Sunday we went to church. We're in the Coos Bay ward. The people there are super friendly - I didn't think anyone could compete with the Hood River ward, but they do a good job! All of the girls got roses for being "potential mothers", a wonderful souvenir. I have mine drying on the windowsill to press into my journal, like a good Molly Mormon. The ward members are kinda funny, they say things like "We're so glad you're back!" and "Good to see you again!" when we've never been here before. They're referring to BYU students of past years, and I'm sure they know internally that we're different people from last year, but to them we're kinda all the same bunch. Luckily they at least like us, considering they're basing their opinions on us on past groups.
Monday's lecture was 4 hours, then a fun field trip - we finally got to use our hip boots!
These are goose barnacles, named such because they look like geese. Can you see it?
I really liked how these bull kelp stipes tangled - not sure if I can use it in my journal though. We'll see.
More zonation stripes!
Bull kelp holdfast - this kelp washed ashore, and brought its substratum with it!
Barnacles will grow anywhere - including on other creatures, like limpets.
Tuesday, we actually got out after only 2 hours! Then, back to the beach.
This is a chiton - you usually see them flatter, but this one was curling up since we'd just pulled it off the rock - it was trying to keep in whatever water it could. 
This is the underside of the chiton - not something you get to see a lot!
A cool nudibranch - the first ones we saw. There were also a bunch of their egg sacs around, but I didn't like that picture quite as much.
Nucella eggs - a kind of snail.
Giant green sea anemone. They stick tings onto themselves so that they can retain water. Wednesday, I was a lazy bum, and sat around after a long lecture. I hate to say it, but sometimes here I feel a bit bored with tidepools. My excitement in marine biology comes from the mammals and larger ecology, and sometimes staring at stationary sponges and sea stars just bores me to tears. But Thursday quickly resolved that dilemma.
We went to a beach that we'd been to before, the one through the tunnel, but we approached from the other side, and at low tide. There were so many things I hadn't seen before! My favorite was a super high tidepool, about ten feet above the tide, where I just lay on my stomach and stared for forever.
There were these super active little copepods zooming around, and rather active snails grazing.They aren't showing up very well in pictures..... oh well.
Right next to it were impressive fossilized sea shell beds.
There were also tube worms, which I didn't know existed in tide pools.
This was also the first time I saw the Tidepool Johnnys, although they were there at other beaches. Can you see it?
How about now?
If you can't see it now... sorry, nothin' I can really do to help you. If you're really curious, I'll highlight it better.
Have you ever seen the bottom of a limpet? From this direction, it's much easier to see how closely they're related to slugs and snails.
Sea lemon! I don't know much about these nudibranchs, but I love their color!
I've been feeling a bit out of place in this group, but I realized that mostly that's because I'm not joining in in the social activities. Yesterday was a big goal accomplishing day for me. I went running (wowwww I'm out of shape.... but you've gotta start somewhere!), I remembered to do everything on my to-do list, and I was part of all the sociallite activities. We had a ton of fun playing volleyball, and a game similar to it called "Jailbreak". We've been watching Modern Family as a group - I love that show! We also went out to a beach called Bassendorf nearby to play. I missed soccer earlier, but when we went in the evening, I was part of the party. A long piece of kelp, in the hands of college students, quickly becomes a jumprope.
These guys are so much fun. I love the group dynamic, and Dr. B puts up with our silliness. He even joined in a bit today, putting Josh's hat on backwards.
The second thing that helped me get my drive back (other than that active tidepool mentioned above) was the washed up dead sea lion on the beach.
WARNING - POSTMORTEM GRODY GROSS PICTURES AHEAD - SKIP TO THE END OF THE POST IF YOU DON'T HAVE A SOMEWHAT STRONG STOMACH!
I'm sorry, I realize that these are definitely going to turn some people off, but I am soooo fascinated by this. The best part was that a wave came and pushed the sea lion over, so we got to see both sides.
The basculum - a penile bone present in most mammals, but not in humans.
Thick layer of fat on top of the skin!
Vertebrae
Vestigial bones! Before my own eyes! Proof that they really have these! AAAaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!
The whole sea lion.
I have like a million more of these pictures.... I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.
Today has been uneventful thusfar, we got the afternoon off to work on our pictures.... I feel like I have like a million pictures (okay, actually, there's more like 250), but only like.... 10 good ones. Out of the 100 that I need. But I've only been here a week, and apparently we haven't even gone to the really interesting places, so hopefully I'll be able to make it all up.
Y'all should comment on stuff and... stuff.
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