The Shell Seekers

A trip to the beach is a treasure hunt to us. Every time, it is so different. You never know what you might uncover. Each of us has a different prize we seek. Charlotte is happy to find any piece of shell that she can fold into her fat, dimpled hand. Carter is attracted to muscle shells these days, particularly treasuring the bivalve shells that are still intact. Will is on a constant hunt for a sea star or sand dollar, but will settle for the discovery of a horseshoe crab. I am more particular and covet a whelk shell. New Jersey's answer to the conch shell, a whelk is hard to find this time of year. Nevertheless, I keep my eyes open as we comb Ocean City's beaches.

Last week, I took the kids to one of Ocean City's beach walks. Every Tuesday and Wednesday in the summer season, the town gives guided tours down beaches in the north and south ends of the island. Last year, we attended one in the south end, at Corson's Inlet State Park. Since then, it has become a frequent destination for us for treasure hunting. This year, we went on the beach tour in the north end, near the Longport Bridge.

If you're interested in really learning about what you regularly see on a New Jersey beach, a beach walk is a great way to do so. Most of the shore towns around here have them. In Ocean City, it costs $1 for an adult, and 50-cents for a child to go on the hour-long tour. The kids get a bucket, too, which adds to the fun. As they deposit sea treasures into their buckets, the guide is able to tell them a little about what they have found.

As often happens, I got a wary eye from the tour guide when I showed up on the beach walk with my three in tow. There were two tour guides, and I heard some debate over who would take "the young ones." As we walked down the beach with the guide, accompanied by another family with slightly older kids, my boys knew all the answers to the questions that the guide asked, identifying different types of crabs, egg sacks and sea shells. With a good knowledge of the sea shore life already, this beach walk was a great way to add more details about stuff they already knew. But, at this point, Will could probably lead the tour himself. We got compliments from the tour guide afterwards, who said the kids were both good and knowledgeable.

The kids and I each picked up important pieces of information during our walk. For Will and Carter, the guide talked about the dangers of litter to both the landscape and wildlife of the beach. The children were just as interested in spotting and picking up pieces of trash as they were sea shells. For me, the guide mentioned that whelk shells have been appearing on some of the beaches on the way to Strathmere. That piqued my interest, for sure.

My friend Jen is also an Ocean City devotee and also in search of a whelk shell. Once I told her of the alleged location of whelks, she loaded her four into her car to go find some, promising me one if she was successful. She wasn't. I also loaded my kids up and scanned the beaches between OC and Strathmere. I made the trip during high tide, and was equally as unsuccessful.

Saturday, while Craig stayed home with a napping Charlotte, the boys and I headed down to Corson's Inlet with two plastic bags--one for shells and one for garbage. The beach was crawling with fellow shell seekers. Our shell bag was soon loaded with our finds--whelk egg cases, bits and pieces of unfortunate spider, sand and green claw crabs, moon snail shells and broken pieces of whelk shells. The beach was scattered with large clam and oyster shells, too, but we have moved beyond those pedestrian, every-day-shells and are on to much bigger and better. Although we still have not found a whole whelk shell, we have some nice pieces of them. And part of the fun is the hunt, anyway.

What left the biggest impression on Will and Carter, however, was the informal beach clean up we conducted. We quickly filled the bag with candy wrappers, empty beer cans, lonely, pairless beach shoes, pieces of latex balloons, a box of cigarettes. Will is a child tightly in tune with the injustices of the world, a cheerleader for the underdog, a tireless fighter for what he believes is right. He would find pieces of litter with an eagle eye and dramatically question, "who would throw their trash on this beach?" as he would toss it into the waiting plastic bag. Corson's Inlet is a state park with a "carry in, carry out" garbage policy. We don't know if the trash we picked up was left there by beach-goers or washed up by the ocean, perhaps a byproduct of the beach replenishment project in Sea Isle, which seems to be churning up a great deal--from seaweed to crabs to trash--onto the shores of Ocean City.

Regardless, we found a sizable amount of trash during our walk, including a torn up piece of tire that Will and Carter worked together to drag down the sea side. A woman passed us and smiled. "Boys and their treasure," she said. I think Will was slightly insulted. He has moved on from finding treasure to leading a one-boy effort to, as he puts it, "save the earth." He is still grieving that I made him leave a washed up pair of furniture cushions on the beach--they were just too much for us to carry.They wanted to take the trash home with us, so they could show their Dad all they collected. I talked them into a photo instead.

Our beach combing will continue as we enjoy this last week of summer. We have different missions now, though. I'm still in search of my whelk shell. Two shells would be ideal--one for me and one for my friend Jen. Will is determined to continue his beach clean up operation, one plastic bag at a time, with his trusty helper, Carter, at his side. Woe be to him who litters in front of Will and Carter. They're working hard to clean up our beaches and take it quite personally.

Seaside Jaunt

When I'm in the mood for a change of scenery from our 24th Street beach, I head south towards Corson's Inlet State Park at 59th and Central Avenue. You can visit it virtually at:

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/parks/corsons.html

If you haven't been, it is worth the trip. The white sands are bordered by grassy dunes, complete with a nature trail. We often sight dolphins jumping through the waves. During July and August, Ocean City leads beach walks in the morning and afternoon here. For $1 per person (and 50-cents for children), you are guided down the beach by a knowledgeable volunteer and he or she points out interesting finds, teaching about the local flora and fauna. Each child gets a beach bucket to help collect seaside treasures. Will especially loved our beach walk last year and we intend on going back again.

Since Corson's Inlet is a state park, it isn't part of the Ocean City beach system and does not have a life guard. It seems to be a popular destination for boating, surfing and fishing. However, our favorite activity at the Inlet is collecting seashells. It is the best beach for finding shells--sparkly jingle shells, curly whelks and, best of all, chunky clam shells, perfect for our made-up "seashell game" and for painting on rainy days.

My friend Suzette and her son were visiting Ocean City. Looking for a reason to get together with the kids, I suggested a trip to the Inlet to find seashells.

We equipped each child with his own plastic bag. But from there, the trip didn't go quite as imagined. I had pictured a happy walk down the shoreline. I'd expected to describe it later with words like "jaunt"" and "frolic." Suzette and I would share knowing smiles as the children amused us with their enthusiasm over their discoveries. The sounds of screeching gulls would be muffled by the giggles of happy children.

As we entered the beach, the children scampered down to the ocean, straight into the waters. The sea is rough here, and the ocean is unguarded, so we kept having to call them in. Now completely wet, they started digging. We weren't prepared for a full out beach day, so digging was done using hands instead of shovels.

Charlotte was not content to be an observer from her seat in the sling. She struggled to get down and I let her. Dressed in a beachy sundress, she soon was soaked from head to toe. After crawling in the sand, she was coated like a piece of Shake-and-Bake chicken. And, after trying to hold her, distract her, clean her, so was I.

"There usually are shells here," I explained to Suzette, "lots of them." She giggled and suggested that maybe we had visited the park right after a clam bake last time.

Soon, we were able to convince the boys to continue our walk down the beach. And eventually, we hit the shell mother load: hundreds of shells in all shapes and sizes. We must have just missed a seagull buffet, as we discovered clam shells probably only recently pried open, both top and bottom shells intact. Our bags were soon full of these treasures. (You'll read later of our many uses of these shells!)

We had driven down to the Inlet and tried to brush off as much sand as we could before driving off. Even my keys were coated. The car will never be the same. But I can't wait to do it again.