100 Things You Should Do In Your Lifetime

Number 1

Go Tide Pooling With Matt

This is one of my favorite things to do. I highly recommend everyone spend some time with him in the tide pools. The only thing is, it's not like he'll sit down and teach you about them, or try to show you how much he knows about invertebrates, he just enjoys tide pooling himself and it's just fun to follow along or search for little critters yourself. I love that my kids now look in the pools and easily spot chitons, anemones, limpets, sea stars and urchins. It's amazing that they even know the Latin names for some of the them. Every time we go, Matt just shares a little insight with them and the kids are hooked. Last time we went tide pooling, he showed the feeding frenzy of the hermit crabs by cutting open a limpet and placing it in a pool, now every time we go back to the beach Doug performs the same experiment. Matt and I have caught an octopus, seen a nudibranch the color of pink bubblegum, walked among thousands of jellyfish called Vellela vellela and really enjoyed time in the pools. He and Doug found small eels right off the bluff by the beach house. Every year he teaches a class for girls camp, explaining how the tides work, and the different tidal zones; for many of the girls this is the only time they've been to the ocean or seen ocean life and he makes it so interesting and fun.

Yes, this is a definite must do in your lifetime.