Beside the Seaside

Last Friday Tina and I went to Richmond Beach to check out a particularly low tide--not for sketching, really, because it's hard to draw when you're standing and there's no place to sit on the slippery seaweed or barnacle-encrusted rocks.

It was a lovely sunny day:

There were naturalists from the aquarium to help folks identify critters.

This crab was definitely hiding.  There's also an orange sea cucumber trying to keep out of sight.

One of the naturalists showed us a molted crab shell.

The tide pools were lovely.

We saw several sea stars:

And quite a few sea cucumbers:

And a whole lot of anemones:

Here's an anemone that's not covered in sand:

There were plenty of crabs about, too.

The seaweed could sometimes be challenging to walk through:

This is also an anemone--a naturalist explained that when digesting, they project their stomach outside their body.

And yet another version of an anemone...

Eventually I got tired of tromping over the rocks, which was hard on my knees and back, so I took a rest up on the beach, where I drew some driftwood:

And then I sketched a broader view:

A lovely day all round!