Searching for Agates

One of Sam's most recent hobbies since we moved here has been going down to the beach and searching for agates. Until it started to get cold, we would take lots of trips up the north shore to Two Harbors which is about 30 minutes from our house and Sam would search for rocks while the girls and I walked around and fed the seagulls and ducks. Sam was like a little kid in a candy store and we always had to drag him out of the water when it was time to go. He would show me his finds and go on and on about agates and how cool they were.I tried to show interest -- I really did. But to me, they just looked like....well rocks.

But, a few days ago when it was a gorgeous fall day, we went down to Canal Park and walked along the lake walk for awhile. We came to a beach and went down to the water. I sat down for a little bit and sort of started scooping rocks and moving them around. Before I knew it, I had found a little rock that looked a lot like the huge stash we had started to accumulate at home. I showed Sam my little treasure and like a teacher congratulating his student, he told me that I had, in fact, found an agate! I continued to search through the rocks and what do you know....I found that it was actually kind of fun hunting for agates -- plus, you find lots of other pretty rocks in the process.

Soon, we had our girls involved in the process and Aubrie was searching for all the green ones, while Kayley just had fun picking rocks up and dropping them again. We must have looked like a crazy family, all hunkered down on our hands and knees and digging in the rocks but we had fun. So much fun, in fact, that we did it again the next day. And if we ever have another day that is warm again before May of 2008, we just might go out and do it again. I'll try to get a picture on here soon of some of our most recent finds.