Lillies Beach

On Saturday we took a jaunt with the Williams over to a remote shore not far from us and only accessible by 4 wheel drive.  Lillies Beach.  It was glorious to have miles of beach all to ourselves! The low tide gave us a grand expanse of shallow water and the overcast morning made it all the more pleasant.

But what made the beach truly memorable were the crabs! Hundreds, maybe thousands, of tiny soldier crabs! They moved across the sand enmasse like a river of spiders. It was remarkable!  I guess to some that would be a horrific idea, but we thought it was so incredibly cool! They are funny little crabs, blue and grey and dome shaped, not flat at all! 

And these crabs crawl forward, contrary to most crabs which walk sideways, hence the spider comparison. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the "river" of them.  It was incredible.  I tried to get them to crawl across my feet, but they burrowed down in the sand upon approach.

These weren't the only crabs we saw, though they were by far the most plentiful. There were also tiny hermit crabs.

And a neat yellow-ish almost paddle legged crab that swam through the water, about the size of my fist.
And ... some sort of other little crab. With Bridget's finger going straight for it. I love that little girl, no fear!

What a magical time we had! Crabs are cool!