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Does anyone bring home sand, sea shells, and pebbles as momentos


B8C

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A friend (first time cruiser) asked if she could bring home sand, sea shells, or pebbles from each island to create a memory box. I've read other threads about a big no no for taking food off ship due to possible cross contamination of pests, etc.

 

Is it a concern to bring home sand, sea shells, or pebbles from each of the beaches you visit? Does it violate any laws?

 

Thanks, wouldn't want her to get in any trouble. :confused:

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but when I go to a new beach I take an empty water bottle and fill it with sand and label it. They are on display in my home is small glass jars that are labeled.

 

and if I find a beautiful shell it sometimes ends up in my pocket.

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but when I go to a new beach I take an empty water bottle and fill it with sand and label it. They are on display in my home is small glass jars that are labeled.

 

and if I find a beautiful shell it sometimes ends up in my pocket.

 

Queenbead, thanks for you response. I found a "souvenir (sp?)" thread on the Princess board. Appears that many collect sand or shells and put them in a shadow box.

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I've been collecting sand from all over the world. I work at a local university and see students on a daily basis. A few of my students are not from NJ or even the US. Some bring me sand or even soil when they come back after a summer break from their home state or country. I have a 3 "step" display thingy that my father had made for my little jars of sand. One of my colleagues and I "collect" little jelly/jam jars that we see at different conferences that we go to. This is what I normally put my sand/soil in....all uniform size. Many times students will come back to my office, just to see if I have put their donation on display. I had one student come in and wanted so much to bring me something, but she couldn't afford to travel. She lived down the Jersey shore. I told her that I didn't have any sand from right in my own "backyard". A week later, I had my Jersey sand.

 

Sorry to ramble on, but it's a nice way of remembering your trip or other's trips. Sand is not the same....different colors, textures, etc.

 

Diane

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I dont collect sand,but shells and stones smoothed by the ocean. I have a large glass jar on my coffee table that my collection goes into. Such a conversation piece and reminds me of my trips.... Some of the larger shells I have hand painted where they are from and the date..... Such fun, not to mention a tad cheaper then jewerly others bring back!! I usualy bring then back in small plastic bags from some of my other purchases or zip locks I bring from home.

 

My favorite paper weight in my office is a stone from Aruba!

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LoveToCruise78, dibogart, and smoothdancer thank you for the responses.

 

Afriend is cruising for the first time and wants to start a sand/shell/pebble collection. She wasn't sure if she would run into agricultural restrictions much like being prohibited from bringing things back (Mexico into CA). Since she's leaving from the east coast to eastern caribbean she should be ok. I'll reminder her to pack many ziplock bags.

 

Happy cruising. :)

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I'm a sand and coral nut. perhaps its the marine bio thing in me but I love to collect sand and bleached coral from different beaches all over the world. Thanks to the help of friends I have sand samples from dozens of beaches. This actually became usefull for my coastal oceanography class where I was able to show the different composition of sand in different regions of the world. Gotta love parrotfish and their digestive systems because caribbean beaches are some of the most beautiful in the world because of this.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We spent 3 days on the Isle of Sark Summer 2003. Whilst walking on the beach we found a flat pebble in the shape of a heart.... We kept it. 2 days later my now DH proposed to me. We ended up having the wedding reception on the same island....and our pebble pride of place between the two of us of on our wedding table....:)

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I took the small 4oz. baby bottles with me. Labeled the bottoms. filled them with sand, ocean water and shells/coral. the bottles are of course liquid proof and they traveled MUCH better than zip locks. I have reused some of them and just relabeled the others, but they worked great.

 

Now they are on my desk all 8 of them so far in nice little glass jars labeled. I have 8 private beaches my co-workers tell me. I love this memory and will continue to do it until someone takes them away from me as I try to bring on to the ship and through airports!!! My kids divided up the remainder of the bottles into little stacked "bead" containers, we super glued them together and they each have a tower of beaches from the places they have been too....it made neat "show and tell" things for school when we got back!!!!

 

Tell your friend to do it......she'll be glad you did.

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I'm a shells and coral collector, I display what I collect in my bathroom. I love to compare the differences in colour, from the diferent places, but most of all they just make me smile in the mornings:) when I go to wash up.

 

I have brought back things from Mexico, Caribbean, Mediteranean, and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, the only things I was ever warned against bringing home was coral in the Maldives, because they didn't want anyone to damage the local ecology, but what was washed up on the beach was fine

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:cool: Since 1982 I have been bringing home pretty pieces of coral from Bermuda & the Caribbean Islands. I have them on display in what looks like a large sea shell. My only regret is that I never wrote on them with the date & place.

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I have a box of sand from Bermuda from my honeymoon over 45 years ago. I love sand and shells and coral, but havne't brought any home from cruises...just from the Hamptons which is a two hour drive. I'm sorry now that I didn't collect sand from different baches. Sand is unique to different areas.

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It is a great way to remember your special vacations---Black sand from Punaluu Beach, Hawaii---White gypsum sand from White Sands National Park----and....hot dog scented sand from Coney Island, NY!!:)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I always find some interesting shells, rock and even sea glass. Have never had a problem getting them home. One warning though, if you are in the Cayman's and you visit Hell, DO NOT take anything rocks or soil or anything. Strange things have happened to those who did......

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I always find some interesting shells, rock and even sea glass. Have never had a problem getting them home. One warning though, if you are in the Cayman's and you visit Hell, DO NOT take anything rocks or soil or anything. Strange things have happened to those who did......

 

And the same with those who take lava rock from the Big Island in Hawaii. Madame Pele doesn't appreciate it. The local post offices routinely get packages with the rocks being sent back to appease Madame Pele.

 

Pete

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And the same with those who take lava rock from the Big Island in Hawaii. Madame Pele doesn't appreciate it. The local post offices routinely get packages with the rocks being sent back to appease Madame Pele.Pete

 

The only time I have taken any sand or rocks, was in Hawaii. I filled several film cannisters with black sand and lava pebbles. I still have them(from '89) sitting in my dresser drawer..............

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I have a great stone the shape of a kidney on my desk .. I picked it up in my bathing suit when doing the cave tubing in Belize. I have the date and Belize printed on the bottom ..

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Yeah, I used to do the whole clear bottle with sand inside thing but not anymore . I stopped when in a cruise the passengers were let of on a very nice island to just walk around and relax. I did the whole sand and shells in the bottle thing but then was actually scolded by one of the natives for messing with their eco system. sheesh.... Anyway, after that incident I decided, nomore!

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  • 3 weeks later...

My kids once brought home what they thought were fossil shells from Princess Cay. They had them in a coffee can in their room. A couple of days after we got home, the "fossils" came to life and the kids had creepie crawly things (slugs or something) all over the room! :eek:

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  • 2 weeks later...

About what shells you pick up. In St.Crox I took some small shells.When I got home and took them out to add to my shell collection they started crawling all over the table.They were hermit crabs!!!My family started calling me the illegal crab smuggler.Now I look vary closely (IN) any shells I pick up.Take my word for it ,you don't want to see your face on CNN news for bringing home a shell(:-<).

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It is a great way to remember your special vacations---Black sand from Punaluu Beach, Hawaii---White gypsum sand from White Sands National Park----and....hot dog scented sand from Coney Island, NY!!:)

 

And yellow sand from the dog beach in Jupiter, FL.....:eek:

 

 

 

PS Sorry - couldn't help myself. 1t's 1:30am and once again I'm combing the CC boards. It's a hoot.

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I found a small Hawaiian "idol" and made a necklace out of it. While I was still in Hawaii, I wore it while I was in a Surfing contest. Somehow I fell off of my board and hit my head on rocks in the surf. I think the idol had something to do with my bad luck.

 

I returned it to where I found it.

 

Greg Brady

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  • 2 months later...
I found a small Hawaiian "idol" and made a necklace out of it. While I was still in Hawaii, I wore it while I was in a Surfing contest. Somehow I fell off of my board and hit my head on rocks in the surf. I think the idol had something to do with my bad luck.

 

I returned it to where I found it.

 

Greg Brady

 

Too Funny! I took some black sand from the Big Island a couple of years ago and thougth about the Brady Bunch when I did it!!! I think Pele is more pissed about all the howlees there now and not my pint 'o sand!

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