When the Sun Shines, Shine Back!

On Sunday night I looked outside at the rain that was falling and told myself I had the wrong attitude. We need rain, and it's the reason the redwoods grow so tall here. Plus, it makes a delightful sound on the roof and windows when you're snuggled warmly inside. So I went to bed Sunday night with a great appreciation of the rain--and awoke to sunshine on Monday morning!

I went to campus with every intention of spending long hours in my office preparing for lab today. Then Mary called me. "The sun's out!" she said, "We're going to the beach!" And, just like that, I was convinced to abandon my work for awhile and enjoy the sun.

We drove up to Trinidad State Beach, about 15 miles north of Arcata. The path was a little muddy, but nothing we couldn't handle. We took a long stairway down to the beach, which opened up on College Cove. The beach was beautiful. There were kids playing in the surf, and a bunch of surfers braving the cold water to enjoy the waves. One of the coolest things we found was a rock area covered with seaweed. Because of all the water running down the hillside right now, there was a constant drip off of the seaweed. It was so cool. The mussels and little barnacles we found on the rocks along the beach were pretty neat, too.