This morning my housemates and I went tidepooling on a stretch of coast between the Pigeon Point lighthouse and the Año Nuevo reserve, along with a friend of ours who is much more in the know on where to go and what to look for. (And on nearly any wildlife topic in general.) We reached the beach a little after low tide, and it wasn't a super-low tide today anyway, but there were still lots of things to peer at, and we had the area all to ourselves.

It was a fun combination of easy climbing and clambering, examining and sometimes catching various creatures, and just hanging out. Having a guide along was key, since we received tidbits like the fact that it was safe to touch anemones in this part of the world; anemones in spots where the tide has receded will squirt water if you press them with a finger, and anemones underwater will grab at your finger with filaments so tiny you can't really see them, you just feel them as a stickiness. (These would be the filaments that would inject poison, for some other anemone varieties.) We played with crabs from hand-size down to knuckle-size, as well as some of the many little hermit crabs that were responsible for the rather odd visual effect of snail shells migrating hither and yon at (relatively) high speeds. Real snails, chiton, and starfish made guest appearances too, and in a more lively fashion so did a group of pelicans, zooming along the front of a breaking wave like surfers.

On our walk back we were paced by a pod of harbor seals that grew to at least five, just out beyond the breakwater. At one point, one of them closed to about 15 meters from us and bobbed there for a while checking out the funny monkeys on the beach. After climbing up to the car and breaking out the picnic lunch we could still see their heads popping up and down out in the surf while they played or noisily thrashed some helpless fish around.

A little bit of exercise and fresh air, a solid serving of Nature, and no particular expertise or preparation required. Thumbs up.