Coasting

[offcntr]

After successfully shipping all of my Christmas packages before the end of December, we decided we deserved a day off. Since it looked like January 1 would be the only dry day for about a week, we drove down to the coast for a day. Had fish and chips in Florence (kinda meh--why doesn't anyone ever properly salt their fish?), then drove up to our favorite beach at Heceta Head.

Was very busy--New Year's, of course, nice weather, and apparently it was a free day at state parks as well--so I had to drop Denise off and go back under the bridge to park. Getting across the cobbles onto the sand was about all she could manage, so we found a nice boulder for her to sit on while I went and poked around in tide pools.

Saw the usual lots of mussels, some sea anemones hunkered down to ride out low tide, and a whole bunch of tiny hermit crabs. Found a place were the basalt dike was parallel to the coast that had acted like a gold sluice, lots of shells trapped in the rift. I picked out a dozen olive shells for Denise, a few whelks. Picked up one nice big one, the size of my thumb, turned it over to see tiny crab claws in the opening. Sorry, buddy, I said as I returned him to the water.