By The Seashore

Yes, we're going back in time. I could just predate the posts so they showed up earlier, as if I'd done them in a timely fashion, but them most of my few readers would probably never even see them! So... to set the scene... we're back in Maine, on the first day of the Month... We are exploring the rocky coast, the cold water's edge, just after low tide. Close your eyes, inhale. The salty water smells the same everywhere, but is so different from inland air. I could be back on the flat sandy beaches of Georgia, or looking for tidepools in Oregon on the edge of a whole different ocean...

Open your eyes and it looks, on a cursory glance, like Minnesota, with igneous rocks giving way to the endless cold expanse of Lake Superior. But put the two together -- the sights and the smells -- and it was a wholly unique place. And Minnesota? Has nothing at all remotely tide-pool like. I loved looking at all the unique critters that have managed to adapt to living half their lives completely submerged, and half their lives in what is essentially a puddle... with some very turbulent waves in between. What a crazy life! We didn't find any sea stars -- they are there and I really wanted to -- but we did see some other nifty life forms... mostly snails and "bugs" of sorts, and what I will call sea weed. Perhaps the coolest thing, not featured in any photos, were the lichens, especially adapted to both submersion in salt water and bring in air. Apparently a tricky feat.

The other cool thing about the shore was the waves as the tide came in. They would hit certain spots at certain times and be tunneled in and make these huge splashes. This sort of shows it, but it's not the peak of the splash. I have about 40 photos that I tried to click at just the right time, and about 30 of them don't show any water at all. None of them showed the highest splashes. This is the closest. Oh, well.

I just liked this picture of Chris looking at the tidepools.

The problem with waiting so long... we actually did look this duck up, but now I've forgotten what it is and I tried to look it up again and am totally unsure. Scoter?

I love sea ducks, though.

This fellow isn't really a sea shore critter, but we did find him by the sea shore, and I thought his colors were lovely, so I have included him.