June 15…. Another beach day

We went walking on the beach yesterday because… rocks of course.

A local man suggested a beach location where Susy could find some great rocks for her collection, so we traveled up that way. Kellogg Beach, just north of Crescent City.

Very strange to me. I grew up in Florida, visiting the beach daily when I was younger and then as often as possible in later years. Big warm waves, flat white sandy beaches backed by sand dunes. Walk as far as you can and it stays the same the whole way.

Here… yes it’s sand, but it’s all dark grey. There’s mountains off in the distance, something Florida just doesn’t have. The waves and the water look about the same but it’s cold! And the shore has almost no seashells, instead it’s lined with rocks from golf ball size down to pea size and smaller. A rainbow of colors, all perfectly smooth and rounded, like they’ve already been through a tumbler.

As the waves crash on the beach, you hear the rocks clattering together, and then as the water withdraws, it runs through all these pebbles and makes the most magical sound. Too much wind and wave noise to get a recording, but I’ll never forget that sound. Wonderful!

As we walked back to the truck, we happened on several people searching the gravel, so we stopped to chat.

The man told us they were searching for fossilized seashells, and showed us an example. His wife takes the shell fossils and makes them into jewelry pieces, and they give them away to friends and family.

He showed us one he had found, and he gave it to Susanne. A beautiful little piece about the size of a quarter with a really nice pattern on it.

After learning what to look for, Susy and I found a small handful of these fossils, but the piece she was given may still be the best one.