I don’t recall the name of the beach, but I was living in Eureka at the time. I recall searching the “sands” on my belly in January, looking for agates.
I don’t know where they went off to, but I do recall how beautiful I thought they were, and how sad I was when I couldn’t find them. I could have made a bracelet, at least, and maybe even a necklace....
Kind of a chilly time for that, in NorCal. Even in SoCal (Santa Barbara) I didn't become a beach-bum-student until around April or so -- towards the end of my senior year when I could coast because by design I'd already completed all the "heavy" classes and had only fluff to deal with.
("Fluff", ya sure. "Public Speaking" was one of those -- I hated it, I feared it, but now it's a significant part of my job.)