low tide

Yesterday it was super-low tide for a few hours along the Puget Sound coastline. I don't know much about it except that we happened onto the beach last year on low tide day and then I saw on some activities calendars that there would be marine naturalists at all of the beaches for low tide again. It happened around 10 am and then the tide gradually came back. As it turned out, Zoe slept in until almost 11am [whoah!] but it gave me all morning to pack a delicious picnic for us. After our picnic at a playground near the beach we drove down and fought for a parking spot at Richmond Beach. It's just south of Edmonds. By then the tide was not out as far as it had been that morning, but it still gave us lots of normally-hidden beach to look for shells and fancy rocks.
There is a picture below of the beach and usually the water is up close to where the logs are - way at the top of the beach. The tide was out about twice as far at 10am.
We had a really great time. This was the first time that Zoe did not freak out about getting sand on her shoes or about getting her clothes wet. After her pink bucket was full of shells she wanted to put her feet in the water. I was shocked! She has always been terrified of doing this. There were a lot of other kids there playing in the water and we have read books about the ocean and watched kids on tv playing at the beach so her feelings about what is fun & safe have changed. I brought down some extra clothes and she was splishing & splashing immediately. She built sand castles and ran around shrieking and laughing. It was hard to get her to leave but the tide came back in quickly and Pastey Pete was getting a quick sunburn. He is so WHITE. Well, now he's pink.
Zoe is very proud of her seashells. I told her that we could make them sparkly with glitter if she wants.