Our first morning at the beach, my mom and I went for a run to the jetty. We met my dad and my brother there and one very very large washed up tree. This is probably the biggest one I've ever seen in my life. And it was oddly balanced on the jetty. That didn't stop us from climbing on it though.
Can you find us?
The next day we went to what we call "agate beach". It's about a 45 minute drive away from Rockaway and fairly unknown. Which is good for us because our family hunts for agates like they're diamonds. We have been visiting agate beach since as long as I can remember. Even before there were stairs built down to the beach from the cliffside we were sliding down there. I believe that qualifies us as hardcore agate hunters.
There are a lot of different types of agates, but they are generally varieties of compressed silica developed from volcanic rocks. We recently found out after a visit to Waldport that blue agates exist. They are the hardest to spot and some of the prettiest. My favorites are the orange ones. You might think that finding them is easy, but it's really not. By the end of a day at agate beach, all of our eyes, necks, and backs hurt from searching. We have also developed agate eyes. In a beach primarily composed of rocks, over 10 years of agate hunting gives you a really good search image for your brain to find a needle in a haystack.
Our haul this year was exceptionally good:
And Eric found the largest agate to date (JUMBO!):
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