Cayucos Sea Glass Festival - 14 MAR 2015

A five hour drive north, along the coast from Los Angeles, is the quaint, historic town of Cayucos. Self-proclaimed as the "Last of California Beach Towns," it has managed to keep its small town charm. 
Once a year it get flooded with tourist and jewelry artisans as it hosts a Sea Glass Festival. Sea Glass, as the name suggests, are bits of bottles and jars that have been worn smooth b the ocean. Considered a reverse gen,instead of man refining a piece of nature (traditional gems), nature has refined a piece of man-made material.
As with any gem, there are grades of quality:
  • A - Extremely worn and rounded (no blemishes or chips)
  • B - Extremely worn with soft edges (one or two minor blemishes or chips)
  • C - Fairly worn with at least one hard, straight edge (some blemishes)
  • D -  A barely worn piece (several blemishes or hard edges/corners)
The pricing reflects their rarity, half a dozen pieces, each smaller than a dime can run $30. There were no cameras allowed in the festival. This is the one item I purchased, a book mark:
 This year also had a "Mermaid March" throughout the town.
And TW found other objects for poising:
Went into this historic saloon for a beer and got a history lesson from a friendly patron.
Cayucos was a cowboy town, as the original 900 foot pier could load cargo ships bound for San Francisco or Los Angeles, supporting local ranchers and farmers.
This saloon was notorious for its back room card games that still exist.
Its' slogan is "Liquor in the Front, Poker in the Rear."