I don't like bios myself.  So this will be brief. A lot of people ask why I love floats and rocks so much.

Rocks

Well, my grandfather was a miner in Northern Idaho, and I grew up learning about rocks, and eventually came to love them.  Lately my passions have been mostly for Ellensburg Blue, and agates on the beach in the spring.  I live in a small town on the Washington coast and in the spring the sands are mostly gone, exposing the rock areas.  And that leads into the float issue.

Floats

When I was 3 we lived in Ocean Park, WA a tiny little town, in the 60's and floats washed up by the hundreds, so when I had an opportunity to move to the ocean I took it.  And have been beach-combing ever since.  Contrary to popular belief, floats are still be used, and manufactured.  They still wash up, but you have to compete with the locals, and be willing to go out in any weather any time. By going to the local beach fairs and reading everything I could on the subject I became more and more fascinated.  Hence the pages I have spent so much time on.

Floats come in a lot of shapes and almost every color imaginable, due to the minerals used in creating them, and sun exposure turns the colors as well.  There is a strong current, actually it consists of several-but basically is one total, that sweeps in a figure 8 in the Pacific that sweeps from the Aleutians Islands all the way past Mexico, floats get trapped in the current and can remain so for decades.  Strong winds & storms release the floats so to speak and they then drift until reaching shore, breaking on the rocks, laying on the sands or waiting and being swept back out to sea and perhaps rejoin the current.

Coast Guard

My ex-husband Scott, aka Beetle is in the USCG and has been for 18 years.  He has been on back to back ice-breakers and will soon be going to the Healy, the brand new ice-breaker not yet commissioned.  Hence the intense love for it, and its history and heroes throughout the last 200+ years.  Which is why I collect info on Ice Breakers, for a book someday and information about the Beach Patrol during World War Two in the Pacific Northwest.