Everyday it is a different beach

After seeing the crocheted starfish, I arrived at the beach in South Carolina and there were real starfish everywhere. Or as one little boy kept correcting his big brother "sea stars". On that first day, they were in all of the tidal pools.

But of course, the beach is always unpredictable. Since that day, I have only seen a few mangled dead ones in the surf line. Where do they go, under the sand, out to sea?

On another day I found many sand dollars. Of course, there were many broken ones, but I was walking along the water’s edge and found at least eight whole ones within half an hour.

They are very fragile, and I'll be lucky to get any home.

The conch shell is always the elusive prize. While running on the beach I found a pretty decent one, but it is old and blue. Today as I ran I found three perfect ones, but they were all still occupied by their rightful owners. So I apologized and shoved them back in the sand. How can I find so many when I am busy, and none when I come back later totally focused on uncovering more?

Everyday it is a new beach. One day it started out sunny and warm and then fog rolled in so that we couldn't see down the coast at all. Beautiful.