Monday, April 19, 2010

The Search for Beach Glass at Monterey Bay

Last Sunday (April 11) Tom and I packed our lunch - lovely leftover bbq'd chicken pizza - jumped in the car and headed down the coast for another adventure in beach glass collecting! Read a great blog the week before, giving me the idea for our latest Sunday drive. I highly recommend checking out this blog out if you are headed in the Monterey Bay, Carmel, Pacific Grove direction...wonderful advice about where to go and what do to.

BlogMonterey.com: http://www.blogmonterey.com/

I met the author of the Monterey Blog on Twitter (for Twitter fans - http://twitter.com/SeeMonterey) and she gave me some great advice about where to find sea glass in Monterey, especially helpful since we had no clue where to start.  Followed her directions and ended up at just where we needed to be. At the park across the street from McDonald's on Del Monte, south of Fisherman's Wharf!


Beautiful day, and the beach was littered with tons of sea glass, just waiting for us to scoop it up! It's a little hard to tell in the photo, but I was trying to show you how much glass was there, and how easy it was to find. Even if we had not found any glass, it was simply a great place to walk and enjoy the calm, mesmerizing sound of the gentle deep turquoise surf, sea birds, all while meeting other beachcombers out for a Sunday walk on the shore.

Here's just a few of my favorite pieces to show off!


Collection of all kinds of green pieces. I like the really pitted worn ones the best, and the light green pieces.


Amber and brown tones - love it when you can still feel and see the ridges from old bottles...


Wish I made jewelry!  Love love love my aqua and turquoise pieces of sea-tumbled glass


This cool rounded, cupped piece was Tom's big find for the day! Kind of an avocado-lime green, with little bubbles in the glass, about an inch in diameter, can't imagine what it might have come from..


This unique piece of sea glass was my favorite find! Looks like chicken wire
 embedded into an aqua chunk of glass; 
almost 2 inches long  x 1 inch at the widest section. 

I find it so interesting that every beach that I go to, I find different shapes, colors, textures....  
Would love to hear from you, what are some of your favorite haunts for sea glass? 

14 comments:

  1. Oh my you certainly scored! Was there really that much? I'd love to go there too. Could you perhaps email me directions? I would greatly appreciate it.
    I'm in love with sea glass and would love to go one day soon!! Thanks for sharing your lovely finds :)
    xo

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  2. Beautiful! I especially love the aqua pieces ♥

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  3. Nice photos Caron! You sure did get some beauties. I never under estimate the browns and greens either. Sounds like you having fun! :)

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  4. Hi Caron! It's my dream to live in Washington State someday, so this page really feeds my imagination. The coast would be my first heart's desire, followed by living on a lake....Your sea glass is just beautiful. My folks live in Ridgefield, WA, and we usually go out to Long Beach when I visit in the summer....that is where I look for sea treasures. Thanks for the lovely pictures!
    xx P&H

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  5. Thanks for linking to our blog in the post! I'm the person behind the SeeMonterey Twitter account and the BlogMonterey blog. (They're all part of the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau.)

    The beach in question is known as Del Monte Beach. We have more info here on our site:
    http://www.seemonterey.com/tourist-activities/beaches/monterey-beaches

    It gets a little confusing, because Del Monte Beach is in the middle of Monterey State Beach, and everyone's fuzzy on where the border between the two is. As far as I can tell, the parts that are Del Monte Beach are roughly the bits that I told you about.

    Glad you had a good time - and glad I could help!

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  6. NicoleG - thank you thank you thank you!!! hope you enjoyed the photos -

    Caron

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  7. I can't believe that you found all these pieces on one beach in one day! Awesome!!

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  8. Thanks everyone for your comments!
    Maya - these are only my favorite pieces, I collected twice as much glass as in the pictures. Collecting sea glass for me is a "zen" activity - something that I need to do once in awhile to let my mind wander into other creative endeavors

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  9. Thanks for sharing your beach glass finds...we went to that same beach while on vacation and found so many treasures.

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  10. Ok, it is over a year later but....Thank you so much for the information. My family finally is able to visit Monterey and my 7 year old daughter is obsessed with beachcombing. I hope the prospects are just as good this year!

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  11. I'm going thru your blog and reading your old posts. I love looking for sea glass and I'm book marking this beach for a "some day" adventure.

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  12. Hi Kim! So glad you liked the post - I think I have sea glass in every coat pocket I own. It is kind of a problem! LOL

    Caron

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  13. I really like the pic with the pile of seafoam and brown sea glass. It is a great combo!

    If you have not yet visited I have a lot of info on sea glass on my site at http://www.bytheseajewelry.com/theglass/what.php

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  14. Hello!
    We have family with a vacation home in the Monterey area so we are there often. Sea glass hunting is something we always try to do. We've never been to Del Monte beach, so will look for it this time. What time of the day did you go? Do you know if it makes any differance? Or if high tide/low tide can effect your searcg?

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Thank you so much for commenting on our Everything Coastal page, so excited to meet someone else who shares the love of exploring all that the coast has to offer! Will look forward to continuing our conversation.