From East to Midwest to West: Tide Pooling

Imagine being at the aquarium and being at the tide pool exhibit...but instead of the aquarium you are actually standing in the Pacific Ocean around the tide pools. There are so many places to explore to your heart's content. So what is tide pooling. When the tide goes below a certain level it creates these small pools of water along the ocean floor where there is a depression in the ground, like holes. In these holes there is a whole different world! It is AMAZING!

HA they think they can push this rock off the cliff....

We started off the day taking the kids to Islamic school on a rainy and chilly day. I did not think we would make it down to Cabrillo National Park to explore the lowest tide this year due to the weather. The lowest tide was from 2:33 pm to 4:30 pm. Around 1:30 the sun started breaking through the clouds and we decided (even though we were not prepared to go tide pooling~actually I was the one not prepared I wore the wrong SHOES) to go anyways and if the weather had gotten bad then we would come back. The weather was actually pretty ok, a little overcast and sun here and there but very windy!

Excited! This is the walk down to the pools.....

The drive down to the tip of the coast was really nice. If it was a clear day you would be able to see so much. I have decided to invest in some binoculars! I feel like i am missing so much because I cant see that far! =D haha.
So we pull in to Cabrillo National Park and drive straight to the tide pools. It was a great day to go tide pooling according to the Park Ranger. The tide was extremely low. The low tide is only for 2 hours. As soon as we stepped on the the rocks to climb down it was like Umair's dream come true...to be an explorer..and what a great place to explore.

Found our first pool....


whats that?

hmmm....this feels squishy! Its a sea anemia!

We climbed down the rocks to bottom of the ocean floor and the first pool we saw the kids had thier fingers in the pool with absolutely no fear. One of the park rangers walking around found us and started telling the kids what they were looking at and where to find the sea stars the octopus and varies other creatures that live on the bottom of ocean!

Its a hermit crab, that stole a turban snail's shell

Sea Star, so pretty!!

Amazing animals that live there and all have a purpose. SA! We spent a good 2 hours searching for sea stars and octopus and searching caves. This was the most fun I have had since I moved here...sorry kids I dont like Legoland that much! =)