The vast majority of sea glass discussed, described, and pictured on this site are from one particular beach. We have vases full of (co-mingled) sea glass from this beach. We each have only a few, at best, from other locations – though some happen to be spectacular finds.

We go to this beach virtually every weekend every summer. I refer to it as “family central”. We have a very special connection to it.

While there are no houses on this beach now, generations ago my great-grandparents owned homes on it. This included a large Victorian that was destroyed by weather long before my mother was born. She did, however, get to spend all of July on the beach with her grand mother, parents, and siblings. Her uncle, aunt, and cousins took the August half of the summer. That time was spent in a much smaller house that was also destroyed by weather.

It is difficult to imagine the difference. The beach I know is a beautiful, natural, timeless place. While the shoreline is a little bit different year-to-year, often dependent on winter storms (or lack thereof), its essence is unchanging. There aren’t, and can’t be, new brick high-rises popping up along the dunes. There won’t be any golf courses or resorts, either. It’s a public place now and I’m glad for it. No one should get to own this, not my family or anybody else’s.

This brings us around to sea glass. We are at the beach a lot. I started Dad’s Sea Glass Challenge years ago when the kids were little and often bored. Hunting for sea glass was/is a perfect way to spend some time at the beach, but there is more to it than that. I wonder, every time I find a piece, whether or not a relative of mine might have touched it. Could an ancient piece of brown sea glass be part of a medicine bottle my great-grandparents (who I did not know) used? Is a piece of milk sea glass from a light fixture that my grandfather changed the light bulb of? Is the thick bevel of clear frosted glass from a milk bottle my mother made her breakfast with 60 years ago? My mom talks about the perfume bottles her grandmother had in the windows of the last beach house, which was swept into the ocean. It is all possible.

Sea glass is great. Sea glass is treasure.