
On my recent Florida vacation I spent as much time as possible at the beach. And I always kept my eyes open for seashells, and other gifts from the sea. This little sea rock was a unique find. The east coast beaches of Florida, where I visited, is not known as a beachcomber’s paradise, but it’s always fun to search for treasures.
We rented a house on the ICW (intracoastal waterway) – and that’s another story, but the beach was close by. My grown son and his friend accompanied me and my younger son to New Smyrna Beach at Flagler Ave. one of my last days there. We drove onto the beach and headed north, toward the Ponce Inlet jetty, searching for a wide open spot to park. We did a little boogie-boarding and my son’s friend set up his fishing poles (he caught nothing).
I did find some pretty little shells up along the high tide line, and this sea rock. It’s a mass of broken shells encased in a hard substance. Florida doesn’t have many rocks, so it’s a bit unusual to find something resembling one. It’s probably coquina, which was used to build structures in Florida long ago. The story of how the Castillo de San Marcos was built, is very interesting. It’s a tourist attraction in St. Augustine with a unique history.
I would have loved to get to the Gulf coast – that is the place to find great shells.
These are beautiful shells. The Florida beaches have a lot more shells than the California beaches.