met a jellyfish, a girl, a seagull, and a baby on a Sunday at the beach.

This is my beach on the Baltic Sea. Shall I give you a tour? Ahem. This is Falkenstein Strand, perfectly situated on the edge of Kiel Fjord. If you turn your eyes to the other side of the fjord, you will see Laboe, Kiel's resort beach. It is easily picked out, because of its tall (okay, not so tall-looking in this picture) metal tower, which is a WWII memorial. As you can see from the waves and the sails, it was windy today. White sails pop out of the ocean all the way up and down the fjord and out into the sea. The water's only inhabitants (large enough to speak of) are harmless jellyfish that look like buttons (they have four clear dots on their tops) and "catsharks." But they are rarely seen in any case, and are also completely harmless. Phewf, that's enough of that.

I love this beach. Its sands are happiest when decked with picnic blankets, as they often are. Families play beach ping pong (without a table) here, and it has a view of the harbor and the sea. Sailing boats and enormous trading ships pass by, and on windy days like today, (who am I kidding? It's always windy here) you can watch the sailboats and the kite surfers by Laboe. (Perhaps) best of all, it is perfect for cloud-watching. The clouds move and change quickly, and like everywhere in this low country, the sky goes on forever.

Just moments after we plopped our bags and beach towels onto the sand, we rushed to the water to stand in the waves. It was actually chilly today (rainy all morning,) but we wanted to stand in the Baltic anyway. That, and we had high hopes of seeing some button jellyfish. They are really cute (for jellyfish).

We didn't wait long. In fact, we didn't wait at all. I put my toes in the water, and quickly spotted this fellow:

His name is Norbert.

He is very nice, and doesn't bite.

When we got back from Sylt, I felt kind of brave for catching myself a jellyfish. I told my guest parents all about it. They were delighted that I had discovered Northern Germany's greatest child's toy. They told me all about how their little kids used to slop them up and squish them
through their fingers. Um.... I'm not quite that brave. Okay, who knows. Maybe I am. But I was too attached to Norbert to put him through that, so after we snapped these photos, I quickly put him back where he belonged, but not before a fellow jellyfish lover spotted me and ran across the sand and through the waves to meet me. She splashed up just as I was settling Norbert back into his home.

This is her:

She's the little one. The grown-up is Losa.

She ran right into the water, repeating, "Qualle, Qualle, Qualle!" (Jellyfish, jellyfish, jellyfish!). I turned to her and asked, "Suchst du auch die Qualle?" (Are you looking for the jellyfish too?)

Okay, pause. German children are adorable. Especially when they speak German (I know, of course, German children speak German. But really).

"I have a jellyfish right here," she said, "but I can't pick him up."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because my mommy said not to."

"That's a good reason. I didn't pick up jellyfish either when I was really little."

"Oh." She said, a little relieved. She stood there for a minute, staring at her jellyfish, then splashed in a circle around it thoughtfully."And how long ago were you really little?"

"Just a little while ago." I answered. She'll be catching jellyfish in no time.

"Okay then!" she chirped with a twinkly smile and skipped up the beach to her mom and sisters.

I went back to my blanket too, and collapsed happily into the sand. Jellyfish Jane and her sister were building a sand mountain, while couples walked with their dogs past them. Meanwhile, their baby sister made a friend just a few feet away from us.

Jane was back several times within the next half hour. She ran at me with sand buckets filled with water and jellyfish.

"Take him, take him!" She would say.

"You want me to pick him up? Out of his water?" I'd ask.

"Yes, yes, pick him up so I can see! But just quickly, so he doesn't die."

"Okay," I said, taking out a particularly large jelly. "Here he is. Look, this one's blue!"

"Doesn't matter. He only looks blue. It's the water that does that," she said knowingly.

"Ah," I answered. "Now quick! Back in the water!"

And off she ran with her pail full of jellyfish.

"Thank you for the jellyfish!" I called to her as she plopped him back into the water. She waved back at me and called back in her tiny voice, "You're welcome!"