Tristan's Treasures

Tristan with his parents Briana and Adrian.

Tristan is our grandson. He lives near Seattle with his mom Briana, and his dad Adrian.

Tristan loves trains, planes and automobiles.
He has a cat named Wesley and a dog named Beau.

He joined us, along with his mom and dad, on Pandion for a sail in the Ten Thousand Islands and loved it.

Tristan with Grandpa Gary, having fun with the cell phone.

This page of our blog is dedicated to little Tristan, and anyone who can see the natural world through the magical lens of a child.

When we find cool things during our journey to share with you, Tris, we will post them on Tristan's Treasures.

And when Grandpa thinks of funny things to draw for you, he will post them here too.

Fred the Milk Conch.

This is our first treasure for you, Tristan.

It's a Milk Conch, a beautiful animal living inside his white shell. If you look closely, you can see his two eyes staring out at you.

His name is Fred. He spends his days crawling around on the sea floor, looking for good things to eat. He likes to munch on plants and algae. Green stuff.

Other sea animals might like to eat Fred. Sea turtles, eagle rays, and crabs might find him tasty to eat, so Fred can hide inside his shell if he has to. He even has a door that closes behind him to help keep him safe!

After looking at him, while he looked at us, we carefully put Fred back in the sea. He's happy.



Hi Tristan! We found another treasure for you to

Patrick the Thorny Sea Star.

see. It's a Thorny Sea Star, and he's waving at you!

His name is Patrick (of course). Like Fred the Milk Conch, Patrick spends his days crawling about on the sea floor in clear shallow waters.

Patrick likes to munch on little animals, like worms (ewww!) and snails that he finds as he crawls around on rocks and corals.

Patrick is an amazing animal. If he loses an arm fighting off a bigger animal, like a hungry fish, he can grow his arm back! That's pretty cool.

He also has little tube feet underneath his body that he uses to move around, and to help him eat. After we took his picture, we carefully put Patrick back in his home.

Daisy the Cushion Sea Star.

Hey Tristan! Look, it's a new treasure for you!

She looks a little like Patrick, but this is Daisy.

Daisy is a Cushion Sea Star, and she is one of Oma Brenda's favorite sea animals.

We found Daisy living on a shallow sea grass bed. She likes to crawl slowly along the sea bottom, looking for food.

Daisy has a hard outer skin that helps protect her from getting eaten by fish and crabs. She does not move fast, so she protects herself by having a tough skin!

After taking her picture for you, we carefully placed Daisy back in the sea grass that is her home.

Ralph the Cuban Whiptail Lizard. 

Tristan, we found a dinosaur for you! Well, maybe not a real dinosaur, but he looks like one.

Ralph is a Cuban Whiptail lizard. We found him scurrying around among the ruins of an old abandoned house on an island. He like to eat bugs. Ewwww!

Ralph is not a big lizard. He would fit in the palm of your Dad's hand, if you could catch him. But Ralph is very fast and that helps him from being eaten by other animals, including birds and other lizards.

Since your Grandpa was not fast enough to catch him, he posed just long enough for his picture to be taken, and then he raced off to eat more bugs.

Hi Tristan! We have a new treasure for you that we found crawling in the rocks near the sea.

This is Sally. Her full name is Sally Lightfoot, and she loves to scramble over rocks to find food.

Sally will eat small clams, and almost any critter that she can catch that is tasty.

Most crabs like Sally are afraid of people, but not her. She came out of her hiding place to watch your Grandpa as he fumbled around with his camera so he could get a picture of her.

Brave crab!

Tristan! Another dinosaur for you, little man!

This is Ernie. He's a Curly-Tailed Lizard. Can you guess why he got this name?

Take a look at his tail! Don't you wish you had a tail like that?

We found Ernie sunbathing on the beach. He loves to eat bugs, of course. Spiders, ants, almost anything that he can catch. If a bigger critter (like a hawk) tries to catch Ernie, his tail can break off so he can get away; and then he grows a new tail!

How cool is that?

George the Exuma Iguana. 

Hey Tristan! Guess what? We found another dinosaur for you! This one is almost as big as you.

George weighs about 20 pounds, and is almost three feet long. He lives on a remote island called Bitter Guana Cay, with some of his friends who are also iguanas.

George is endangered, which means that there are not many of his kind left in the world. He was moved to the island as part of a plan to save all of the remaining Exuma iguana lizards.

He likes to eat fruit and plants. George walks slowly around the island during the day, searching for food and occasionally taking naps in the shade of a tree or rock.

I told George that I have a grandson named Tristan who is bigger than he is, loves trains, and eats fruit too. George said that he wants to meet you. And he said that you should bring some apples and bananas with you.

Hey Tristan! We found a cool crab for you.

This is Rusty. He's a ghost crab.  We discovered Rusty crawling along the shore in some big rocks.

He was trying to blend in against the rocks, and stayed very still while we watched him. When ghost crabs want to move, they can crawl very fast. Almost as fast as Sally....remember that crab?

Ghost crabs live on sandy beaches, and dig deep burrows like a cave to live in. They come out of their little caves mostly at night, to catch and eat little animals they find along the way, like clams.

When ghost crabs run really fast, they don't use all of their legs. At their fastest, they only use four legs to run. See if you can count how many legs Rusty has.

He lives on the beach, and sometimes has to jump into the sea to keep his gills wet so he can breathe. I don't think you have gills like Rusty, do you? Better ask your mom!

Hi Tristan! We found a slimy, slithering, silly spotted sea hare for you!

You would love this one. This is Samantha the Spotted Sea Hare. She was crawling around in a tide pool along the shore, looking for good things to eat. She eats algae, which is sort of like salad for you and me.

There are lots of really cool things about Samantha. The coolest is that when she is trying to get away from animals that might try to eat her, she squirts purple ink in their face!

Ewwwww! What if you could do that? Your mom would not be too happy.

We watched Samantha crawl in her tide pool. She can also swim, but prefers to crawl.  She told us that if you want to visit her, to please bring a big bowl of algae for her to eat.