New Year Day's Gifts To Simple Joys in Simple Life

Walking @ the Tidepool Area, Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego

New Year's Day, the first year of the decade of the teens. After waking up, I looked outside from our bedroom window for signs of beautiful day. I saw the very intense color of the sky which promises for a very good sunrise. I got up and took my camera, but then, as I stepped outside, I saw the pink sky looking West. Pink, being my favorite color, always draw me. I decided to walk towards the front of the house ( which is looking West) instead of walking to the back ( which is looking East for the sunrise that woke me up).

Moon Over Pink Sky

I thought of changing my lens to a zoom one so I can zoom the moon, however, after I stepped inside and changed my lens, the pink sky was gone and the moon was in a very pale color. I then remembered the sunrise at the back, but when I went to check it out, the sun was already high! How quick the changes in the sky happened. Determined to find good things for the first day of the year, I checked for low tide conditions. It said: -1.6 ft at 3:53 pm! This was what I wanted, negative low tide! It is time for tide pools! Though San Diego has a lot of sandy beaches, but it also has a lot of rocky shores which are ideal for tide pool. Whenever we go tide pooling in San Diego, I always think of Cabrillo National Monument.

Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego, CA ( 3:30 pm )

The picture above was taken at 3:30 pm yesterday. During high tide, from this same angle, it is hard to take a picture with the rocks below. Looking down, and looking up, there were two things that made me excited: 1. the low tide. 2. the clouds, which means the sunset will be special, New Year's Day special.

What is special with the tide pools at low tide? At low tide, people can view the ocean's intertidal zone ecosystem up close.

Man's Shoes Almost on Star Fish

Exploring the tide pools at low tide is called tide pooling. Many plants and creature live in the tidepool area. Tide pools are a unique yet brutal habitat in the rocky shores where the ocean meets the land. It is interesting to observe the life species at this area when the tide is low. Take a look at the picture above for example, I took that since a man knelt down to have a better angle of the creature he wanted to take picture of. Unknowingly, his shoes almost kicked the starfish, but of course, he did not and the starfish was safe :) . One thing for sure, I know he must be wet after kneeling down on wet sea weeds with some trapped sea water in the pool.

Red Crab

Maybe the man in the above picture had a very good picture of the red crab above that I was also taking a picture of before him, but I did not kneel since I did not want to get wet. That crab was huge, perhaps the largest I ever saw even compared to the big crabs I saw in the sea food market. 

Here are some more tide pool pictures from yesterday:

California lobster

(we saw this lobster brought by the pounding wave, we helped him go back to the water )

 Star Fish

Another Star Fish

I'll let you guess what this is, clue: I only capture its arms

Though it was still fun tide pooling, and though I have not reached the cave yet, but the it was getting darker and the tide pool area closes at 4:30 pm, so we had to head back to the parking lot. As we hiked up the cliffs, the setting sun was changing the colors of the sky everywhere!

Setting Sun, New Year's Day 2010 ( 4: 43 pm )

Looking Back to the Tide Pool Area Below ( 4: 56 pm )

( you can compare the colors with the 3rd picture above when we arrived at the park )

Looking Back to the Tide Pool Area Below ( 5: 03 pm )

Yuccas Showered by Clouds ( 4:43 pm)

Yuccas at Sunset ( 4:47 pm )

Badlands and Yuccas ( 4:57 pm)

Looking Down at The Tide Pool Area ( 5: 02 pm )

The Ocean After Sun Set ( 5:00 pm )

The Ocean After Sun Set ( 5:06 pm )

Did we do anything special to witness this beauty? We just simply took the moment to enjoy the simple things in life such as exploring the tide pools and stopping for sunset. As the decade moves on, I hope to be able to continue to enjoy the simple things in life. Life is like a wonderful and meaningful hike, there are lots of ups and downs, trail crossings, switchbacks, and beautiful scenic turns which we see only when we learn to slow down.

Hope everyone had a great start of the New Year!! My holiday vacation is over ( back to reality now for me on Monday ), though I may be seen less in blogging world again, but it does not mean I have stopped from enjoying the simple beauty around us.

♥♥