Stupid Gravity: the search for sea glass

First, there is sand. 

Before that, it was rock. The Earth's shell.

Then wind, and water, and fire of the sun, and tides of the moon break it down.

Sand. 

After a gazillion years or so, the hard minerals remain: feldspar, quartz, hornblende. The sand on the beaches I visit on the east coast of North America is around 5,000 years old. Not much new stuff is deposited there: the sea has risen, the bays like the Chesapeake and Delaware collect the sand, and the humans have built dams.

Still plenty of sand though.

Then humans come along and turn it into useful stuff...

And the Useful Stuff breaks. Humans recycle a lot now, but they used to just throw it away, into a dump. And if the dump was near a creek, or beach, water would carry the glass to the river or to the sea.

And wind, water, fire of the sun and tides of the moon would break it down.

So we came to Tolchester Beach, and Betterton Beach to see what we could find.

We found some humans on the beach.

They seem to need a lot of stuff...

I just need my pony to get around on land.

I am never using Cowboy Magic shine and detangler again...

I gave Morgayne a good bath and then we went for a run on the beach.

My big sister Meri and her friend came along, on Kai and Genevieve.

We met some new friends on the beach, including a couple of Hollywood stars...

Then we continued our search for sea glass to make into beautiful jewelry and mermaid house windows and things.

We found lots of interesting stuff.

Tracks. Nobody makes tracks in the sea. We don't walk, and even the critters who do walk don't leave tracks for long, the water erases them.

The dogs who made the tracks. This dog likes water. And sticks. Retrieving sticks. Or anything. Meri threw Toothless's ball...
... good thing the dog brought it back because the dragon doesn't swim very well.

Butterflies (maybe an Aphrodite fritillary?) and rocks, Bay pebbles and cobbles rounded by wind and tide and sand.

And vultures.

They like hanging out with their buddies. The one on the far right is being a solar panel, holding his (or her, I can never tell, and they look alike) wings out to soak up sun. They're important for the health of the environment. They clean up the dead stuff.

Finally I found some sea glass.

That itty bitty lump there on the pebble.

Then Meri and her friend found more...

Whooo HOO!!!

We hung out on the beach, threw some sticks for the dogs, and watched the sun go down.

And let Toothless roast our marshmallows.

No Toothless, Olaf is not a marshmallow...

Well, time to go back to the sea. See you again!