We just got home from California (where it’s not freaking 20 degrees 
) where we stayed with Mr.Rage’s Aunt! It was amazing. My favorite part was definitely seeing all the animals, my favorites being Seals, Pelicans, And Sea Lions. 
(Link to pics including mama and baby seals booping snoots: https://forum.lettucecraft.com/t/where-in-the-world-travel-thread/28701/339?u=ragingsloth ) And of course I needed to do some seashell hunting while I was exploring tide pools! (Also found a few pieces of sea glass) I don’t like the idea of just having a bunch of loose shells, though, so I packed a wooden seahorse cutout from Dollar Tree I’ve been hoarding for like 4 years for just such an occasion. While there I knew I would need a day to only relax in the house so I ordered some mosaic supplies and glued everything down. I was going to make it a mosaic with grout and everything but I layered stuff a lot more than I thought I would since I had a lot of shells. Then I just sealed everything to make it stronger and it survived the trip back in my suitcase! Yay! I don’t know where I’m going to hang this yet but we’ll see.
My favorites are the barnacles. They are such weird creatures! They’re actually considered crustaceans! They’re in there being a crab that doesn’t move! Did you know they start out as plankton just swimming around? They hunt and eat tiny things and then at their first transformation they eventually find a place to land, then transform again to attach themselves permanently to a surface which can be anything from a rock to a whale.
Then they have these little feather things that they stick out to catch tiny bits of stuff to eat. So strange. I thought they were like clams where it’s just a blob that doesn’t have a brain! So I was looking at them in the pools and being like “I know you’re in there!!” 
Lots of animals in the sea start out as plankton. Including star fish and sea urchins. A sea urchin’s whole body is it’s brain.
Can you spot the crab claw and the two pieces of sea glass?
Btw if you do this make sure to boil your shells! Honestly if you plan to keep any shells you should just boil them. They can get stinky.
