Searching for Sand Dollars (6 of 40)

One of my all time favorite activities is beach combing. Not all beaches in SoCal are ripe for the picking, which makes the pay off that much sweeter when I do find something worthwhile. Shells are fine and all, but what I’m really after are the more rare treasures: sea glass and sand dollars. 

The summer that we decided to divorce, we took a family road trip up the coast of California and into Oregon. The week before we left, we told the kids that we were separating. It was an excruciating conversation. It was important for me to have it before we left on our trip, though, because I wanted to practically live out out the narrative we gave the kids: Our family is changing. It is hard and sad and unfair and painful. But we are still a family. It’s going to look different but it’s not going away. 

And so we did the things. We visited Alcatraz and saw incredible NorCal Redwoods. We got lost without cell service, found snow in July and ate grilled cheese at Tillamook. We had a bonfire on Cannon Beach, discovered Voodoo Donuts in Portland and slept in separate bedrooms. Like any family vacation, there were good moments and hard moments, but most importantly there were moments and memories made together. 

We had also planned to visit friends in Medford, Oregon when Cash unexpectedly came down with a middle o’ the night vomit sesh. We thought better than potentially infecting anyone else and instead detoured to Glass Beach in Fort Bragg. This place was like beach comber heaven! While most of the glass pieces were small, there were so many different colors. We each left with a ziploc bag full of ocean tumbled beauty and my heart was happy. 

At some point in the last few years I heard a rumor that a great place to find sand dollars is Pismo Beach. When the kids and I trekked up there this past weekend, I envisioned long walks along a sea-treasured shoreline. Let’s just say frolicking may or may not have been involved. 

I checked the tide schedule and woke early Saturday morning in anticipation of all the wonders that surely awaited me. Stepping out onto the soft sand, I found...nothing. 

Well not nothing. There were long strands of rubbery sea weed, cracked clam and muscle shells, a rogue sock, but nary a sand dollar in sight. To be fair, a quick google revealed that sand dollar season (yes, that is a thing) runs August through October, of which February is shockingly not included in. 

I had resigned that I might not be checking finding sand dollars in Pismo off the 40 by forty list, when I found myself chasing after Nocchi who had darted up shore after a wire-y shepherd mix. Suddenly, as if placed by fate itself, there it was. Against the pale tan sand lay a dark circle of perfection...a single black sand dollar! 

I had never seen one that color and I happily scooped it up to go show the kids. They were less than thrilled. Clearly by the length of my post about it, I am decidedly more so. 

*Disclaimer...before you and the sea-urchin-equivalent of PETA come for me, I have since learned that the sand dollar was dark in color because it was, cough-cough, still somewhat living. In my defense, it was far from the water and fully exposed so I’m gonna give myself a break. Maybe I’ll re-home a spider outside rather than ninja-smash it into a Kleenex to balance things out. Maybe.