from low tide to the super moon

friday was devoted to a girls day out with our friend jocelyn in la jolla—our usual lunch and shopping date. i totally forgot to take photos that day; i guess i was all caught up in chatting and just being with friends.

but saturday was a different story—after an early morning workout, we headed for the beach with kade tagging along for fun

(we’ve been having an especially nice time hanging out with kim’s younger boys during this visit, who are now old enough to enjoy our company as well). we all agreed that pt. loma was our destination of choice, having the best rocks and tidepools to explore.

sure enough, the tide was pretty low when we got there, revealing nooks and crannies everywhere that were filled with sea water and little creatures.

we all took our shoes off to get our feet wet and the rest of the gang crossed through some shallow water to explore another area of the beach. i started to follow them, but quickly lost my balance and fearing for my camera, i stayed near the big rocks to take pictures of the small stuff that lives in their crevices.

i never get tired of exploring the expanses of rock surface or looking into the tiny pools of water that hold colorful rocks, crabs, or plants.

pretty soon, kade came running back to show me a crab that he’d found—trust him to make friends with an animal within minutes of arrival

after they crossed back over. we all just sat on the rocks and enjoyed the sound of the waves pounding in. the tide was low and there was a nice saturday crowd milling about.

it was a good chance to take a few photos of us as well

such a gorgeous day on the coast and such beautiful friends to share it with! and pt loma is such a special place; it never fails to calm and center me. i’m glad we make time to go back there on each visit.

our next stop was ocean beach, which beckie hadn’t seen before.

we headed there to visit the blondstone jewlery studio, one of our favorite haunts, but afterward  walked down to the beach for a bit.

ocean beach is a funky little strip of activity, with great people watching. there’s a great, long pier and lots of surfing. the sky and sand were just gorgeous that day, so we sat on the sea wall and soaked in the atmosphere.

kade even helped us pick out some jewelry

and succumbed gracefully to female attention for the entire afternoon (which he doesn’t seem to mind). after a bit, we dragged ourselves away from the seaside and piled back into the car to go in search of lunch or some sort of snack to tide us over til dinner.

we landed back at saffron for salad rolls and tried the mango with sticky rice as well. i have just one word for this new (to me) dish—mmmmmmmm

we didn’t eat too much because we had a dinner to prepare at home. we stopped for groceries and stocked up on vegetables, fish, and sundries for the next couple of days—i had promised to make a curry for dinner as well as everyone’s favorite pasta dish on sunday.

beckie, and i chopped lots of veggies

while kade ground spices and cleaned shrimp. once everything was simmering on the stove, we all relaxed for a bit—beckie and i knit while kade went outside.

the next thing we knew, he was back with another crawly critter—this time a tarantula he found down at the greenhouse.

it was beautiful, but none of us wanted to actually touch it, heh.

because we got started a bit late with dinner, we didn’t sit down to eat til after dark. just as we were beginning, someone noticed the moon. we had been waiting all day to see the super moon and now it was up. i grabbed the camera and went for a look

wow—what a sight to end such a good day.