On Friday, Sonic and I drove to Waipu to go to the beach with my friend Mia and her son Jesse. It was a beautiful sunny day (except for the minute and a half where it rained… but it was sunny and gorgeous again soon after!) and we had so much fun.

I always forget to bring my camera, but I took lots of photos on my iPhone. It was so beautiful! At first we just walked around and enjoyed the sand and water. Jesse loved splashing in the water. Sonic loved running on the beach, splashing in the water, and meeting some other dogs.

Look at his floppy little ears in that picture above? So cute!

It was low tide while we were at the beach, and we found some amazing tide pools full of life! I got so excited! Have you ever been to an aquarium with a touch tank? It was just like that! Sure, not quite as much variety at this beach, but it was similar. There were several kinds of starfish, crabs, anemones (maybe; not entirely sure what they are but they look like the anemones in Finding Nemo, except these are purple). We even saw.

Octopi.

IN THE WILDDDDD.

I’ve seen a large octopus at the Seattle Aquarium. I’ve never seen one in the wild before!

How amazing is that? We saw several of these little guys!

And I had no idea what this creature in the photo below was until someone on Instagram asked if it was a Sea Hare, and I googled it and found pictures of Sea Hares that look just like this, so yes- it’s a Sea Hare!

 

These two photos above were taken less than thirty minutes apart; it really amazes me how God makes such beauty, and such variety too!

It was such a fun day! We’re planning to go back soon hopefully, with Jared and Jenno (Mia’s husband) this time!

Do you live near a beach? If you do, what is your favorite beach to go to? We have so many beaches in Whangarei… so…. many….. it’s amazing! But this one was by far my favorite because of the tide pools!