Twilight at Terra Del Mar

The other evening we decided to go take a walk on the beach.  Lovely evening and lovely company!

Pacific City ~ Haystack Rock~ off in the distance.

Pacific City ~ Haystack Rock

Some Days

 

Some days are perfect for tromping off to the river...

Some evenings the fog sneaks in low across the ground...

Some mornings the fog hides the hills....

 

Some days this awesome guys shows up with "shot in the dark"  from The Yellow Dog.... (love the man and love the coffee!)

Some days are great for building...

Some days the sun shines through my little red tree....

Some days we drop into The Blue Heron  and choose a delicious, yummy, wonderful truffle...

 

 

Some days a salted caramel truffle is just what the doctor ordered!

 

 

Some evenings we race the sunset to our overlook and wow, what a reward for our efforts...

 

 

 

 

Science Experiments



Recently in Science we started a clean/dirty hands experiment.  This started by me mixing up a special solution and letting it set up in the refrigerator.  Then Carson went around the house touching LOTS of things until his hands were good and germy.  Then he took a Q-tip and rubbed it all over his "dirty" hands.

 



Next he gently swiped the Q-tip across our homemade petri dish.

After getting the "dirty" dish ready, he then cleaned his hands ( it was supposed to be with good 'ol soap and water, but I think he actually used hand sanitizer.)  Then he again swiped his hands with a clean Q-tip and wiped it across the dish.

Once this was complete.  We labeled them appropriately, sealed them each in their own Ziploc bag, placed them in a nice dark shoebox, put them on top of the refrigerator and waited for something to grow in our petri dishes.

Well we faithfully checked them, but I didn't do so well keeping up with the picture taking. With in a couple of days, small cloudy spots began to appear.  This is what they looked like 9 days later.   I find the clean dish rather interesting.... we may need to do some more work in the hand washing department.

Up close with the "clean" dish

Up close with the "dirty" dish.

 

 

Here are pictures after another 6 days.  I chose not to take them out of the Ziploc bags since I caught  a faint whiff after just lifting the box lid.  Tomorrow will be the end of the experiment... or they just might overtake my kitchen.

This is the "dirty" experiment.

This is the "clean"  experiment.

 

 

This was a great experiment.  We really enjoyed watching "stuff" grow.  And now I'm off to wash my hands... it's the number 1 way to fight disease!!

 

 





Wandering the Sands of Tierra Del Mar.

Since living here, we have found our favorite beach.  It's called Tierra Dell Mar.  Usually we just drive onto the sand and then play close by.   But this time we decided to park, walk and explore a new section of beach.  Today the ocean seemed moody, shrouded in the mystery of fog and mist.  She was loud and noisy with big splashing waves. She played tricks on us,  drawing us farther and farther out and then surprising us with a big wave that came way up onto the beach.  She's always cold but today she was freezing  (well not literally).   
So we put on our coats and hats and mud boots and away we went to chase some waves and look for treasures.

This little dude was unhappy for about the first 15 seconds, then he was happy.

 

 

We saw a gazillion jellyfish washed up on the beach.  Most of them were dead... but I've been told they can still sting even thought they've gone on to the great jelly fish beyond.

Carson walked down the beach kicking the dead ones.

Wave watching

Wave racing.

I believe many of these are vacation rentals, but they are mostly vacant now since the tourist season is over.

One of the cool things we discovered.... I would love to know where this is from and what it used to be part of.

A sandy lego.

A wind block for the fire pit.

 

 

We also discovered this lemon that had definitely seen better days.

Bullwhip Kelp (I think)

Of course one must pick up the Bullwhip kelp and swing it round and round!

More watching and waiting...

and roaring...

 

 and waiting and watching...

and racing...

faster and faster...

 Aww.  They do love each!

 

 

 

We took turns playing "follow the leader" and walking in each other's foot prints. We did lots of singing.  We brought home several cool rocks and a few broken shells.  We have yet to find a whole sand dollar, but we sure have found lots of  halves of sand dollars. 

 

It was a lovely afternoon and a good time was had by all.