Tennis Anyone?

Randy was visiting from Los Angeles with his extended family.

His sister-in-law had lost her bracelet in the sand on a remote beach – Kekaha Kai – on the West coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.

After a 4-wheel drive trip to the beach, the family met me in the gravel parking lot and we walked to the area they’d been at a few days earlier.

It was a simple bracelet, Randy said, but something with great sentimental value since his dad I had bought it for her 30 years earlier as a wedding gift in Malaysia.

I was running a new metal detector and was excited to put it thru its paces. Bracelets and necklaces are the hardest thing for detectors to find especially if the ends are not connected.

When the bracelet was lost, the family and their young grandkids had been playing in the sand, running into the ocean, fooling around with a rope swing and so on. The sister-in-law said the kids had be clambering all over her throughout the day – it could be anywhere.

I started to look in the water but suddenly changed my mind. After spending 15 years in Thailand, a nearby neighbor of Malaysia, I knew South East Asians typically (and wisely) avoided the hot sun of the day. Let’s look in the shade instead where everyone was now sitting…

I asked the group to move and at that moment Randy’s dad and I simultaneously spotted something sparkling poking out of the sand. He reached down and pulled out the bracelet from a pile of sand.

I’d been looking for a simple gold chain, but what came out was a 40-diamond strong gold tennis bracelet.

Needless to say we were all thrilled – the eyes were the best detector – but I’ll have to wait until next time to test my new machine!