And after that, we did this

After our day in the redwoods, we ended up back at the beach. Why not? 

An evening walk was just the ticket for an end of day activity.

We loved watching the sun set at the sea level horizon. That's a rare thing for us! Living on the west side of a mountain valley, we only see sun sets that occur high above our heads. Go figure.

The next morning found Caleb pouring over the park maps, which we did pretty much every time we held still. There are so many activities to choose from!

We went back to the beach. We had read about this Lighthouse, which is still functioning and open to public tours! It was so interesting to read that this particular one is only accessible when the tide is out, and only by foot. So the people who live here have to carefully plan when they go get groceries!

And wouldn't you know it, the tide was in.

Hee hee.

So we walked down the pier instead.

Claire was watching for sea lions.
We could see the water under our feet between the planks, which kinda freaked the kids out in a fun way. They still ran out there, but they were giggling like crazy.

At the end of the pier were these two cute fisherdudes, after some crab. The kids asked what they were fishing for, so one of the men pulled their net in just to show us. Cute, right?

The net had only been in for ten minutes, so the other fisherman was teasing him about being impatient. But then he ended up pulling up his nets to show the kids, too:) Fishermen love to show off, I guess.

Hello, little sweetie! This one was too small to keep, plus she was a She crab, so they let her go. He said it's not against the rules to keep females, but they don't because they're afraid the population would diminish too much.

He set her down so we could see how they walk sideways, and she cruised straight across the deck towards our terrified-of-anything-that-moves Claire Marie. Naturally. Much screaming ensued, but the crab eventually made it off the side and plummeted back to her happy home.

That was cool. And educational!

Then a storm started rolling in, so we found an indoor place to play.

Ocean World! It's basically the run down ghetto mini version of SeaWorld, but the kids have never been to SeaWorld so they thought it was awesome!

Hello scary Pirate man, please forgive me for not wanting to sit any closer to you than this.

There was a seal and sea lion show, so they get points for that! These animals are so amazing.

Seals can make so many different sounds. I never knew. That I remembered.

And they really like to play.

This is Cora the Sea Lion, she's five years old, and scary intelligent. She did awesome tricks!

Claire preferred the animals that weren't living.

Watching the Manta Rays is always my favorite part of any aquarium. They're just so stinkin cool.

But I think this was the kid's favorite part. They got to pet sharks. Amelia really wanted to get in with the sharks, but we held her back.

They were just swimming around and around, until this one swam through Caleb's hand and completely stopped. Caleb kept petting and rubbing his sides, and he just sat there! Everyone (including the guide) was like "Woah, that's pretty crazy!" so he just kept petting him! Caleb has good vibes.

Then we were attacked, but we lived. Surprisingly.

When we attempted to leave the building there was a rain storm of the likes that we never see in Utah. Oh my goodness watery tyrants from above. Caleb braved the parking lot, and pulled the SheBeast up as close as he could to the entrance, but we were all completely drenched before we made it into the car. It was so awesome!

We drove through the 10 mile long waterfall back to our cabin where we all got into our pajamas and cozied up.

And after dinner, these two learned how to wash dishes by  hand. They had never done that before. What kind of a Mother am I?

And pretty much any time we held still long enough, this one did this.