the rocks and the seaweeds. We saw a lot of mollusks, anemones, and hermit crabs. We walked slowly and were very attentive. We saw an octopus but it quickly disappeared.

Then we spotted a quite striking starfish. I never saw one like that before. It was larger than my hand, laying on a rock, in a few inches of water. My son was fascinated and so was I: the starfish had little blue bumps with a pink center all over its back! We gently touched it, it was soft. We saw its hundreds of white tube feet moving slowly, as if it was ready to leave but it stayed there, and we stared at its beautiful colors for a long moment.

When we go to the tidepools, we never know what we will find but we always have beautiful surprises.