between a rock and...more rocks

May 2012- Pay attention.  You are about to learn more about my collection of beach rocks and other beach combing finds than you ever cared to know.

I recently returned from my yearly Girl's Trip with college girlfriends.  This year we went to Portland, Oregon and made it out to the coastal area there.  Of course I had to bring home rocks to add to my collection.  Later this summer we'll be flying to Portland, Maine and make our way to the coast.  A trip to Portland on each coast in one year- I think I should get a key to the city from each of their mayors.  

There's something about walking the beach and collecting treasures that is calming to me.  I'm a few shells short of an old lady {the ones with a basket of shells on the back of their toilet}.  Okay, I probably have quite a few more than the average old lady décor.  But I'd like to think I display them a bit nicer.  And they all hold a memory for me so that should count for something.  These collections have survived several moves and attempts to toss them out, although I'm certain one day when I'm gone and someone cleans out my things these will all end up out in our pasture.  Before that happens I hope to one day own a cottage on the beach somewhere and they won't look so out of place.  

I love the way beach stones are smooth and round from their tumbling in the ocean waves and crashing across the sand.  Sort of a metaphor for life, don't you think?  Any time I travel to the beach you can bet I'll bring home a bottle of sand and a suitcase full of whatever rocks or shells I manage to hang onto.  I'd like to keep them all but Casey usually does a good job of making sure I don't weigh down the baggage or cause too much concern passing through airport security.  I remember traveling not long after 9/11 and airport security confiscated quite a few of my rocks saying they were too sharp (some I'd found in the jetties) or big to take along.  They didn't really have  a policy for it but felt the flight would be much safer without my rocks to use as a weapon.  

Here's what made it home from my trip to Portland, OR.  The larger dark stone on the bottom left is the perfect stone for writing a message in the wet sand.  You can't tell from this picture but it is the perfect size to fit in your hand and since I wrote with it at Canon Beach it had to come home with me. 

Since I've collected so many treasures I've had to combine them instead of giving each beach it's own container.  This one contains treasures from Texas coastal beach combing and Mexico.

This vase is filled with a combination from Pink Sands beach, Harbour Island, Bahamas and coral from Mexico.  Pink Sands beach is one of my favorites.  It is a bit of a pain to get to it but once you are there it is one of the most beautiful and secluded beaches in the Bahamas...probably because not many people want to make the trek and the island is really small so there isn't much to do once you get there except relax on the beach and that is just fine with me!  You can't see it in this picture, but the sand really is pink, tinted from thousands of years of pink coral deposits.

These rocks are mostly from Goat Island, but also some from Boothbay Harbor, Kennebunkport, Goose Rocks Beach and Popham Beach in Maine.  The sand on the beaches of Maine that we've visited is not brown.  It has a cool gray color from the dark granite rocks that line the shore.

More from Maine.

These small smooth stones are all from beaches of Maine.  I could fill my pockets for days with these small stones.

On our last trip we visited an art fair in Kennebunkport and there was a vendor that made jewelry from small round stones like these.  I got a pendant and it is one of my favorite pieces of jewelry.

"Sea glass is glass (from bottles, flasks, windshields, windows) that has been smoothed by moving ocean water and time. It takes the ocean about 10 to 30 years to create one, and the resulting tumbled glass by the ocean is a frosted, jelly bean-like pebble.  Sea glass is found all over the world, but it’s found in unusual numbers on a beach located in the middle of an industrial area in Ele'ele on Kauai. Because of its unusual abundance, the beach has been appropriately named Glass Beach. The shoreline of Glass Beach is covered with millions of sea glass pieces - brown, aqua-colored, clear and blue.  The glass found at Glass Beach was broken bottles and auto glass dumped by Swiss Cheese Shoreline on the western end of Kauai. Located in Hanapepe Bay near Port Allen Harbor, Glass Beach is a stretch of glittering pieces of broken glass. It’s amazing to see what the ocean did to all that junk. Glass Beach is best for beach combing only. Swimming is not recommended because the beach is rocky." {from an on-line source}

The glass in the bottom of this jar is all I could cram into an empty Dr. Pepper bottle to bring home from Glass Beach. 

This sea glass is almost all from Goat Island in Maine, but some of the pieces are from other beaches in Maine that we've visited.  These have washed up along the beach but are not necessarily small or smooth on all edges.  Quite different from the sea glass from Glass Beach in Hawaii.  There's also a piece of sea urchin that washed up on Goat Island.  Except for Glass Beach, sea glass is somewhat rare and is my favorite beach find.

All of my beach treasures.  In addition to everything above I have sand and shells from lots of other beaches.  And more to come this summer!

Who's ready to book a beach vacation with me?  I need your suitcase to haul back more treasures for my collection!