Hard work rewarded...

When we set the goal of reading the whole Book of Mormon as a family back in January we decided there would be a fantastic reward for meeting out goal in time (cover to cover by May 19th).  I mean, a reward other than the "increased measure of the spirit" etc. promised by the Prophet.  When we were about 2/3rds of the way through we thought we actually had a shot at success and had better come up with the reward.  After a family discussion we decided that if we finished by May 19th we would take a family vacation up to Glass Beach in Fort Bragg.  We would make it an overnight trip and even stay in a hotel!  

Because of birthday celebrations, end of school madness and other commitments we were not able to make the trip until almost a month later, right after school got out. 

We drove up early Friday morning and went straight to the beach.  For some reason or another it is impossible to get to a beach in Northern California without taking a lengthy drive on windy roads, through redwood forests and over a mountain pass.  The route we took to Glass Beach was particularly windy and we all got carsick.  Poor Colter was doubled over and crying in his car seat.  I finally gave up on law keeping and took him out of his car seat and let him sit in my lap.  

We made it to Glass Beach around 3 in the afternoon.  If you haven't heard, in the early 20th century the residents of Fort Bragg would throw all of their trash over the cliffs into the ocean.  After a while you can imagine the mess this practice made.  There were clean up and restoration efforts made in the 70's and 80's but the broken glass remained.  The sea did its work and turned the broken glass into sea glass.  There is an official Glass Beach in MacKerricher State Park where the actual trash dumping took place.  You are not supposed to collect glass from the state park.  However, thanks to human folly there are plenty of beaches with sea glass shores south of the state park and collecting is A-OK there.  We went to the unofficial Glass Beach--because I knew I wouldn't be able to restrain myself...or my children.  

The beach did not disappoint.  It was so cool!  

The beach we camped out on for the day had the best of all beach worlds: tide pools for checking out ocean life, sea glass for collecting, sandy beaches for playing and gigantic rocks for climbing.

While the big kids were building a sand castle a wave came up and ate Colter.  He was not happy in the least.  It took several "Mom and Colter selfies" to cheer him up.  

On the first day, Wyatt went up to use the port-a-potty up by the parking lot.  He got a little lost on the way back but came across an even cooler glass beach in his search for his family.  The next day we followed Wyatt's lead and checked out this amazing beach.

Will said: "It's not every day you get to bury your daughter in broken glass."

It is beautiful and depressing at the same time.  Can you imagine the amount of trash it took to create this?  And all this glass is here because the dumping happened in an era of glass and metal...instead of today's era of plastic and styrofoam.  Rarely does such gross human error turn into so much beauty.

I loved finding pieces with numbers or letters still visible and pieces that were rounded and threaded.  It was easy to imagine that these little pieces were once part of a large dish or bottle that sat in someone's home.  The milk glass pieces were by far my favorite--they maybe held food for a family dinner or flowers cut from a home garden.  It felt like holding personal history.  Do you think a resident ever imagined (as they flung their trash over the cliff side) "Some day a Mother, Father and their five children will be pawing through my garbage--picking up bits and pieces like they were nuggets of gold."  

What a trip!

Here is a picture taken from the car as we zoomed through roads that were literally curved like snakes.  You can see the road curving off to the left.  This was one of the few straight shots where I could get my phone out and snap a picture before throwing up.

Ugh, I feel sick looking at this picture.

Carsickness aside.  It was so fun and so cool.  Totally worth the drive--and the carsickness.