Out There.: King Tides!!

I had read that there were King Tides last week. I have never heard of these, so I read up and it sounded cool. The state department of Ecology was asking folks to submit their photos of the King Tides! WOW, I hoped we could see something with all the crowds that were sure to be out there! On December 28, at 8 am, the tides were to be +10 out at Birch Bay. I love salt water in any form, so I talked Warren into getting up and driving out about 7 am to see these tides and maybe some wild waves and adventure...I was glad he said he'd go because he drives out there every day for work and he is on vacation this week! Of course the phrase "we can go out to breakfast after" had a little something to do with everyone's sense of adventure. I asked Chuck and John if they had ever heard of King Tides (hmm maybe I know something John doesn't!). They had not heard of them. I waited for the question of the day... "what are they?" I was able to explain what I had discovered..."King tides" — are higher-than-usual winter tides. These watery phenoms occur when the gravitational pulls of the sun and moon reinforce one another." So they asked if they could come along, too. I thought with the large amount of rain, rising river and King Tides, we could see some one of a kind event!

So we were up at 6:30 Dec. 28, heading out at 7 am. We drove down to Birch Bay. It looked like it pretty much always does, of course the sun was not up yet, so we walked and waited. Well, maybe it was the bay thing... so we drove to Sandy Point. Hmm looks nice, sun is out, wind and regular old water. Not another soul around. All was not lost. We had a fun, early trip to the water, a nice fresh air walk and Breakfast out. It was fun to do something with the guys, that as adults, we could all enjoy. It brought out some stories of trips to Birch Bay, crabbing, camping, and the buckets of rocks we all seem to collect anytime we go anywhere! The NEXT King Tides are in January. I am still wondering why I have never heard of these before.