Travels with Auntie M: Cayucos Sea Glass Festival

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.