All manner of slimy, sticky, and otherwise wonderful creatures live in the tide pool zone of the oceans. A simple walk at low tide often reveals life forms that are wonderful and unknown to us. And for a seven year old, the wonder is multiplied by ten. Maybe even twenty.
For a week in the summer of 2005 the rocky shorelines of California were our laboratory, revealing a multitude of fun things every time the water receded. There were beautiful starfish of many kinds, mussels and shelled mollusks of every imaginable shape and color. Tiny, tiny things, almost at the limits of our vision, scurried about. Crabs scurried underfoot. Sea lions and seals swam offshore and watched us warily with big black eyes.
And there were green sea boobs.
Clinging to the rocks were anemones, beautiful many-fingered flower-like filter-feeding animals. When submerged, they flowed and shimmered with the passing water. At low tide, however, they rolled up into gelatinous blobs to keep from drying out inside. It is in this form that they resemble, just a little bit, green boobs. Zach was overjoyed by this fact, and got a lot of mileage out of it.
As the tide inevitably came back in, we would have to say goodbye to our boob-like friends until next time, as they receded under the water and became flowery anemones once again.
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