Camp Loma Mar

When I was first driving there, I almost started crying when I first saw the ocean. I miss it so much and it's so beautiful. It takes the breath away to stand and listen to the waves and feel the sea breeze in your face.

I didn't take enough pictures. But here's a few from the beautiful two days I spent at Camp Loma Mar with the 6th graders. These are from the day we were out at the beach of Half Moon Bay.

Tidepooling. Snails, hermit crabs, sea anemones, crabs, seaweed...

The rocks were fun. For about five minutes there were whales breaching a couple hundred feet offshore. It was awesome! I've never seen them in the wild before! Too bad my dinky camera couldn't have captured them. I'll try to get pictures from the other teachers.

We had lunch sitting on these 'ice plants' that aren't native and some bozo brought in to stabilize the sand dunes. It's taking over the landscape. It was awesome to sit on, much like sponges. I wouldn't mind sleeping on top of it. If you look really close you can see all the white dots - there's a gull convention going on down on the beach.

After the beach we trekked across a big bridge to see the marshes. The creek estuary was amazing and trailed along until it entered this cave to get to the ocean.

I've decided I never want to hike on sand again, my ankles are killing me!

At the end of this marsh walk we came across 'Talking Eudora' who talks if you listen really quietly with your ear up to her branches. She was lots of fun to climb in!