A trip to the shore - exploring the sandstone crevices during low-tide, finding huge multi-colored starfish, baby lobsters and a multitude of sea anemone.
I wanted just one souvenier, one item to set on my windowsill to bring me back to this magical place.
And I found it.
This beautiful shell - once home to a hermit crab or three, with an opalescent interior and a deep contrasting blend of exposed shell and earth-colored, husky protective layer. Still moist from it's brine bath, and set against a lush moss bed, this was the only time the shell's contrasting pattern was seen. Once removed from the ocean's embrace, the dark husk layer dried and peeled back, flake by flake, and now the shell is matte-pink, the spiral and arraying splines seen more through touch than sight. Still beautiful, but in a different way - a relic, a memory.
So really, the true souvenier is this photo - the one glimpse of the seashell, moist and briney, and so very alive.
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