9 Apr 2024
My body must still be on Central Time because I woke up well before my 0630 alarm. Matt also woke up early, so I prepped my camera and we suited up to go check out the tide pools:
Yes, we look dorky, but we’re going to get wet and sandy so…
The wind and rain died down overnight and it was about 50°F / 10°C – much better conditions than I expected!
Haystack Rock at low tide:
There were thousands of these blue hydrozoan washed up on shore:
Not sure why there are so many, or how long they can survive out of the water (a lot of them were quite crispy looking), but they were so numerous it was hard not to step on them at times.
Starfish, peeling off a rock in a tide pool:
But this is what I came here to find- NUDIBRANCHS!!!
The red/orange guys were easy to spot- once you knew what to look for, they were EVERYWHERE!
There’s actually a few different orange/red ones- this guy is a Hermissenda crassicornis / Thick-horned nudibranch:
I love the orange stripe on their head!
A pair!
Hanging out just under the waterline:
There can be some color variation among this species, however, all of them have a white stripe on their cerata.
Similar to the orange-tipped red guy is this another orange-tipped guy without white stripes on his cerata- a Hermissenda opalescens / Opalescent nudi:
Same orange head-stripe though:
Honestly, I can’t tell these guys apart in the water- maybe it would be different if I could actually get up close like when I’m diving, but here I’m just crouching in puddles, trying to aim my underwater camera+light at them…
I though hand-holding and aiming my light manually would be annoying- it’s actually kinda nice to be able to move the light wherever I need, though it can be hard to keep the light on the critter and hold the camera steady with one hand while squatting down.
This guy looks a bit like the first 2, but his cerata are much shorter- I’m pretty sure he’s an Orienthella trilineata / Three-lined aeolid nudi:
Candy corn nudi / Antiopella fusca:
This guy is easier to differentiate because of his candy corn tips:
This nudi was super-tiny! (about 1cm long) I popped my diopter on for him, hence the funny shadow in the bottom half of this picture- it’s a wet lens and needs water between it and the camera, but this guy wasn’t deep enough, so the water kept draining out:
I’m not quite sure how he got his name, but he’s a Hammerhead doto / Doto amyra:
Not sure if he’s full of eggs or poop…
A Chocolate nudi / Cuthonella cocoachroma:
Apparently, they also come in a range of color and their cerata can be a much darker brown. This guy is more of a milk chocolate/white chocolate mix 🙂
The volunteers at the tide pool called this one a lemon nudi (which I think = Peltodoris nobilis?). He was stuck to a rock above the waterline- hopefully he survives!
But, the tide started coming in, so it’s time for us to head back to our room and warm back up.
That’s our room on the 2nd level- it spans 2/3s of the balcony!
I wanted to check out some coffee shops, so we headed to downtown for breakfast. Along the way, I spotted this cool sculpture:
Cold brew for me, hot chocolate for Matt from Insomniac Coffee Co:
Not pictured, my marionberry scone
A Matt in a candy shop:
and PIE!
The pie shop was unusual- just an unmanned, upstairs room with pies on display and a drawer to drop money into (or a CashApp address to send payment to). I chose a marionberry pie while Matt selected a banana cream:
They made for a delicious 2nd breakfast (and will make a great snack later today, and probably breakfast tomorrow as well)!
After relaxing in our room for a bit, we ventured back out to check out Oswald State Park. At dinner last night, our waitress recommended a hike there- Short Sand Beach Trail. Along the way, we pulled off at a viewpoint that had view of Haystack Rock:
As well as a couple other rocks:
The waves seemed especially crashy today:
The park was only about 10 miles south of where we’re staying- this first part is nice and paved:
Cool bridge:
Lots of moss:
And some seriously huge trees:
Becca for scale
All the tall, old trees made for a pretty walk:
I wanted to bring this log home, but Matt said no 🙁
I’m not sure why, but this hemlock tree was labeled:
Matt is hiding on the other side of this bridge:
A short path heading down to the beach:
There were a handful of surfers today, but very few of them actually rode a wave in:
We followed the Cape Falcon Trail back to our car, but it was a bit more rugged than the first half of our hike…
Directional Matt says go right:
Hiking among giants:
Matt for scale:
The path was a bit soggy in parts, but all-in-all, a nice, short, beautiful hike.
On our way to the park, I spotted Hug Point, a place we stopped at the last time we were here. A car was parked right in front of the sign, so we took this cheesy picture first:
Fortunately, that other car left shortly after we arrived, so we were able to park our car next to the Hug Point sign so I could use it to prop up my phone and recreate the picture we took over a decade ago:
April 2013
April 2024
The view of the beach from here is also quite gorgeous!
Then, it was back home, where we hung out on our porch and people-watched for a while:
It was really sunny up here- I shouldn’t have washed my sun screen off 🙁
Last time we were here, we did my birthday dinner at the Wayfarer restaurant, and I also took a picture with this guy:
We match!
Birthday/anniversary drinks:
Sidecar for Matt, Marionberry Smash for me
Our meals came on Anniversary plates! My birthday dessert last time came on a birthday plate, and our waitress debated putting Matt’s meal on a birthday plate before opting to make them the same:
Salmon for me, Ribeye for Matt
And, because we are both old now, we’ll probably call it an early night so we can get up early and go tide pooling again tomorrow morning!
Good night!