Bodega Bay - Doran Park

It was another great day in paradise.  After a leisurely drive through Cotati, Sebastapol and Petaluma we stopped at wonderful beach on Bodega Bay, Doran Park.

No suits, so Aidan made do with his skivvies, he really didn't seem to care a whit!

lots of running to and fro, with short breaks to create a sand fort (you know, most people build sand castles, but with Grandpa it's sand forts).

another encounter with alien aquatic life (actually, a small horseshoe crab)

 shoring up the fort (and yes, pun intended, I couldn't resist)

yup, it's a bit cold

the boy is looking to start a new trend, "Ocean Yoga", I think it's going to be a big hit!

Family Fun Day

On Saturday we went to my company's annual Family Fun Day at Marine World.  We had a great time, played hard, saw some cool animals, got wet, rode the roller coaster, ate too much junk food and didn't leave until everyone was really ready to go.

Aidan's favorite food, POPCORN, he actually ate almost all of that giant bag by himself

offering his fish to the dolphin, who seemed pretty interested in both Aidan and the fish

Grandpa helping them see eye to eye

time to get wet!

we all enjoyed a relaxing trip through the Butterfly House

and lastly, Grandpa teaching his little helper how to shuck corn (Aidan loves corn in all it's forms)

Took the plunge

Well, I finally took the plunge and opened a shop on the Handmade Artists site.  My little shop is named Amorphous Designs and so far features 5 pairs of handmade earrings. 

I plan to list several more earrings over the next week or so.  I'm trying to stretch out the listings as new listings hit the front page of the site, and get more views that way.

Here is what is currently listed:

the photography part is still pretty challenging and I need to spice up the descriptions more. 

So far, I'm really liking the Handmade Artist venue, unlike Etsy, this site ONLY has handmade and not importers and resellers masquerading as handmade or "collectives", which is Etsy speak for big businesses.    The people who run the site are very friendly and make a real effort to welcome newcomers and help them promote their stuff. So, stop on by and check out all the cool stuff made by creative, crafty people all over the world.  Oh yeah, and check out my shop too while you're there.

Making Friends with Anemone

An absolutely perfect day to visit Moss Beach tide pools, aka the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve.

Although it was very windy and quite cold when we arrived at 8am, it warmed up a bit in the bright sun. 
Our normally intrepid little explorer was a bit daunted by the cold and mostly watched from the beach, although even he could not entirely resist the lure of the exposed rocks and critters.

a meeting of the limpets

somethings fishy in this pool

I wonder what critters that make these kinds of marks in the rocks

very interesting pattern on the underside of a limpet shell

sea snails

oh how I love thee Wikipedia! It took <1 minute to identify this creature, the Acanthadoris lutea (aka "Orange-peel doris"), lounging about among the spiny sea urchins

cool Chiton (aka "sea cradle")

and finally, is it a friend? No, it's anemone!

 but we're going to make friends with it