Saturday was our beach day.

We made our way to College Cove at low tide and set out to explore the tide pools.

Aunt Sara, Logan, and Raine found all sorts of fun creatures hidden among the rocks — sea shells, sea anemones, crabs, and . . .

sea stars!

Carter liked throwing rocks. It was Daddy’s job to make sure he didn’t fall in while he was doing it!

Once the tide started coming back in we headed back to the beach to play — although, not before a big wave came up and soaked us!

It’s not hard to tell who’s from hot Texas and who’s from cool Oregon!

Before we started back up the hill to our car, we stopped at a little tree swing to give everyone a turn to swing.

We drove into Eureka with the intent of going crab fishing, but it didn’t pan out so we took in some of the sights instead, like the Carson Mansion:

At Eureka Bay we watched the seals pop their heads out of the water.

We even came across a turkey out for a stroll.

Northern California is a really “interesting” place. The people are . . . well . . . earthy! Everything in the stores is organic and sustainably grown. We’ve seen more dreadlocks in our few days here than I’ve seen in my entire life. Not to mention the incredible number of drifters making their way around the area with all their earthly possessions on their backs. There is certainly no shortage of people roaming the streets as high as a kite. On our way back from the forest the other day we passed a pipe circle on the side of the freeway. There were no visible cars, bikes or other modes of transportation, just several individuals sitting in a circle in the grass along the freeway, in the middle of the forest, passing around something that I suspect was less than legal. Yes, it is definitely a different world up here.