The Ocean, Sharks, and Toxic Sand Crabs
We made our way to beautiful Carlsbad beach and the kids were excited, to say the least. It’s been three years since our last trip to the beach, although we did see the Pacific Ocean last year on a trip to Seattle. Well, the kids took no time getting reaclimated to the beach and our vacation was in full swing…that is until I told them about sand sharks. Honestly, though, they were actually intrigued by the thought of sharks and showed no fear – well, at least I tried. My kids are more fearless than I ever was at that age.
Oh yeah, those pesky sand crabs. We collected somewhere near a hundred of those little guys – actually, we collected several hundred but culled the small ones. We decided we would eat the largest of the large. (Disclaimer: I don’t even know if it’s legal to remove those things). Anyhow, we got back and Mimi was fast at work in battering them for frying (yeah, I know that sounds abusive). It turns out that there was conflicting feedback on the trustworthy internet about the safety of eating these crunchy sand dwellers and I strongly urged Mimi to put a kabosh on the whole thing – but, she had already consumed one, saying that it was yummy. She reluctantly tossed the rest, deciding that better safe than sorry made best sense, especially when pregnant. What was so awful about sand crabs? Just toxins and a bunch of bacteria. Hopefully, no harm was done. All we have to show for the hard work in gathering all those tiny crabs are some sore bodies and more vacation memories.
© 2012, Rick Hogaboam. All rights reserved.