OLYMPIC PARK DAY 5

We woke up early to a 50 degrees morning….six o’clock to be specific In order to make the 70 mile trip to Rialto Beach on the coast of the Pacific. It was a two hour circuitous trip …since we had to be there by nine there was no time to linger about because Rialto Beach is only open when the tide is out. The beach is known for it’s sea stacks…tiny islands standing free once connected headlands…that long ago have been eroded by the sea. It is also known for its tree graveyard…once tall, majestic now fallen trees that storms have deposited on this coast made bare and bleached by ocean winds… against the dark sand…they now lie there white as ghosts. Finally this beach is also known…once the tide recedes for something very cool… the starfish, anemones and snails that inhabit its tidal pools. Walking in the deep and darkened sand…for two old people was a chore but on we trudged because we were seeing things we’d never seen before. People watching us struggling to walk up the beach… might have cried out wistfully “Look at those two old people…walking tentatively by the sea.” But something wonderful happened to to us every time we sat atop a ghostly looking tree every time we saw a sea stack, a starfish or anemone. With each new adventure that day we experienced along the shore… we felt a little younger than we did a moment before… Which meant people watching us walk back down the beach… might have cried out delightedly… “Look at how young those two old people look…walking by the sea.”