Beachcombing anyone? (fishing, collecting, walking, purchase)

[SeaDreams]

Since a child I've always been a "picker upper", or as my husband lovingly calls me a magpie... loves shiny, pretty, colorful (and just plain odd) things. Started in the mountains of Western Montana picking up rocks when we'd go fishing with dad and continued to now when we've been lucky enough to relocate to an island on the west coast of Washington State.

Over the years we've made coastal trips (and I always brings rocks, shells, wood and other things back) but now we live here - hurray! As we've been finding the time to start really haunting the beaches I've started collecting seaglass and the most beautiful (to me of course!) pebbles I find. I hold myself back on driftwood right now because we're renting for the first year until we decide where we want to purchase. So...

What kinds of things and finds does everyone else get out there? From all areas? North, south, east, west and inland - I've found some pretty cool things on high mountain lakes after all!

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

I grew up in Mass and I am the same way, I used to pick up peices of coral, drift wood, all kinds of sea shells and of course sea glass. My Mother used to get a glass container and fill it with the same kind of shell, sometimes they looked like a bowl full of candy.

I am constantly intriqued by what washes up on the shore. Someone was telling me the other day that its pretty easy to find sharks teeth on the beaches here in Florida so I am going to give that a try. Remember sharks have rows of teeth and they shed them like we shed parts of our fingernails.

I was even thinking of getting a bag of marbles and throwing them out into the ocean off the end of the jetty where we go to the beach for people in years to come so they can find them. My Mom was always hoping the next peice of sea glass she found would be a marble.

[SeaDreams]

Oohh... I love the marble idea!

Barry (my husband) and I were in Belize a couple of years ago and while he was diving I was doing some beach walking and found what I later was told was a shark vertebrae. Haven't found anything teeth yet however.

Must say after spending time in Belize I envy you your weather!

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

Originally Posted by SeaDreams

Oohh... I love the marble idea!

Barry (my husband) and I were in Belize a couple of years ago and while he was diving I was doing some beach walking and found what I later was told was a shark vertebrae. Haven't found anything teeth yet however.

Must say after spending time in Belize I envy you your weather!

I so want to get certified to scuba so I can find even more fun things in the ocean. That would be cool to find a shark bone, I would definetly bring that home and put it with my shells.

I want to go down to the Keys one day and go to some of the places that serve Conch Salad and see how many of the HUGE conch shells I can run away with. I have a few from when my parents lived here in Florida YEARS ago and they are in my flower beds.

I am dissappointed however that in my area I never find any sea glass.

If you ever come to Florida on vacation you simply must check out Sanibel and Captiva island, they are the best shelling beaches you will ever see. Just make sure your back is in good shape because you will be bending over most of the time. The shells are there by the handfulls. I took a tidal chart with me and we would go out when the tide was going out and pick up shells, it was just amazing.