Quote: What makes tidepooling so much fun in Rocky Point is the variety of marine life you can find with little effort. When the tide goes out, miles and miles of rocky shoreline are suddenly exposed. Tides cause water levels to vary up to 23 feet along this stretch of the Sea of Cortez.

The community of Las Conchas, where we happened to be staying, boasts some of the best tidepooling in the region. Lucky for us. Before breakfast each morning we simply stepped outside our rented beach home to reach the intertidal zone.

Clad in aqua shoes, the girls ran ahead with their little green butterfly nets and miniature aquariums eager to scoop up goby fish, sponges, starfish, and creepy spindly brittlefish. Sonja and Sophia, aged 6 and 8, were obviously a chip off the 'ole block. Moving across the rocks with razor sharp eyes they fearlessly stuck hands into dark holes and extracted strange sea creatures like their father, Scott, a fisheries professor. David and I, and our 4 year old Jordan, were much more hesitant to peel things off upturned rocks, pick up mean-looking crabs or grab sea urchins.

At one point I glanced over and saw Sonja holding an octopus.

"You have an octopus!?" I asked, my voice rising with excitement. I hurried over and watched it squirm in her hand. I had never seen one live, or so small. Maybe two inches long. It's tiny pink arms curled in the air, sensing it's surroundings. Sonja's expression was serious, analytical. She gave him a once-over then plopped him into her aquarium. She moved on to another pool while I stood there dazed. Scott found another octopus and dropped him in Sonja's collection.

Sophia had been busy catching shrimp but now wanted her dad to help her fish for sargent majors. They waded through ankle-deep water, holding the front poles of the seine low as they dragged the net to scoop up tiny striped fish and handfuls of hermit crabs.

"Hey, look at this!" Scott said minutes later. He stuck his finger into a crevice and fished out a fireworm that stretched six inches across his palm. It had red-tipped spines. Jordan immediately retorted a warning about not touching anything red because it could be poisonous. Scott laughed, but later that night read that the red colors did in fact indicate toxins in that species. Scott would also discover that the little octopuses he and Sonja held were those that often bite when handled. Luckily neither were bit by their tiny beaks.

It was a temporary consolation, however, when we realized the next morning that one of the octopuses had escaped from the aquarium sitting on the kitchen table. Known for being highly intelligent (one stole a knife from David when dove in the Caribbean), the octopus apparently found a way to slither out the trap door, across the tile, over the sand and back to sea.

From journals Family Beach Holiday in Rocky Point, Mexico