Grunion Run 2009

A few years ago we were all playing games late one night at the beach house and heard quite a commotion outside on the beach. We got up to see what was going on, but all we could see was a wall of people running around on the beach with buckets and flashlights.

After standing there clueless for several minutes, Robyn walked down to ask someone what the heck was going on. She came back up to the porch and reported that it was the "grunion run." The little fish come ashore to mate and quickly return to sea.

Against Richelle's will I went in and woke Derek up...I made him promise that he would go back to bed when it was over and that he would NOT be grumpy the next day. I told him I had a super fun surprise, so he made the promise (& kept it).

We all went running down the beach to join in on the grunion run. Anthony, Derek, Sydney, Billy & I (and Richelle as the photographer) had soooo much fun running around on the beach, in the middle of the night catching little, slimy fish. We were soaked and freezing, but it didn't matter.

Fast forward to 2009:

Derek & Richelle looked up the schedule for the grunion run and parts of the mating period fell on the days we'd be at the beach house. Derek, Billy & Anthony were outside waiting during the time period on the first night, but no grunions.

Finally on Wednesday, after Derek, Billy and Anthony waited & waited...the grunions came. They only caught a few and it lasted much less time this year...but it was still a fun beach house adventure. Nana was playing dominoes with us (Syd, Richelle & me), but once she heard the grunions were here, she went running for the beach!!

Plus, Billy amazed us all and actually touched a fish!! When he goes fishing on the pier with Mike & Derek he refuses to touch the fish- both the bait & what he catches...so he is quickly sent back to the beach house. You can't fish, if you won't even touch the fish!! I took a picture so Mike would believe us!!