As some of you may remember, Animated Meat first came to life in 2008 as a way to document some sights that managed to slip through the cracks of most popular travel websites. You may also remember that the original website was built on Apple's now defunct iWeb. From there, it migrated over to WordPress where it met an untimely demise at the hands of Russian hackers. Many of those old, pre-2012 entries have found a new home here in the Before the Now section. I would consider these posts as my starting place as a writer, probably comparable to a musician's first demo tapes. They are very rough, but I took them all seriously and wrote each one with passion. While I would like to believe that I have matured in my abilities as a writer, it is my hope that I carry this same blind passion into all of my new efforts.

Glass Beach - Originally Published 2008

May 12, 2019

If it weren’t for a hairdresser in Lake Tahoe, we would have never stumbled upon Glass Beach. My wife was getting her hair did for our wedding and got to talking to the beautician. She found out we were going to wander the coast and she recommended a stop in Fort Bragg, home of the Glass Beach.

Once upon a time, the locals decided to use the ocean as a garbage dump. Apparently, they threw everything in the sea, including old car parts. They eventually found a more proper place for their trash, but their legacy lives on. All of the glass that had been dumped has been tumbled and returned to the shore making this one of the most unique beaches I have ever been to.