See that picture above. That is a jar and in that jar is a note.

I have aways wanted to put a note in a bottle and throw it in the ocean. It would say things like HELP!, I am stranded on a barren island in the south seas. Please rescue me.

Or a wicked king has kidnapped me to keep me from marrying his beautiful daughter. He's arranged to have a band of savages imported from the Orinoco River valley to draw and quarter me. If you find this note carved with the edge of a stone on a hunk of alder bark, carve me an answer telling me you will come by and rescue me. I will be waving my arms from the castle keep.

After the big wind and snow storm recently hit our place at Seahurst bay I spotted this jar in the gravel with a note inside it. The jar is about 6 inches high by 2 inches across with a metal cap bearing a red ribbon with the logo Mezzetta. In white script is a small line which reads, In The Napa Valley. I can't imagine how a jar from California wine country could makes its way to Puget Sound.

Around the outside of the rim are the proud words printed in red; small capital letters that say FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED and FINE QUALITY SINCE 1935. Obviously someone is running a successful family business. Notes in bottles are desperate acts. These folks don't sound desperate.

Embossed on both sides side of the jar are the clever words "Don't Forgetta" and below that the one word; Mezzeta.

Then it dawned on me, it's not the jar it's the message inside. My respects to the Mezzeta family aside, I brought the jar in for further examination.

One cannot resist the treasure of a message in a bottle or jar in this case. After several attempts I opened it. A sheet of perf-paper, the kind used in the old dot-matrix printers, was inside. On it a youthful scrawl in black magic marker requesting the finder to write a note to a specific address with the discover's location.

There was nary a drop of water inside, even after a notable storm that must have tossed it around like a mouse in a cat parade.The paper was folded neatly, hardly changed by exposure to sunshine.

From what I can gather it came from the south sound area about 40 miles away. I will try to discover the motivation beyond the obvious curiosity of where the jar would end up. Maybe the sender was hoping it would roll and spin its way to a barren island in the south seas or just maybe to a moat in a distant castle. I might have to keep it.

UPDATE: We have found the sender. Young Trent Yuhasz, son of Dr. Mark & Leigh Anne Yuhasz of Gig Harbor, Wa. Trent (10) and a friend Max (10) got the jar from his home in the Spring of 2009, the then 3rd graders created the note and tossed it into water near the Fox Island bridge. He was hoping it would get to Tacoma or further.

We called Trent. He was so excited to learn how far his jar and message had traveled. "It was Max's idea", Trent said. "Max sent one that floated to California a few years before mine", he added.
Trent is an avid skier, loves fishing and sending notes in glass jars. He and Max are 5th graders now at Voyager Elementary in Gig Harbor.

After 20 months Trent's jar made it up to Three Tree Point riding the prevailing currents through Tacoma and up the salty brine, dodging freight and tug traffic to become stuck in the gravel on the north side of the Point. It was discovered by Gerald Robinson, Publisher of Robinson Newspapers in Burien, Wa. while surveying storm damage from previous weeks. Robinson said it was lodged in the gravel near a piling. Strong waves and a high tide brought it to shore at some point, possibly months ago.

We asked Trent if he'd like his jar and message returned. He asked us to toss it back into the bay hoping the next stop will gain him another friend. We'll do that.