Emily's First Trip to the Ocean

March 30, 2014

This morning I slept in hoping that it would help me feel better. I felt about the same when I woke up, but Alix was awake too so we bought our tickets for our trip to Perth. Over Easter break we will be spending eight days exploring Perth! That lifted my spirits! The afternoon I spent reading my book in the sun. A little vitamin D did me a lot of good. I felt a 100 times better! 

After dinner, we planed our excursion out to Shelly Beach. Emily had never been to the ocean before, so I thought it would be a great night to take her to see it! Nick kindly drove.

 Along the walk we found some cool  views

A cave we may explore someday

At Shelly Beach

Emily's first time on an ocean beach

 Tide pools!

This sea anemone is safe to touch so we had Emily touch it too! It feels like little Velcro when you pull your finger away.   

Starfish

Emily holding her first starfish

Nick Exploring other tide pools

 Starfish are cool!

Starfish on the move... slowly

 Underwater view of a tide pool... now you can see why they call it Shelly Beach!

First time in the Ocean!

 He was so proud of finding a crab... it was dead and a starfish was eating it. Don't worry he gave it back.

 Nick found a live Elephant snail

 EWW... he licked it! 

Family pic with the housemates!

 Glorious sunset!

Me and Emily

The coolest part of the night was seeing Emily just smile the whole time. I couldn't believe she had never been to the ocean before. I was so excited for her. I was running all around finding cool things for her to look at and experience. All three of us had a great time exploring and finding shells. On the way back I teased Emily about changing her major to marine biology. She laughed and said it crossed her mind. I was such a cool experience to be apart of. I am beginning to see why teachers love to teach. To see some get excited about something you are really passionate about is pretty amazing. On the way home, I made a comment to Nick and Emily saying I still can't believe I am in Australia. Nick said jokingly aren't you supposed to be settled in by now?! All of us laughed. It is hard to believe a midwest girl has sea water running through her veins. I feel so at peace being in or around the ocean. It is really hard to describe what it is... but I guess it explains why I have never been able to be too far away from some type of water. Maybe my dad is right... I am a fish... well... a mammal finding its way back to the sea.