Monday, March 06, 2006

A Day at the Beach.

Yesterday morning it rained, again. We have had so much rain for the past 6 months that I was getting just a little bit of cabin fever. So at about 3:30 pm I noticed that the sky was starting to clear and the rain had stopped so we headed down the hill to the beach. The tide was out far enough so that we could walk along the sand. What a great time to walk on the beach. There were hundreds of sea gulls and a good number of herring boats out. We even saw a pod of seals come quite close to the shore. And we stomped on gooey ducks. It is so weird how your feet hurt already, but you still can't quit stomping. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, when the tide goes out it leaves behind these creatures that look like giant worms. They burrow down in the sand leaving a small mound of sand and a hole marking their resting place until the tide comes in again. When you walk on the beach and see these holes, if you stomp beside the hole the "gooey duck" will squirt a stream of sea water out of the hole. Sometimes they shoot this water 6 feet high or higher. Lots of times when they squirt you can't get out of the way in time and you get wet. It's hilarious! Anyway, we stomped gooey ducks all the way down the beach way past the Shady Rest and back. We watched the seals, sea gulls and fishermen catching herring and got some fresh air. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The only way it could have been better would be if the beach hut had been opened. Then I could have had a cup of coffee and maybe a smokie. Oh, well. Next week. Today I am going to Port Alberni with Carolyn and Ethan. I get to spend the afternoon with Ethan. That should be fun.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Kyle, my brother Kyle and I went to the beach to go check out the herring boats... We went when it was pouring rain, though, so we got soaked... First we checked out Parksville, and then we went to French Creek harbor... It was soo neat, and holy smokies, did we see a ton of sea gulls!! It was neat how the water looked soo green from all the herring... I got only a couple of pictures, because I didn't want my camera to get wet...

OH!! I can't wait to go to the beach and stomp on the gooeyducks!! Have you ever dug one up? My dad, my brothers and I did once... They look funny, just this long thing coming out of a HUGE shell.. they're really hard to dig up... I can't wait until the beach hut is open, too.. and then I can get yummy flavored soft ice cream.... mmm

Carol said...

Yep, seeing the water in the ocean a different color from the spawning run of the herring is quite the site to see. We stopped to look at it at French Creek too, but not when the sun was trying to come out. But very neat to see all the fishermen out in their boats.

footsack said...

I have no idea what is going on with my computer but I posted a comment the other day and it didn't post. What the heck!!
Ken and I went down to the beach as well but it was raining AGAIN so we didn't walk on the beach. I remember when we used to come out here every winter from Alberta for our anniversary and most of the time it would rain but we went walking anyway because it was so nice out and we had umbrellas so what was the big deal? Now that I live here....it's a big deal.

Melanie said...

You big baby.

John said...

A nice soft rain would be really nice right now, of course it would also need the warm weather to go with it. NOT THE MINUS 15 WITH SNOW AND WIND WE ARE HAVING RIGHT NOW. My front yard has about 3 feet of snow over the whole thing, my driveway about a foot and I plan to leave it there till it melts. This all hinges on wether it storms again this month. Man I like Saskatchewan.

John said...

Oh how I would like to go for a walk on the beach. Here it was -25 this morning and tonight it is almost as cold, with a promise of more snow overnight. I AM SO SICK OF WINTER!!!!!!!!!!!

John said...

I need to get a new picture to go with my name. One that reflects the many grandchildren I have.

footsack said...

Many grandchildren?? I thought you just had two so far.

Cindi said...

Auntie Margaret, the rest of us like to read something new every once and a while too, you know! Post something! Love you!!

Cindi

Carol said...

Ok, so if John has many grandchildren, then I have a few :) (Yep, only one so far)

Trav said...

post something new.... and why doesn't tylers blog work... make him fix it.... tell him you'll beat him if he doesn't