4 We went on a beach walk with naturalists (such a great group of ladies!) on Ft Ward beach Saturday. The boys had a fantastic time looking under rocks. Any time they squealed with a find, one of the ladies came over to tell us all about it. From learning that sea anemones clone themselves, to the fact that you don't want your finger pinched by a red rock crab ("It'll break it in half!") we had a great introduction to NW coastal life during low tide. Sam learned how to sex crabs, creating a great opportunity for talking fractions and percents...10 out of 10 were male. Hmmm...where were the females?
5 Both pointing!
6 Showing Gramma how to tell male from female. Shape of a shell segment underneath - male is pointy, female is more rounded (it's where she stores her eggs).
7 This is Joanna. What a sweet lady, reading to them from her book.
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9 Hairy helmet crab and jingly shell.
10 There were surprisingly few kids. I'd made a note of the walk on my calendar before moving. I actually went through a whole bunch of activity listings before moving from Hawaii so that our calendar would be pre-loaded with fun things to do with the boys while we work hard on the less interesting moving-in part.
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12 Sam found a live red rock crab!
13 Clams actually bore these holes in rocks! Wow!
14 Dead red rock crab. The lung-like things on the sides are gills.
15 This is the shell of one that molted. They crawl out of their old shell and are soft-shelled for a while as they make a new shell.
16 See the black tips on the claws? The hallmark of a red-rock crab.
