Tide Pool Adventure

While Kyle and I are enjoying our time together waiting for baby, in addition to missing "Dad-deee" every day when he goes to work, we've been trying to find some fun activities to keep us busy. On Friday (with the permission of my OB!) we took a trip to the coast to go tide pooling at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve at Moss Beach. Kyle thoroughly enjoyed the drive out there, pointing out all of the trucks we saw along the way: "roller!", "tractor!", "bobcat!" and knew where to look for each one again on our return (until he fell asleep!)

We had absolutely gorgeous weather out at the ocean, with beautiful blue, cloudless skies; not too hot, with barely a breeze blowing past. Once we were at the beach, it took quite some convincing to tear Kyle away from the most exciting activity of throwing sand into the small rivulet that was flowing down into the ocean. Unfortunately, most of the tide pool access was limited due to the ongoing Harbor seal pupping season, but we were able to venture out to a small portion of the rocks to see tiny fish, hermit crabs, snails, a single star fish, and lots of sea anemone (who unfortunately were quite shy and didn't show us many tentacles - not helped I am sure by being poked by a curious Kyle!) It was difficult for me to worry about taking photos while also keeping track of Kyle on the slippery rocks, so I'll have to get photos of our discoveries when we next go out there with Dave. Although, if we wait until the end of pupping season (which runs from early March until the end of June) so that the tide pool access is increased, we will also have our hands full with another little one!


We met Kyle's friend Kevin at the Reserve, and were soon joined by "new" friends Arden, Aiden, and Maddie. The kids had a short attention span for the tide pools, so after a little while we moved to the beach for some snack and toys (although we were asked by a ranger not to bring the toys next time, as they are trying to discourage a "Day-at-the-Beach" experience in the Reserve). We decided to head back down the coast to the Pillar Point Harbor for some lunch and to let all of the little ones see the boats. There was a great picnic spot just by the harbor which did a great job of containing the kids while they ran around, and also gave them a great view of all of the boats. Unfortunately, there wasn't much activity to observe, with no boats returning back in to dock while we were there. Kyle had a great afternoon, and was so exhausted that he managed to take a nearly 3-hour nap, even after being woken and transferred from the car to his crib once we arrived back home! I love this last photo of our big boy who is getting very independent - Dave and I are both amazed daily by the transformation that has taken place in him, he is growing up so quickly and we don't know where our little baby went!