Glass Beach (Fort Bragg, California)

First, congratulations to Rob, who correctly identified Kit Carson as yesterday's Person-of-Mystery!  Not only did he solve the person, but he used good deductive reasoning to narrow his list of likely choices.  Nicely done, Rob!

So today, I'm going to continue our last trip retrospective, by focusing on another of our stops, Sea Glass Beach at Fort Bragg, California.

Back in the early twentieth century, people didn't think as much about ecology as they did today – even here in California.  So when the early residents of the remote coastal town of Fort Bragg, California, were looking for a place to toss their trash, it only made sense to them not to dump it in some landfill somewhere, but rather off the picturesque cliffs (near their pristine beaches north of the town) into the vast Pacific Ocean.  I know, today that sounds horrific, but in the years since 1967 (when the city prohibited dumping in the ocean), the sea tumbled the glass and spit the smoothed pebbles back up on the shores.

Jonathan making sea glass angels

As you approach the beach, you first notice the odd colored sand – perhaps a little more white than normal, but as you get closer to the shore you start noticing that it is not sand at all, but smooth pieces of opaque glass.  Then as you get nearer the shoreline, suddenly you notice the brilliant sparkle as the light glistens off of the multitude of jewel-like baubles all over the seashore.

What a nice reminder that God can take the junk in our life, work it over awhile, and and spit it back out as something beautiful.

As usual, boys will be boys, they tired of the pretty beaches and soon found ledges from which to jump into the water.

Next up, Happy Camp...