Yachats sign. On the north end of town on Hwy. 101    One of our favorite things to do on lazy summer Saturdays is to go tide pooling.  And our favorite place to go tide pooling is in Yachats (correctly pronounced Yaw-Hots although we prefer Yak-Hats) Oregon.  It is a nice little town that has some excellent tide pools.  At the mouth of the Yachats river on the south side there are some really good tide pools, but the tide has to be pretty low to get to the really good ones.  A little bit farther south on Hwy 101 at Bob Creek there are some of the coolest tide pools I have ever seen.  The cool thing is that there are pools to explore even when the tide is pretty high.

    Every time we go tide pooling there are
different things to see and touch.  Sea Urchins, Crabs, Snails, Sea Anemones, Starfish and sometimes even fish.  My dad says that we should never harm any of the creatures that live in the tide pools but if we are careful we can touch them.  Anemones are fun since when you touch them they sort of grab your fingers and try to pull them into their stomachs to eat them.  I guess they have tiny stingers on the ends of their tentacles and they actually inject a small amount of poison but it just sort of tickles me.  Sometimes they grab my fingers pretty strongly and don't seem to want to let go. 

    Most of the animals in the tide pool my dad says we can gently touch, but the crabs and starfish he lets us hold.  There are usually two kinds of crabs in the tide pools, hermit crabs (like the ones they sell in the mall) and small shore crabs.  Sometimes we find small dungeness crabs, but we always leave them alone since when the get big enough they are quite delicious to eat!  Starfish are also fun.  They are pretty tough and sometimes we pull them off the rocks if they aren't holding on too tightly.  Lots of people don't like starfish because they eat just about everything.  I heard once that fishermen would tear them in half when they caught them to try to kill them, but this turned out to be a bad idea since each half would grow a whole new starfish!
This is the Mo's in Florence Oregon
    After a long day of tide pooling,  there is nothing better than a trip to Mo's for some clam chowder!  You can get your chowder in a regular bowl or in a 'cannonball'.  A cannonball is a round loaf of sourdough bread that is hollowed out and then filled with chowder.  You get to eat the chowder and the bowl!  Only mom makes better clam chowder.

    Oh, and another thing, this time on our drive to the beach, my dad took a wrong turn and we ended up having to take the Wheatland Ferry across the Willamette River!  Even wrong turns can turn out to be adventures!