We've spent the past few days getting stuff done at home & relaxing. We spent most of that time determining the species identifications of the rocky intertidal marine creatures we collected from the strand line at "Tunicate Beach" @ Scott Creek N. on the open coast north of Santa Cruz. This site has been well-studied in the long-term for its species diversity and contains dozens of interesting tide pool creatures. It is always a pleasure to visit this site but spending the past three days doing species identification was tiresome. Some species need to be keyed out using the subtlest of features. Overall, however, the process was really fun getting to know what the creatures are that we found. We also had a good time at the first beach party of the year at the Crow's Nest. This is always a great thing to do on a Thursday evening but we had to make sure we got there early because its super popular; music, sun, dancing, sand and the Pacific all in one scoop. Today (Saturday) we also signed up at a super good gym that will meet the needs of two people living on opposite sides of Monterey Bay; InShape Fitness Centers. We now have memberships to a network of gyms, both in Santa Cruz and in Monterey! The gyms are super clean, have diverse programs and equipment, and best of all lap pools and open between 4am & 5am so we can work out and do our long commutes to work on time! We are super excited to now be able to work out conveniently!
