What do Cholla Bay (Mexico) and Whitmore Bay (Wales) have in common?

I was born and raised in the coastal town of Barry, Wales, so I'm no stranger to watching the effects of the tide. Here's a photo of one of Barry's beaches at low tide, and you'll see by the colour change of the sand that the tide covers quite a distance.

Yes, those dots are people, and this beach goes out even further than this photo shows

The next photo shows Greg, at another Barry beach, fascinated by the fact that boats (laying down in the background) stay tethered when the tide goes out and just right themselves when the tide comes in.

So what does this have to do with Cholla Bay? Well, Cholla Bay has a tide that probably goes out about one kilometre, and so the scenery changes with the tide. Today we started walking on the beach about an hour after low tide, so the water was coming back in.

A man shouted at a couple on the beach, warning that the tide was coming in. They weren't too concerned as they hadn't been gone very long and their ATV was up on dry sand when they parked. The water was just reaching the vehicle, but he went back anyway. After he admitted that he couldn't have left it much longer as the sand was very soft. When I looked over at the same area about 20 minutes later, you certainly couldn't have driven a vehicle from there then! This tide certainly moves fast and covers quite a distance!

Can anyone identify these shells for us? They're each about 9" long.

Greg and I enjoyed a long walk, staying in the shallow water as the tide came in. Greg made this shell "flower" for me in the water, but with the effects of the tide, it's likely long gone now. In the time it took him to create it, the depth of the water increased by about 6 inches. It was a lovely gesture though.