Exploring a new beach

When Dave and Jewel were small we would spend sometimes six weeks visiting here. We used to picnic at a beach near where my mom was living at the time. We would drive her to work, come back and spend the day at the beach, then go back to pick her up from work.

Sean and I have been going to the one closest to our house, but yesterday we ventured out to the beach I used to take his brother and sister to, on the other end of the peninsula. We started out at the one closest to us, and it was our first beach visit this summer. Our weather has been anything but summer weather, so yesterday was perfect for it. Sunny and 70s. The tide was out pretty far.

He found crabs, and though he's been digging in sand and picking up crabs since he was a baby, for some reason it took on a new meaning for him yesterday. He wanted to bring some crabs home as pets.
I decided it could be a great way to learn more about them, and we scooped some sand, rocks and seaweed, etc. into a container. When we got it all home and set up, we knew we didn't have enough water. Instead of fighting traffic to get back to that same beach, we went to the other one for more water.
We put all of it in an old fish tank that we've had sitting empty for a few years.

I'm not sure how long this pet crab thing will last. It made sense to me that the tide changes are important to the sea life, and they probably need fresh water at least once a day. So today we went back to the same beach and collected some fresh salt water for them.
Of course while we were there, we had to enjoy the 80-degree weather and do a little exploring.
Sean took his Spider Man board and tried to do what he could in the shallow water. The tide was way out while we were there.

We had to walk quite a ways to get to the water, and it was rough terrain. Luckily I remembered to bring our water shoes. There's no barefootin' it on these beaches. Barnacles are like razor blades.

Speaking of, some of the rocks we have in the crab tank have barnacles on them and it is fascinating to watch them. 

I thought this tree was really cool. Sean climbed on the roots a bit and explored the shoreline.
This beach is a lot easier to access than the one we usually visit.  I think we'll try a third one next time, if the weather holds for us.
We love living here. I think he would hate living in the city. He was born to climb trees and dig in the dirt. Today he was turning over rocks on the beach and reaching his hand in murky waters to catch crabs.