Sand Castles + Sand Crabs + Sand + Sun = One Fun Day at Laguna Beach

Today, Nicky, Lily and I headed down to Laguna Beach. According to Lily, we were going to the beach to find sand crabs. Sand crabs are these little bugs that burrow in the sand. They camouflage right into the sand and are most present and at a low tide. I had never seen a sand crab, so I was interested at best.

I have never been a beach person. I blame that on growing up in Montana and never going to the beach as a child. I enjoy the beach, but I've never been overly excited to go. Today, as we were walking down to the beach Lily proclaim "There it is mom, there's the beach!" She was So excited that she was jumping up and down and screaming with joy. I have to say, her excitement rubbed off on me too. Not seeing the beach since Christmas, I too was excited to see the beach with it's brown sand and gorgeous rushing waves. I'm always amazed at what children can teach us. Today, I learned to remember to enjoy the simple things in life; like the beach.

We decided to go the beach early today to avoid the heat. Lily was so excited to find sand crabs and after many attempts we had no success. The tide was a bit high and we didn't even think about that, until finally we caught our first sand crabs in low tide! I guess we just had to be patient and wait for the tide to go down to have a successful catch. I too, was once again like Lily who was so excited to see a sand crab that she was jumping up and down saying "hold, please hold?" It was cute. I was able to hold and touch them and it was very cool. We caught so many sand crabs today...probably about 50 I would gander to estimate. We put them in water with sand and then before we left we let them go. The sand crabs came in so many sizes from baby ones to big ones. They typically don't bite you, but I did have one snip at my finger. It felt like a nibble and didn't hurt one bit. I was happy to find sand crabs at the beach today and learn more about them.

I was also lucky enough to see 5 dolphins swimming (and playing) not far off in the distance. This was absolutely breathtaking. I've never seen dolphins that close on a beach before...pretty cool. Overall, I was amazed at the creations we have on the earth today. I know that God created this beautiful world with beautiful things in it for us to enjoy.

I have come to decide that now not living near a beach, I like it 10 times more. It is more of a treat and I'm more in "awe" with the ocean. I feel like a child who gets excited over the waves crashing up to shore, enjoys digging in the sand, finds sand crabs amazing and amusing and enjoys the simple things in life. I loved going to the beach today. It was one of the best times I've had in a long time. My tow comrades (Nicky and Lily) were impart why the day there was so enjoyable afterall. The only bad part of the whole thing is that I completely missed putting sunscreen on my left shoulder (don't know how that happened) and only my left shoulder is sunburnt pretty bad. A day at the beach for me can't go without a sunburn. :)