Gems on the beach

View of Glass Beach from the top of the stairs

I just realized (thanks to an e-mail from our neighbor back home, Marche') that while I have referred to sea glass several times in this blog, I've never really explained what it is.

Two photos of the treasures washed up on top of the sand -- double-clicking on the photos will give you a closer view. You can see kelly green, light blue, white, brown, and cobalt colors of sea glass.

Sea glass is the remains of real glass - usually bottles, jars, plates, - that have been naturally tumbled over time by the sand and sea. Every day when the tide comes in, new pieces of glass wash to shore. Of the ten public beaches on GTMO, two of them, Glass Beach and Girl Scout Beach, have an abundance of sea glass strewn among the rocks and shells. I've been told that this area formerly was used years ago as a "dumping ground" for refuse. Consequently, one can find more sea glass on these beaches than on the others.

Glass Beach is not very long -- probably about 150 feet in length

The most common colors of sea glass are kelly green, brown, and white. Rare finds are pink, aqua, cobalt blue, and purple. And some extremely rare shades are red, yellow, black, and teal. (I talked to a woman last week at Girl Scout Beach who had just found a small piece of red glass -- and she has lived here for four years.)

Gee, if I'd only run up and down these steps 20 times, I'd really be in shape.

But, having said that, what is fun about beachcombing is that new glass washes up every day. Sea glass is a popular commodity here to collect -- many women make jewelry, bookmarks, suncatchers, or hair ornaments out of it, or just layer it in glass jars as a decorative touch.