Because we got married on a beach, and honeymooned on a beach, I wanted some sand from each spot as a keepsake. We have a nice glass "vase" in our bedroom that holds the sand. The bottom layer is from Guilford, Connecticut which is on Long Island Sound. The middle layer is from the sandy cove area of our hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii, and the top layer is from a black sand beach (black because it's made from volcanic rock) also on the big island of Hawaii. I think it's interesting to see not only the color difference, but the particle size. The Connecticut sample has lot of large rock&shell particles in it. The white sand has some but is fairly smooth. The black sand is almost straight fine sand with no rock or shell.