Stories from the Coast

In mid-April, we took a family vacation to the coast for a week. I thought it would be fun to let some of  kids share the adventures with you! 

Nate:  Hello! My name is Nathanael Taylor Hollingsworth. On April 15 we went to the beach. I liked diving down before the wave hit me, so it didn't knock me over. Sometimes I would let the wave slide me up the beach to Noah. It was really fun. On one of the last days, we ate at a restaurant. After that we needed to buy some groceries. Papa decided that Mama would drive "Jo" back to the apartment building, but Papa and us kids would ride in a "Moto-Taxi". Do you know what that means? Maybe you don't. Well it is kind of like a HUGE motorcycle-tricycle that carries many people. It was very stuffed with all of us in it! We ate supper that our German friends gave us. I brought brought the bowl back to them. I said, "Danke Schoen", which means, "Thank you very much" in German.  Two of the German men speak English, so I could talk to them. We talked for a little bit and 

then one of the Russian guys gave me a bag of chocolate bars! On the bag there was a lion and it said, 
"LION". One of the guys that spoke English joked that it was lion meat. It was fun talking to them. 

When I went back up to our apartment, the rest of the family laughed and asked me how I could stay
 down so long if I only know six word in German. It was funny. 

Dan: I like learning about animals. When we were packing our things, I found all the books I could find about sea creatures. When we were at the beach, I would crawl on my hands and knees and I would feel for small animals. When we had to go to the apartment building, I would get in my bed and get my book about sea animals, and I read about one of the animals that I found. One day, when I was looking for animals, I found a Sea Star; it was orange and it had lots of suckers on the bottom. It had a rubbery top. That same day, I found a tan and green Sand Dollar. I also found a whole bunch of Hermit Crabs. One time, when we were walking on the sand, we found the head of a Dog Fish Shark! Maybe a fisherman caught it in his net out deep.  A different day, we found the skeleton of a ray!!!!!! I am glad we went to the beach!!!!!!!!!!!!

Levi: When we were at the beach in 2018, I could not find very much, because whenever I felt anything on my foot, I would jerk my foot up instinctively and then I would realize that I wanted to catch whatever it was, and then it would happen all over again. But once, I left my foot down and what I picked up was a giant Sand Dollar. It was as big as the bottom of a wide mug, but before I could show my brothers, a big wave came and knocked me over, which made me let go of the giant Sand Dollar. Later, when I was going on all fours, I found I live Star Fish. It was as big as the Sand Dollar. The star fish was colored orange and it had five star points with lots of legs - like one hundred legs, I guess - and it had a mouth that looked like a peeled orange with five segments. The Starfish's mouth was centered in the middle of the points. It's legs were clear like glass. The next day, when we were taking our evening swim, the German guys who were helping build Mr. Marco's house came out to swim, and then Papa and I went out to swim as deep as them and I had a fun time diving through the waves. A few days later, we went in a small boat. We passed a big island of rock where hundreds of birds were nested. We also saw a pelican swimming in the water. Then we passed by a big fishing boat. We stopped by an island and explored some caves. On the way back, the wind picked up and we rode over some big waves and that was really fun. We got off at the pier and walked home. While we were walking home, we had a lot of fun catching the small sand crabs before going for a last swim. 

Glory: One day when we were at the beach, we went to Sua; a small coastal town close by where we were staying. Sua's bend of coast has lots of small boulders, tide pools, and shells. When we first got to Sua, I hunted for shells. It was lots of fun, because there were lots and lots of them, including some that looked like cracked-open oyster shells. (I don't know what kind of bivalve they were, but they were shiny on the inside like an oyster shell and most of them were almost as big as my palm.) I also found some more "normal" looking sea shells that I want to try to make soup spoons out of. Later, Papa and Nate found a small octopus in a tide pool! The edges of the tide pool were made of rocks and the bottom was full of sand.  In a niche in one of the rocks, where the sand sloped down to make a cave, was the octopus. His head was about as big as a quarter and with his tentacles stretched out he was as big as Papa's hand. He was a light, translucent brown and did not enjoy being messed with. We went away for a little while and looked at some other tide pools, then came back to the octopus. After a while of being poked and prodded at, he had had enough. He squirted brown ink into the water and dived back into his hole! Sadly, I wasn't looking at the time and only saw the puddle of ink. It was still cool, though, and we all had fun. Later, walking back, I picked up some more shells and brought them to our apartment. Over all, it was a very fun day!