Glass Beach

 

Last week my husband and I escaped happily away to Kauai, Hawaii for a vacation to celebrate our upcoming 10 year anniversary. It was incredible! I am never disappointed with Hawaii, ever. This was our first time to the Garden Island and probably my most memorable trip to the islands yet. I have so much I want to share about our time but will break up the posts as to not overwhelm you all with too many photos.

First, I have a confession. I am an obsessive beach comber. If I get started it is very hard to stop! So when I did a preliminary search on the web for sea glass beaches on Kauai I was so ecstatic to learn there was in fact one. Most of the stock photos I saw were taken years ago so I didn't' allow my hopes to get too high but still was going to check it out no matter what.

I didn't let a local shop owner deter me when she said that she had heard there was no longer any sea glass at the beach (later we wondered if she was trying to deter tourists from the area). When we set out to find the beach in an old industrial area it looked rather unimpressive from afar. We opted to leave the rental car on paved road and walk the very gnarly dirt road to the beach.

This is what we found:

Yes, this mama was very happy! We hadn't expected to find much so we came only with an empty water bottle to fill. Local courtesy is to take only a gallon of glass a day. I had no idea that it would be possible to even get that much. To say this was a very happy place for me was a huge understatement. We were able to take home enough to mostly fill my collection jar at home. Which means I get to check this one off on the Life List!

I also feel the need to mention the WHY here. Why is this beach such a hot spot for glass? Litter. Plain and simple. The industrial area surrounding this area is full of factories and this beautiful black sand beach was previously used as a dump. It hurts to think about how much trash was dumped into our beautiful mother ocean to create this much glass washing up on the beach year after year. The truth of the matter is that yes, it is an absolutely beautiful and fun hobby to hunt for sea glass but we must remember why it is there in the first place. We haven't always nor still do respect our Mother Earth but she is resilient. She grinds down our trash and spits it right back up for us as a reminder that time is stronger than anything we can do to her. She will survive but we may not if we keep doing this to our planet.