Today I took the day off work to get my hair cut (taking immediate advantage of full vaccination!), but really spent most of the day with Benji and Mom enjoying an almost -3 foot low tide at a private-access beach. Mom has connections. Anyway, after my hair cut, we drove down to Burien, where we’d access the beach.

We had some extra time, so we planned to eat lunch there first. The restaurant Mom had in mind was closed, so we picked a random place that was open.

The less said about that meal, the better. Suffice it to say that we waited nearly an hour and found the food more than a little disappointing. Still, it was my first meal “in” a restaurant since the pandemic started, so that’s another vaccination milestone.

Fortunately, the low tide didn’t disappoint! We arrived later than we intended, thanks to the slow service, but still made it by just a few minutes after the tide started to come back in. The beach didn’t offer much in the way of tidepools, so initially we didn’t expect to find much. But almost immediately we were proven wrong.

Here are pictures of the creatures we found.

I didn’t take any pictures of it, but Benji also discovered the joys of stomping near clams, which responded to the pressure by vigorously squirting water — often hitting not Benji, who had moved on, but someone walking behind or nearby. (Mom, multiple times.)

Overall we agreed that, despite being a sandy beach, we did find a gratifying number of interesting sea creatures thanks to the super-low tide.