Searching in a Different Spot...

Otherwise known as... Lessons Learned from Searching for Sea Glass

This morning, after having quiet time sleeping in and more than a couple of cups of coffee (Thanks to Jes, for making another pot!), we got dressed and headed out to the North Shore for a little sea glass excursion.  I've had very good luck at this particular unnamed beach for the past three years.

Unnamed because I am a bit selfish and not afraid to admit it.

The sea glass enthusiasts are cutthroat, I tell you!

All kidding aside, I have no problem divulging this information in person with my friends, but I am not putting it on the internet.  There are limits to what I will share. Back to the story...

We piled in the car, Ely (Chris and Jes's two year-old) securely fastened in his car seat, baby bag in tow, snacks and water and everything else one has when traveling with a small child.  We had all had a pretty light breakfast, and Chris makes homemade power bars, which were in the snack bag.  I asked for one not long after we were on the road.  Not only did it satisfy my hunger most deliciously, the bar decorated my jeans with little bits of melted chocolate.

Really.

I only brought one pair of jeans with me this weekend... I was a mess.  Chris looked over at me.  Jen, I'll pull over at the next rest stop so you can shake yourself off. 

Chris, I need a wet one, do you have a wet one?

What?  NO!  Look at you!  How did you get chocolate there?  I had chocolate in three different places on my jeans.  Jes reached up from the backseat and handed me a couple of towelettes. 

I looked at Chris.  Never underestimate the power of the Mom-mobile. 

We stopped, I sufficiently cleaned up, and we were on our way again. 

When we got to the beach, it didn't look quite right.  It was covered in seaweed.  Seaweed that covered the sea glass.  This is not good.  We attempted to look for glass and were mostly unsuccessful.  Ely fell and got wet, nasty seaweed all over himself.  I looked at Jes, and offered, Maybe we should go to another beach?  She inquired, Is it usually this hard?

Not here.  I told the truth... for the past three years I had come to this beach and gained quite a bounty of glass smoothed by the sand and crashing ocean waves.  While Jes took Ely to get changed, Chris and I explored a drier part of the beach devoid of seaweed.  I found a few pieces, but nothing to write home about, so I went to a different part of the beach, closer to the rocks.  There wasn't seaweed in that spot either.  I began to search. 

Jackpot.  The pieces were smaller than usual, but I was picking up bits of green, brown, clear, and blue fairly regularly.  There was an older woman searching nearby, and I felt somewhat annoyed because she seemed to be following me on the beach.  Every time I went to a new spot she went there too, only a few steps ahead of my location. 

I don't like to feel competitive when I'm doing something that I find relaxing.  At the same time, I didn't want her to find all the good pieces first!  While we were both scanning the same pile, I told her that I come up here once a year from Florida to search for glass.  We talked about the nasty seaweed that covered most of the beach and how unfortunate it was, and then we talked about the many different shades of glass that this particular beach offers.  She also revealed that there's a retiree who comes to the beach every single morning to search for cobalt blue.... and he finds it.  He was my true competition.  Blue glass is much more rare than green, brown, and clear.  She asked me if I make jewelry, and I told her that I would like to make a mosaic, but I couldn't figure out what I wanted to depict.  (Although today I think I have finally arrived at a decision.)  The woman makes jewelry, and sells it to tourists.  She seemed nice. 

I wandered away, finding my own part of the beach again, feeling much more peaceful.  It's amazing how calm washes over us when we understand someone's motivation.  I also realized that there was plenty of glass for both of us. I'm sure there will be next year, too, although Chris and Jes want me to try the beach near their vacation place in Provincetown.  If I must. 

Chris, Jes, Ely, and I ended up having a really great couple of hours searching for sea glass.  We all really got into it, even the baby, who discovered the find of the day-- a piece of amber glass that had come from the bottom of a bottle and was slightly twisted.  It was about the size of a silver dollar, and really something!  We were very impressed that he found it on his own, after primarily being a deliverer of beach glass from his parents to my bag.  

I found my first ever tiny bit of red glass today, which is the rarest of all beach glass.  It was about the size of a quarter of my pinky nail, and I was thrilled.  According to Wikipedia, red is found once in every five thousand pieces. 

My most important discovery, though, was something else altogether.  Today I learned... Sometimes you need to search in a different spot.  You never know what you might find... maybe even the rarest gem of all.