Hermit Hunters

While walking into town yesterday we spotted a family down on the narrow beach of the bay. They were wading in the water along the rocky edge and looking at something very exciting. It turns out this was the perfect place to find hermit crabs...

Since we didn't have the appropriate "wading" attire on then, we decided that today we would walk down and let Red explore a little. We took off our shoes, rolled up Red's jeans and headed into the water. It wasn't long before Franky and Red found a jackpot! Red was thrilled. He was holding a shell in his wiggly hand just waiting to catch a glimpse of the little friend inside. But for some reason (?), the crab was content to stay in his shell.

Red handed it to me. I was admiring the pretty little shell he had made his home in when there was a little movement in my hand. I called to Red,"Hey, come here!!! He's coming out." Sure enough, a tiny little tentacle makes it's way out of the tiny shell...followed by a HUGE (ok, so it seemed huge to me) crab claw! I screamed and sent the poor little crab on a trip!

This made my two boys crack up. That was until Red finds the motion sick crab on the sand. He bravely picks him up and gives me this look as if to say, "You big chicken. I'm only 4 and I'm not afraid of a tiny crab." He holds him a minute and then all of a sudden the little snapper (probably ticked off from his turbulent flight) comes out of his shell and pinches Red's thumb. Red screams, sends the crab on another flight, then starts cracking up. He says,"That crab made me scream like a girl!"

After that we were all content to hold the crabby little guys by their shells and watch them crawl around on the rocks. We will definitely explore this spot when we come back to Morro Bay next time. Maybe a little savvy on the handling of hermit crabs. What an adventure!