Tide Pools

Growing up visiting the Virginia Living Museum at least once a year, I got used to seeing horseshoe crabs and starfish in a tank. Angela grew up visiting the real things along the coast, and she was excited to take me there. Apparently she wanted to be a Marine Biologist when she was little, and now that I’ve been to the tide pools, I can see why. Though, if she wanted to be a Marine Biologist, Virginia Tech was a bad choice. The tide pools alone are a great reason to visit the West Coast and us! The tide pools are teeming with aquatic life, and it is nothing like the museum. We used our national park pass to visit Point Loma’s tide pools, which you really have to hit just at low tide, or you won’t know how much life is under the water. The tide goes way out, revealing tiny puddles of water amongst piles of rocks. Snails, hermit crabs, starfish, and the elusive octopus survive in these waters. Little clams, sea urchins, and sea plants cling to the sides of the rock, and pray they won’t be pulled away by little children. And...there were definitely kids doing that! We went twice this past weekend, and I still can’t believe how cold the water is in September! Angela and I both absolutely love them, and they are actually really close to our place, so we’ll probably visit a lot, especially at low tide. The cliffs are beautiful too, so if we miss low tide, we can still enjoy the beauty of the Pacific.