Spectacle Island seaglass

My husband and I had a date day. Last year I learned that there are a bunch of islands off of Boston that are owned by the National Park Service. I had no idea. And from the moment I heard about them I wanted to go. Now of course, I work all summer long photographing families and seniors on our beautiful Cape Cod beaches so traveling during the summer is tricky. And the islands are only open pretty much the same time as I am busy.

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I do have this slight problem that I am a teensy bit obsessive. Once something is in my head, I find it hard to let it go. So when we were picking up our beautiful daughter from the airport after being with friends for a week, I knew the time had come and there was island visiting in our future. I hardly even had to beg.
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We decided on Spectacle Island because another obsession of mine is seaglass. Once, my sister and I had a girls weekend in Aguadilla in Puerto Rico; we went purely because of the ridiculous amounts of seaglass we’d found in this little cove on a previous trip. When we’d gone the first time we had both our daughters with us, they were little and got bored easily by beach combing. Although Adriana, my daughter, had found the first really great piece there, I think she was about 3 and she came up to me with this perfect piece of blue pottery that had been polished by the sea. ‘Do you want this, Mommy?”, “Oh yes, baby, I do!!!” We found we couldn’t just search the shore for hours obsessively like we wanted, so we went back without them.  We came back with our bags full of all of this amazing glass and pottery. Cristal they call it there.  A perfect name.

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I’d heard Spectacle Island was the place for seaglass, but really I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that because it’s National Park Service you have to leave everything you find there. Now for a slightly obsessive personality, that is torturous. The most amazing pottery shards I’ve ever found and I have to, what? leave them there… Torturous. Really, really torturous. So I’d collect as much as I could carry, and then I’d create a design or photo out of it. Almost as good as creating art with it back at home. Almost.

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I’ve never been anywhere like this. Even our special cove in Aguadilla where you could throw back blue pieces because you had so many you could afford to be choosy was nothing like this. Spectacle Island was used as a dump until the 50’s, I guess there was a lot of broken china back then, because wow, what a treasure trove. Spectacle-Island-6Spectacle-Island-7

We spent the entire afternoon beach combing, creating, holding hands, enjoying the island and each other. I’m not sure I can handle going back. But when I told my sister about it, and showed her some photos, she decided it was time to go back to Aguadilla. And me, I’m totally game for that. I can fill my pockets and my suitcase, and be as obsessive as I want. I totally recommend a visit to the island though, as for me I think I’ll be visiting some of the others that have things like forts, because really, I have nothing obsessive at all about forts.Spectacle-Island-8

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  • julie

    Although you couldn’t stuff your pockets with treasures,there must be some consolation in the beautiful artwork you created & got to bring home. Sounds like a special date day!ReplyCancel

    • Thanks! It is still very, very difficult!! *deep sigh* Lol!!! But I’m digging the images. Can’t wait to go back and create some more!! But now, I think it’s time to create your portrait 🙂ReplyCancel

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