Otter Rock - June 5th

We woke up early on June 5th to catch the minus 3.0 low tide at our favorite tidepool spot on the Oregon coast, Otter Rock. The peak was at 8:17am so we made sure to get there early.

Normally, where the kids and Greg are standing is completely under water.

Lowden was super excited!

Upon arrival at the beach, we saw a bald eagle nearby. The kids say they've never seen one before. I swear they did when they were little. But, they have no memory of it. So, that San Diego Zoo admission when Lowden was five may have been better saved for gas money.

Parker and Lauren found a purple ochre sea star, even the sea star was a good sport for a blog picture!

We did have a new discovery...a rockweed isopod! Bennett is holding it here.

Apparently, the isopod is related to the land-dwelling pill bug. The rockweed isopod eats algae and, when threatened, can curl up into a ball.

Within 20 minutes of getting to the beach, it started to sprinkle. Turns out Bennett is a fair-weather fan of tidepools. Although, he tried to put on a happy face.

My other three kids know better than to give up that easy! They are ready for more.

Ready Set ...Look!

The drops of water did make it harder to see in the tidepools, but we didn't give up our search for marine life.

We walked over the slippery algae, sea grasses, and kelp to see each pool we could.

The kids found a small sea cave to explore which was the highlight for Bennett. He ran in and out of it for quite awhile.

I am totally in my element and loving every minute! I always was a marine biologist at heart.

We walked into an old sea lion cave called Devil's Punchbowl. The roof of the cave fell in many years ago. When the tide is high, the waves crash all though it sending water every which way. But, at low tide you can walk inside.

Parker inside Devil's Punchbowl putting on a brave face after slipping on the rocks a few minutes before.

Parker with our final discovery...a shore crab. It took us at least 6 pictures to get this picture of it, because it kept running off Parker's hand.

Parker's commentary on the crab. Sorry for the shaky camera but I think it's so fun to hear him describe the crab himself.

We didn't see any of my favorite tidepool organisms...nudibranchs. But, there is always next time!

All in all, it was a very successful day together! ♥

Afterwards, we stopped by Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. It was great because we were able to see some things in their tidepools that we didn't see that morning. (Including sea cucumbers, caprellids, abalones, bat stars, leather stars, pink sea stars, skates, an octopus, and lots of other marine life.)