Once almost an hour had passed and it was clear there was no chance of the ranger's appearance, we made the 5 minute drive into the cute little town of Sawtell and had a quick picnic lunch before heading to the beach.
Not a bad Plan B on a whim.
someone was excited to be at the beach... |
we spotted lots of these teeny little jellyfish globules in the sand |
pretty coral covered rock |
Sam found this awesome banjo shark |
hey little crab! |
eagle-eye Alex spotted this octopus, and we also got to see it squirt ink! |
Honestly, have you ever seen such gorgeous sealife?? They were all over the place, and each one had a different color scheme. So lovely.
Sawtell Beach reminded me a lot of my all-time favorite beach at Yuraygir National Park, especially with the crabs that come up from holes and push out these perfectly round little balls of sand.
And on the walk back, I caught a sweet moment of brotherly love between Jackson and Alex...
...and caught Kenyon during a rousing game of Fall in the Sand While Stomping Through the Steep Parts
The father dragged a bag of fish parts back and forth over very shallow water to attract the worms just beyond...
The son's trained eye would spot the little feelers of the worm coming up through the sand, and he reached down to hold a little piece of fish directly above it...
And voila! Sand worm.
This is a fine art, and was far harder than it looked--the boys and Sam tried repeatedly, even with finding a worm and having their fingers right on it, but were never successful.
And me? I stayed on the chatting/photographing end of things, not wanting the knowledge that these massive worms live right under the sand in the very area that had only very recently been deemed tied for the esteemed award of Annie's Favorite Beach.
Epic, epic day, despite that darn ranger being a no-show. Now I need to start researching the logistics involved with constructing a wall-length batik starfish aquarium back home in Denver...
The starfish look like beautiful jewelry, but the real gems are your children. I so love the Alex/Jackson picture!
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