Shark!

Well, fossil sharks anyway.

For July 4th, one of my classmates decided to host a family day. He lives out near where I am at SERC, so he picked me up at that office and I stayed with his family for the 4th, since he was working downtown at his rotation on the 5th. It was fun -- kids' soccer games, camp drop-offs, and other family activities.

But the 4th was the focus. We started the day with fossil shark tooth hunting in Chesapeake Beach, then did a tour at SERC for my classmates who hadn't ever been there, and then the picnic. GREAT day!

 So the beach is really pretty. Getting there at 8a meant we had it pretty much to ourselves. By the time we left around 12.30, not only was I done with the sun, but it had started to fill in.

 We had shovels to scoop the shoreline and screens to sift. What were we looking for? Small black rectangles. And we did find them!

 These are small cliffs, but the shark teeth erode out of here. Think about the size of this basin and the 100,000+ years of sharks, and maybe it's no wonder there are so many teeth.

 Jellyfish and crabs were washed all over the beach! Hard to keep the kids away from the jellyfish, and some of them didn't like the crabs either. But some really beautiful blue crabs just washed ashore.

 Jellyfish, tentacles gone. No, this crab is dead too, but I couldn't resist picking it up to show the kids and have a little blue crab lesson.

My collection of shark teeth and shark and ray tooth plates. Not bad! I did have one good size tooth -- if it wasn't the largest of the day, it was close. I found six of these just walking along the tide lines.

It was July 4th, but we were beat and did not drive over to Annapolis for the fireworks. Instead, we watched the Tour de France coverage. Good trade, I thought. Something new, then getting to see my classmates in a very casual setting with their families, it was great. Lovely was to celebrate summer.