Living by the water is such a privilege, and it’s amazing how I don’t take advantage of it more. For Carter’s last day of Kindergarten, his class had a field trip down to Ocean Beach for a Pirate Treasure Hunt, a tour of the Life Guard Station, and to explore the Tide Pools. We saw some hermit crabs, crabs, a LOBSTER, sea anemones, and found a bunch of shells. Now this isn’t always the case, but we happened to be there on a good day.

Now to bust out the little knowledge I have from my 1 quarter of Marine Biology that I failed miserably on… Tide Pools aka the splash zone, the intertidal zone, and the subtidal zone, all differ in what you’ll find depending on how high or low the tides are. It’s not always during low tide that you’ll find the little sea creatures lurking. That’s as far as I’ll go because I’ll probably start spewing out wrong info. You can Google the rest. I will however, give you this last tidbit I learned while working on a Whale Watching boat in Santa Barbara – So Cal is interesting because there are some creatures that can only be found in our tide pools. And although the weather is nicer in the summer, winter time is actually the better time to check out the tide pools. So take advantage of that, and tell the world how special you are!

Make sure to check out each site because there may be some special closures, fees, etc. Also make sure what the tide level is at to see if it’s worth checking out that day. Don’t blame me if you go and there’s nothing for you to see… I did warn you =) Now on to that list:

Birch Aquarium at Scripps

Cabrillo National Monument Tide Pools

Cardiff State Beach/Seaside Beach Tide Pools

Dike Rock Tide Pools

False Point

OB Pier & Tide Pools

Shell Beach

Sunset Cliffs Natural Park

Swami’s State Beach Tide Pools

Tourmaline Surfing Park Beach