Saturday, March 14, 2009

CATCH A WAVE AND YOU'RE SITTIN ON TOP OF THE WORLD

I awoke this morning to the realization that my dreams (actually nightmares it seems) included numbers and budgets. Arrrgh! When I checked the tide table in the paper and found I was right on the end of the low, 0.1 ft. tide, I decided that a trip to the water was exactly what I needed. Putzin' around (my mom's word) the freshly washed rocks, at the base of the jetty, I found juicy little anemones and the most beautiful shells -- pretty lemon-colored and green-striped beauties, huddled among the barnacles. Unfortunately, they were still occupied and I have my rules -- no killing something just cuz it's house would look pretty in MY house. I also came across this nice little shell and I picked it up to find that little crabby dude found it first. Oh well, finders keepers. I headed out on the jetty to watch the surfers for awhile, a great vantage point to be next to or even behind the break. The waves weren't big. Catch one perfect and get a short ride. Hesitate or miss and get nothin'. Lots of boards out though, including this guy on a stand-up paddleboard.Luckily, I was rewarded by the low tide. Three, perfect silver-dollar sized sand dollars and a good pretty orange whelk (I think that's what it is) -- an empty one that was fair game. A great start to my weekend and it feels like I beat another storm to the punch.

4 comments:

Indie said...

I would so love to go with you when you do things like this! I have no one to do this with. Have you ever dug for clams (my dream)?

beachcomber said...

That's too funny. I've always wanted to go clamming but I'm too cheap to buy the license until I know how to do it. My intention is to hit the beach at a zero-tide and help someone else that knows what they're doing. I've had this martha-stewart dream of bringing home a bucket of fresh clams and making chowder. We'll have to work on this, girl.

Indie said...

My friend Tom, from Maryland, is an expert at clamming. He gave me a list of supplies to buy, instructions to watch the tide tables for something -0, and give him a call.

Those pesky fishing licenses! We'll need them too.

Tom has scoped out a spot where he think the choices clams will be hiding.

He said our local clams are small and sandy; by the time you get them cleaned up, they are just bits and pieces. This means...CLAM CHOWDER!

Mary said...

These are some great pictures! I want to come visit. Perhaps next year, this year is too crazy with two weddings in the summer. We might go to Disneyland in 2010, so if we drive we'll definitely stop by Eureka and Arcata. Actually if we did it my way we'd be bicycling down the coast, but that's not about to happen anytime soon.