On our trip home today from Myrtle Beach, Chloe called in to talk to one of her best friends, Absolutely Mindy on Sirius/XM’s Kids Place Live. She was excited to tell Mindy about having picked up a jellyfish on the beach earlier.
Until yesterday, I would have advised anyone to give a wide berth to any jellyfish … I’ve been stung in the past … not something you want to happen twice or to your kids.
Yesterday as we walked along the beach, we saw lots of jellyfish stranded on the beach. I assumed they were dead, and we talke about how sad it was that they had not figured out how to go out with the tide.
But then as we walked on the beach, this man who was jogging by took a break in his run to introduce us to the jellyfish. He picked it up, told us it was not dead, and explained that it wouldn’t sting us. The cannonball jellyfish’s tentacles wouldn’t hurt us. We were tentative, but we ventured to touch not only the top of the jellyfish, but the tentacles as well.
Today as the girls built castles on the beach, Chloe’s friend Sally watched as a jellyfish became stranded on the beach. She worried about it and decided to rescue it. But in the process of “rescuing” the jellyfish, the girls decided to pick it up. And put it in a bucket. And then hold it in their hands. And name it “Ronald”. And then, at long last, release it back into the ocean.
