It’s 2025, do you know where your joie de vivre is? While the going has been tough, one source of wonder in my life has been tide pools. I dislike being earnest on the internet, but they are worth making an exception. Tide pools are magic. I could cry. I do cry! It is an incredible privilege to exist alongside them in all their abundance!
Even though I like to look at my phone, watch tv, and eat dinner at the same time, I can tide pool for hours. Each minute of deep observation reveals more and more life—first algae, then a crab, and then the universe…but hold on, squidstack, “what is a tide pool?!”
You can find tide pools on rocky shores where the land meets the sea, i.e., where the surf meets the turf.1 This is the intertidal zone. Every day, the water level in the intertidal zone fluctuates in response to the gravitational pull of the moon.2 Alternately battered by crashing waves and then exposed to bright sun and whipping winds, organisms in the intertidal zone really go through a lot.
During high tide, you might just see a beach, perhaps a few harbor seals—normal stuff. It is when the tide ebbs that the party truly begins.
As you descend from the high tide zone to the low tide zone, the organisms change around you. Abiotic and biotic factors—like sun and wave action or predation and competition— shape species distribution in these bustling ecosystems. Everyone here has their niche.
Up top, you’ll see barnacles, mussels, limpets, chitons and other “hard-bodied” organisms that can trap moisture during low tide. As you continue into the middle intertidal zone, careful to avoid crushing all the living things around you, you might see little fish, hermit and non-hermit crabs, and single sea anemones of varying sizes and colors.
In low intertidal zone, you might find charming sea stars, delicious purple sea urchins, effervescent christmas tree worms, and nudibranchs ranging from blobby to ornate. A hidden clam may squirt water at you. Touch things, but gently. There’s an expression in tide pooling: “you pry, they die.”3 Not everything is meant to be picked up.
This wouldn’t be a squidstack though if I didn’t mention a cephalopod. On the pacific coast, with great diligence and luck, you can find two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculoides) and California red octopus (Octopus rubescens). Both of these octopus are benthic, shallow water octopus that live for ~2 years, grow up to ~18 inches, and engage in standard octopus activities (such as changing color and dying after mating or laying eggs).4
To find an octopus, wait until low tide,5 and then get out there. As you know, octopus are skilled camouflagers and have squishy bodies that can fit in all kinds of cracks and holes. That means that even if they aren’t in a crack, they might be hiding in plain sight, maybe color matching some algae. Look for octopus snack detritus—empty mussel shells or crab parts—that might be near an octopus den. If you do happen upon a red octopus, be careful. Because of their sharp beaks and venom, octopus bites can take 3 weeks to heal.
Most likely, you won’t find an octopus garden, an octopus den, or an octopus. Tide pooling, like most things unfortunately, is about the journey, not the destination. So, check your expectations at the door, soak up the sea spray, and invite in childlike wonder for all that you see, from limpets to octopus.
Maui monk pretzel twists. Stellar is a woman-owned twisty pretzel brand that is competing with another pretzel woman: Dot of Dot’s. A daring move, but they make a good product! Maui monk is the best flavor by a lot. Sweetened with monk fruit, it is a satisfying blend of sweet, savory and allium-y, just like maui onion chips. While Dot’s buttery, savory twists are still very good, I welcome this new option, trendy packaging and all.
Costco ajinomoto gyoza. These frozen dumplings are so good!! Easy to make, nice dipping sauce included. I look for them every time I’m at Costco. A great find if they have them!
Going to aquariums. I may be biased, but I have never regretted a trip to an aquarium. Even with 10 people per square foot, the Monterey Bay Aquarium was cool.6 I got to touch a huge marine isopod that typically lives 6000 ft under the sea! That’s wild. The California Academy of Sciences aquarium and the Birch Aquarium at UC San Diego, while smaller, were both also great.
Foot health. A public service announcement for you squidstackers because I love you: did you know irritation of the plantar fascia (plantar fasciitis) affects up to 7% of ALL PEOPLE at some point in their lives? Don’t let it get you! Start strengthening your feet and stretching your calves today! I like foot doming, toe spreading, heating then stretching my arch, and standing on a little foot balance board.
A squidstacker recently said to me, “based on your newsletter, it seems like you are constantly watching tv.” She isn’t exactly wrong. I love to spend time with friends, and some of my closest friends this winter have been Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha, and Miranda. What of it?
I do feel defensive though, so I want you to know this: a lot of tv I watch is just background noise. These shows play the role audiobooks or podcasts play for bigbrained someone’s who want to be “always learning.” Select shows, however, I actually sit down and watch with as much attention as I can muster in these times.
Enter White Lotus, a series I love to hate. It’s back for its third season, this time in Thailand. “Same spirits. Different forms” is an appropriately named first episode. It’s still a show about horrible white people and a crime that both drives the plot forward and feels like an afterthought. This season, the different forms these entitled spirits take include a hot young woman7 + crusty old man couple, a group of catty middle-aged white women friends, and a “well-heeled” southern family with a spooky relationship to sexuality.
Rounding out the show, there’s a locals/ staff plot with Gaitok and Mook, another staff plot with our friend Belinda (from season 1) and a flirty fellow wellness practitioner, Pornchai. Notably, BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Greg has also ended up in Thailand, lurking in the hotel restaurant.
While there is a lot I dislike about White Lotus, I do love the ominous vibes. Beginning each story with a dead body makes the guests’ every glance, movement, and aside feel sinister and foreboding. Who is capable of murder? Most of them, it seems. The guests have traded their humanity—at great cost to all—to afford luxury, week-long vacations costing upwards of $50,000.8 But don’t we already know this? With little character development,9 this show about rich white people being terrible feels…pointless. We deserve more! Like maybe a subversive twist involving wealth redistribution, voluntarily or otherwise.
As of writing, there are only 2 episodes out. Season 3 could be different. Can White Lotus be more than a beautiful show about horrible people? How will Mike White engage (or not engage) with tensions around tourism, “cultural commodification,” and orientalism? And most urgently how will we survive a season without Jennifer Coolidge?? If you’re watching, let me know. Tell me what you think!
I wish I came up with this surf and turf description, but I did not. https://www.nps.gov/pore/learn/nature/intertidal.htm
The great lakes are considered “non-tidal,” sorry. Lake superior’s biggest tide (ie. increase in water level caused by gravitation pull of sun and moon) is only 5cm in height. The wind and weather change the lake level more and mask any small changes produced by heaven. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/gltides.html
For example, dislodged limpets get swept away, never to return to its rock indent. “If you pry, they die” is from this article!
learn more about two spot octopus and red octopus. And check out this giant pacific octopus someone saw at an Oregon tide pool!
a negative low tide is a tide that falls below the average low water mark. You can find tide chart on duck duck go or your preferred search engine (ex. search fitzgerald marine reserve tide chart)! Make sure your low tide is during the day… you can also go at night but be prepared to find a lot of crabs and slippery, dark conditions.
full disclosure, several people I was with thought it was overstimulating with the huge crowds
young girlfriend played by Aimee Lou Wood from Sex Education!! a delight.
the white lotus seasons have been filmed at real resorts! the cheapest stays hover around $1.3k - 2.5k per night, while Tanya’s suite in season 1 might be closer to $10k per night.
in white lotus, we end up where we started or worse off. Some people end up dead, some people grow into their misogyny, many people compromise on their values. Character development for the worse…with no repercussions. Hmm. Again, seems a little bit too familiar to be that entertaining to watch.