Amazing Journeys

R and the girls found this crab hanging out in the chlorinated swimming pool... so they stuck him in a bucket and transferred him to the edge of the sea.  He scuttled over to the salt water.  As the impromptu rescue crew returned to their regular activities, I ran back inside to grab my camera.  I was wondering if I'd be able to find the crab again when I got back.  Right about where I'd last seen him, there was a seagull looking down with a little bit too much interest...  As I came on the scene, the seagull took off, and sure enough our friend the crab had narrowly escaped being the main course for brunch!

Ghost Crab

Identification courtesy of my wise friend SJ:

You've got yourself a ghost crab! I love these guys--they are gentle but fast. They make hole burrows at the high tide mark but have to bathe their lungs in the sea. Go out on the beach on a summer evening with a flashlight and see how many you can find!

I'd made a bit of a breakthrough with all the tweaking and re-tweaking of my paper, so I returned for a final review and re-submitted the revised version.  It's about as good as it is going to get without a complete change of topic.  So I'm cautiously optimistic this time...

 Back at the pool, L was practicing standing on a boogie board.

A moment of triumph!