Estuaries and surrounding wetlands are highly productive ecosystems, where fresh water flows from rivers and mixes with the sea or ocean saltwater. The brackish admixture creates a rich habitat for plants and animals that have especially adapted to the tidal marshy conditions (NOAA, 2024

After defeating some big bosses, I'm enjoying the Wukong game much more. Practice makes perfect. The game mechanics allow for some strategic martial arts fighting. There's also plenty of metaphysical material that give the game some narrative depth.

Classy ambience with a touch of popSorry boys, but we lost this battle of the sexes. Women are the superior sex when it comes to the gustatory system. Not to get too technical, but our gustatory system is comprised of various weird mechanisms like taste buds, receptor cells, ion channels, nerves, neurons, and so forth spread out through our piehole and right into the nogging in a delicious neuro-synaptic matrix of flavour-processing biocomputers. Complex and complicated stuff. Researchers conduct all sorts of tests to determine our abilities to sense, perceive, identify, discriminate the different aspects of taste, and generally speaking, ladies have higher taste sensitivity than men because women can identify substances using lower concentrations.

The grasslands and marshes have been shaped by the flow of the Fraser river into the Pacific ocean. Being at sea level, the landscape is impacted by tidal, climactic, geophysical, and other environmental forces, as well as man-made structures and activity.

The kites (or parachutes) rose in the air and veered sideways in the wind. It was a wonderful afternoon, partly cloudy, and the conditions on this end of the mainland, near the flats of the river delta, ideal for riding the wind. I honestly don't know what this activity is called. It's not parasailing. Perhaps para-joyriding? Kite wheeling? It looks fun and a great way to experience the kinesthetic thrill of fast vehicular spatial displacement. As can be seen in the video and photograph, the riders do need to wear helmets. Not a bad way to spend the long weekend.

As I walked along the path, I saw an insect spread its black and yellow wings in flight. It veered sideways and fluttered into the tall grasses. I peered closer and saw it clinging to a dry branch. It was a grasshopper. They littered the path and jumped out of the way as I approached. They wouldn't let me get too close. As soon as I was within a couple of feet from them, they took off in flight or hopped out of the way.