I Could've Been Cleaning

Here's a confession:  I really don't like the beach.  In theory, it's wonderful:  sun on the skin, sand in the toes, salt water's good for what ails ya, right?  In reality, it's hot.  With a crawling baby, it means sand in everything.  And salt water means everyone needs a shower (not such an easy task with 3 little squid along).

Fortunately, we have access to the same beach The Papa played on as a child.  So long as our timing is right for low tide, we can play in the sand and saltwater of the channel with enough boat wake to make it fun (and occasionally scary), a toilet just upstairs, and an outdoor shower with warm water.  I joke that it's our own private yacht club.  It's crazy to live so close to that and not take advantage of it, right?

I decided Monday evening that we were going to take advantage of it, and we were going to take advantage of it the very next morning.  I didn't, however, prepare very well the night before so I was a mess (to put it mildly) Tuesday morning trying to get everything together.  The whole time I was scurrying around, all I could think was, "I could just stay home and clean up this mess."

When we got to the sound, though, and got everything in the sand and the saltwater, all I could think was, "But I would've missed this."

Hard at work making a baby pool!

This little imp had just offered me a hug.  A wet, sandy hug.
Sweet, huh?

JayBird found 3 hermit crabs that day.  I scored a baby blue crab.

Strangely, we couldn't even get close to the schools of fish.

On the way home, we stopped by "Touch Tank Tuesday" at the NC Coastal Federation office.  It's always so interesting to see what the staff collected from the local waters.  This day's most interesting specimen was a pregnant blue crab.  Want to know how to tell if a crab is pregnant?  Check her belly.

This isn't the best photo, but the egg sack looked much like a sponge.  Reportedly, it also feels like a sponge.
That's about 2 milllllllllllion eggs.

And to think.....I could've been cleaning.