Before leaving for California, Kyle and I had been talking about field trips that we remembered taking while we were in elementary school. And even though we both went to different schools at different times and in different cities (maybe even different school districts) we both remember going on field trips to the La Brea Tar Pits, and to some tide pools. I remember a rather large tide pool that us kids were able to see all kinds of things living in, and I remember being allowed to put my hand in and feel the creatures. We thought it would be fun to do these things with the kids, and so we decided to spend Saturday going on an adventure to find some tide pools. Ethan needed to explore a state or national park for one of his scout requirements, and so we thought Corona Del Mar, being a state beach, would be a good place to search. The lady at the entrance to the parking lot told us that we had to climb over the really big rocks to find the tide pools. So Kyle and I left the kids with Wendy in the car so we could walk over the rocks and see if we could handle it with all of the kids. I didn’t feel like we could get all the little kids over safely, so Kyle stayed with Chloe, Lydia, Adam and Peighton (a little girl that Wendy nanny’s), while Wendy and I took Ethan, Tyra, Jeremy and Dinah over the rocks. Once on the other side we checked out a pretty cool looking cave:
Then we found some tide pools:
Anytime Jeremy saw a little crab in a tide pool, he ran away screaming. I think he exaggerated his reaction a bit, but he still didn’t like them.
We walked around looking for some more tide pools, but didn’t really see any. The kids did find another cave, though. Dinah was the first one to go check it out, but by the time the others caught up to her she was turning around saying “I’m getting out of here”. I guess that cave was a little too creepy for her.
After we saw what there was to see on that side of the beach, we headed back over the rocks to join Kyle and the little kiddos.
After we left Kyle with the little kids, Peighton kind of freaked out. She doesn’t know us very well, and since Wendy came with me and left her with Kyle, she didn’t really like that. So she cried for a bit before letting herself have some fun. There was a couple sitting nearby to the spot Kyle chose to wait for us as, and the lady turned around and asked him if he could get Peighton to stop because they were trying to relax. Kyle apologized and explained the situation, and the other guy told him that it was really alright and they understand because they had kids once. But by the time we met back up, Peighton was enjoying herself in the sand just like everyone else.
After the kids played for a bit, and it was time to go, we got all the kids loaded up in our van. Peighton started another one of her fits because she really wanted to go home in Wendy’s car. But they came out with us in the first place so that just was not possible. I passed out snacks for all of the kids, and then Kyle noticed that in the planter right next to the van was what appeared to be a huge aloe vera plant. We laughed at finding an aloe vera plant growing right there at the beach. 🙂
